User talk:Shizzy9989

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Welcome!

Hello, Shizzy9989, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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Dan Beale-Cocks 22:36, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Image:OdetoSpacebyTonySmith.JPG listed for deletion

An image or media file that you uploaded or altered, Image:OdetoSpacebyTonySmith.JPG, has been listed at Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. Al.locke (talk) 21:36, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Hi, I just wanted to thank you for uploading and adding the photos to the Pitt-related pages. They really enhance those pages and your contributions are greatly appreciated.CrazyPaco (talk) 06:11, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Keep the pictures coming! They're great! And really contribute to the articles even if it is just putting them into the a photo gallery for a particular building. I live in Philly so I don't get much of a chance to snap photos around campus. Anything you could get that would enhance the Pitt building articles would be greatly appreciated! CrazyPaco (talk) 19:14, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
my response
You are the second person to ask me about a Pitt wikiproject. One month ago, I was contemplating this, but there didn't seem that there was enough interest. I think that is changing so I believe I'm going to get one going, perhaps this weekend.
I have to tell you that my personal philosophy for these photos and Pitt-related articles in general, is to promote Pitt in a good of a light as possible while still being encyclopedic within wikipedia's mission. I'm a homer, what can I say. I really started contributing to wikipedia about a year ago when the fact that the Pitt articles were so poor compared to peer institutions, almost to an embarrassing degree. For better or worse, wikipedia is becoming the the first go-to place for quick information on topics for lots of people and I really believe Pitt needs to be well represented. I know that at least one department at the school is thinking along the same line because they've directed one of their webmasters to build wikipedia pages. Everything I've written has pretty much been gleaned off the internet because I'm not physically located close to the 'burgh, but that also hinders me to a great degree (not having direct access to libraries, buildings etc) so the fact that you are interested and live in the 'burgh is really exciting. To answer your question about taking photos of typical/mundane classrooms and lobbies, no, I don't think pictures like these belong in the articles, because frankly, a prototypical class room at UCLA, Michigan, or Harvard are all about the same. Personally, I want Pitt to come off as interesting and exciting, which I think it is, even if people at Pitt itself aren't aware of everything it has to offer. I can tell you when I went to Pitt, I had no idea about the aerodrome hanging in Posvar or the history of any of the buildings, and I think it is too bad that most students, at least when I was there, didn't have any real sense of the history of the school, and today there still isn't any one convenient place to really find out about some of this info. I really had to dig for some of it. For instance, to find out anything on the University Place Office Building, you first had to know it was originally the Schenley Office Physicians Building. I can't tell you how long it took me to dig that out of the internet! Anyway, I think concentrating on photographing the things that make the buildings unique or impressive are really helpful, and in some of the less ornate buildings like Hillman, that means the artwork contained within. I've really, really wanted to get up some shots like the ones you've added to these articles for a while, so thank you. As far as photos that could be added, the I think there might be some good pictures to come out of Bellefield Hall (like the auditorium) or inside Mervis Hall. Actually, any individual pieces of art could be added to galleries for any building page. I think all of these also help solidify the notability of the articles on the individual buildings, as sometimes notability is questioned and can lead to article deletion. One picture I want to get is of the University Child Development Center on the edge of Shadyside. The building is actually Pittsburgh History and Landmarks foundation landmark, so it fits in well with the pages that exist. I've wanted to write and article on that, but really have been waiting to get a photo. Photos of Trees Hall and Fitzgerald Fieldhouse would be good too. Honestly though, for these external shots, since you live in the area, it might be worth waiting until the weather is nice or there are leaves on the trees, just to get a more aesethically pleasing shot. In my mind, this may be someone's first impression of the school, so if you have a picture of the Towers that looks like this compared to this, well, which one would you more want to live in if you were looking at options for colleges on wikipedia? Honestly, one thing to do would just be to scan through some of the building articles to see if something is mentioned that there is not a picture of, or just walk through the buildings themselves. What I've done is try to check out different camera angles to see how things look, I try to avoid have big chunks of street in my photos (or edit them out in photoshop), or mimic the angles of professional photos of the university. I'm very much an amateur with a crappy little camera, so photoshop has also been my friend. It will, however, be nice to have the problem of debating which are the best photos to display on a particular page. Oh, one thing that is really needed are shots of the Nationality Rooms, especially the first floor ones. (I apologize for the length and rambling of this post) CrazyPaco (talk) 20:57, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
My response
I think the 1st and 4th Barco entrance pics are the best. Probably the 4th one, while more cluttered because of the busts, is more interesting because of the busts. I'd put the 4th on into the Barco gallery or near the library section if it fits. The 1st one would be good for a brochure (where there is room to put additional info/text over it), but being that it is just the name of the library, probably doesn't convey as much of the sense of the place like you'd want in the wikipedia article (as much as the 4th one). I think the bridge picture could go in the main University of Pittsburgh page gallery. I have a good picture of that bridge too, during the day, from ledge of the Towers patio, but the shadows for the time of day I took it were all wrong. Too many of my pics have bad shadows because I have to snap photos in the limited free time that I have when I actually do make it into Pittsburgh.
On a total tangent, if you are interested in night shots (or shots in shadowy places like the Commons room) you may be interested to know about the new "rage" in digital photography called high dynamics range photography. It seems pretty easy, you simply take multiple exposures of the same shot and combine them digitally (this is built into [1] photoshop and some other programs). Here are some examples.
I also agree that Posvar, Hillman and the Towers leave a lot to be desired. Especially while I lived there I thought they were hideous. Pitt has done a really good job landscaping around them though (you should have seen Forbes Quad 10 years ago, yeck, all concrete). However, as I've seen more and more schools, I've at least come to appreciate what Pitt didn't build. It seems every university in the country ran out of library space about the same time and built hideous new libraries in the 60s. Look how many generic, boxy tower shaped dorms or square brick buildings dot the campuses of the PSAC schools, or even here at Penn where I am, I can tell you at least those buildings at Pitt are more unique than some of the ones they built during that era. My main problem with them is they don't have any sort of "collegiate" feel, but while I dislike them, I've also seen some much worse things built during that period. CrazyPaco (talk) 17:44, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
my response
I honestly don't know a thing about photography and all that f-stop stuff. That's why photoshop is so important to me ;-) I don't have any good pages in mind about photography, but, personally, I would love to try the HDR if I was in and around Pittsburgh. I'm not motivated enough just to do it in general. I know googling that topic will give a lot of sites with advice how to do that, but you probably would be greatly aided with a tripod because you need your shots at multiple exposures to be really still. CrazyPaco (talk) 04:18, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Pitt WikiProject

I see you already joined!

WikiProject University of Pittsburgh

As a current or past contributor to a Pitt-related article, I thought I'd let you know about WikiProject University of Pittsburgh, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the University of Pittsburgh and the Pitt Panthers. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks and related articles. Thanks! ~~~~


[edit] {{Pitt-stub}}

Hi - a stub template or category which you created has been nominated for deletion or renaming at Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion. The stub type, which was not proposed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals, does not meet the standard requirements for a stub type, either through being incorrectly named, ambiguously scoped, or through failure to meet standards relating to the current stub hierarchy or likely size, as explained at Wikipedia:Stub. Please feel free to make any comments at WP:SFD regarding this stub type, and in future, please consider proposing new stub types first! Grutness...wha? 01:41, 22 April 2008 (UTC)