A few readers have written to me from time to time telling me that they are not seeing the photographs in whichever post had just come out.
This is distressing, of course; I spend a lot of time working on the text, but just as much time on the images. I never thought I’d reach the point where I’d even hint that without pictures my writing is meaningless, but here we are.
I thought the problem might be caused by the reader perhaps reading the post as an email, without clicking on the post’s title and being mysteriously transported to the realm of the real blog (on what I refer to as my glamor site). But that may not be the reason at all.
I asked my blog tech wizard, and he wrote a very simple reply: “It could be that the email service provider they are using does not allow large images to be received. Some email service providers have odd restrictions.”
If I were to optimize the photograph, the problem might very well be solved. But this is a process that requires several steps and considering how many images I sometimes include, I honestly can’t see myself optimizing them all to resolve a problem affecting so few people.
So I apologize to anyone who can’t see the pictures. If there’s something you can do at your end to resolve it, I’ll be grateful.
18 Comments
Erla….It’s your working past coming back to haunt you; as I
recall, National Geographic valued photos far more than writing
(until you got there, no doubt).
Anyhooo, I get your photos and your words and love them both.
Thanks for the compliments, but no, the photos always won out. I had two stories nearly canceled because the editors didn’t like the photos. If you’d like to know how far the rot has set in and remained, when I heard that some readers weren’t seeing my photos, I almost — ALMOST — thought that it made no sense to read my blog without the pictures (to which I devote a large amount of time). Heresy of that level used to be dealt with by fires and stakes, but I was saved at the last minute by at least one person who never complained about reading my scribbles without photos. I’m still tempted to send him an album of the missed images, but that would be crazy. He can just go back and click on the blasted link.
Oddly enough this was the first email I have ever received from you which didn’t include the photograph!
It’s not a problem for me as I always click through to the site, though I have just realised that I have my phone, my (very, very) old iPad and my new iPad Pro simultaneously open and doing different things. My email provider also provides my broadband; perhaps I am just hitting my limits on the total data it sends me?
I use gmail and have no pictures, if I click on the link it opens in my browser with all pictures visible.
Hi Erla, I can’t see your pictures on the email but discovered by going to your blog I could see everything. It’s so good to have you back. I haven’t visited my beloved Venice for 4 years and I miss her so much, so thank you for your lovely descriptions. Loved the blog that mentioned St ‘ Erasmo, one of my favourite islands.
I’d know that lion anywhere! Campiello del Remer. But I can’t remember in which book it was that I read that the author thought the lion looked as though it was about to throw up. Which is rather unkind, I think.
Hi Erla and readers, Whether I see the images in email depends on which device I am using, which seems to mean that it comes down to the settings in each device. On iPad there is a “load remote images” option in the settings for the Mail app, but in iMac I find it harder to locate the control. Viewing in browser is always best.
Thanks to Bert for that Campiello del Remer lion reference. Apparently the Palazzo was owned by a Mr Lion, who was a traitor (selling secrets to the French), and would have forfeited the property except that he could show that he had given it away. Perhaps the lion expresses his regrets. But I just guess about that.
Actually, one of my cats has exactly that look when it’s about to upchuck!
Felines in every form, unite!
I don’t see your always apt and wonderful images anymore and I can’t figurare out why. Like Don I thought it must be a setting that was changed with a recent software update, but don’t find it yet. You’re in good company, however, it sometimes happens with The NY Times too. For the moment, I just go direct to your site.
The evidence is building that the simplest solution is, as you said, to go direct to the site. Avanti tutta!
For me I simply need to click on the “I trust this sender (show hidden content)”.
Happily await each email w/ pictures. Anticipating a return to VCE 4/22 after 2 years canceling our 33rd visit.
I’m glad you’re coming back. If you feel like it, let me know if you encounter any noteworthy changes in the city. Meanwhile, be braced for mobs on top of mobs of people: The Biennale opens on April 23, and of course April 25 is a national holiday and San Marco’s feast day.
How curious that this is the very first message that has come through without the pictures showing up in my email inbox. But yours is not the only one I receive this way. It is simple to click on the title, which takes me to your webpage. There I can read your essays and admire the photography without the distraction of the cascade of other less-interesting emails. And if it is a leisurely moment, I can be drawn down the ever-fascinating rabbit hole of Venice.
Since someone else has gratified my curiosity about where he is, I’ll just say that that is such a sad little lion.
I have always loved this lion, whom I immediately nicknamed the “Eeyore lion.” He does ponder many things quite deeply, but cannot arrive at any positive aspect or prospect of just about any situation, fact, or person. I hope he knows that he has a rockstar mane. I’ve always regarded it more as tresses than mane.
Hi I agree with the comment above. You answered the problem in your post—if someone can’t see the photos they should just click on the link that will take them to the online blog. Problem solved. You might want to have that instruction at the bottom of each email, as a general solution to the problem. I also get the Marginalia newsletter (formerly Brain Pickings—which is wonderful, by the way) and there is a standard sentence at the top saying sometimes email will not include the complete posting, if so, click here to go to the online blog. Same basic issue, same solution.