Update Hero Image for 2022

[dzoladz]

From @yarnetsky in Slack...

Idea for front page image — I'm probably biased as a native Buffalonian, but I think the city flag is super cool. For the front page splash image, I'd love to incorporate the flag's lightning bolts and stars faded in the background behind a photo of Canalside or the Buffalo skyline. The bolts reflects Buffalo's status at the forefront of electricity. In 1896 Nikola Tesla helped make Buffalo the first electrified city in the world.

Opening this issue to begin the discussion around the hero image for 2022. As Jerry has expressed interest in the splash image, I'm assigning this issue to him. If you have a suggestion or an image to use, please share.

[yarnetsky]

I'm awaiting for my contact at the visitors bureau to get back to me with photos, but here is a super rough mockup of what I was thinking. It could probably do with less but I'll wait and see if I can get a good photos first.

[dzoladz]

I really like the feeling of the state flag's lightning bolts and stars rising in the background of the cityscape. As you hinted at, incorporating text into the image might make it a little too busy and detract from the overall uniqueness of the hero. What do others think?

[yarnetsky]

EDITED: Just received a pile of possible photos from the visitors bureau (dropbox repo). There's one more view of Buffalo I'm going to request from them.

Here are a couple quick edits of my Buffalo flag in sky idea.

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Here are some other photos that could work for the front page (if cropped).

[phette23]

I like all the pictures with the river in the foreground, like the first two in @yarnetsky's last comment. I agree that leaving text out of the image is probably for the best but I could see including the lightning bolts.

[yarnetsky]

I also did a survey of creative commons photography and here are a few that are OK, but wrong orientation.

• view from Canalside, but no water
• downtown buildings and subway train
• Night photo of Main Street

I asked the visitor's bureau of they have any photos looking down Main Street like this last photo, but hopefully one from the Theater District that has a cool marquee sign. Here's the same view in a NYTimes article.

[dzoladz]

Below are several of the images in context.

I'm leaning towards the image's perceptive in 1. Skyline Sunrise. It feels the most encompassing of the city. Although 3. Theatre District makes a solid case by presenting a lively/jazzy side to the city that I find appealing... especially if this iconic marquee will likely be encountered by conference goers.

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1. Skyline Sunrise

2. Skyline centered

3. Theatre District (awaiting a usable visitor center photo)

4. Main Street

5. Skyline @ Night

[yarnetsky]

I concur on 1 and 3 are the best fits design-wise (and make Buffalo look the best). Unfortunately, the visitors center didn't have a photo of Main St from the theater district. Still, because the Buffalo sign would be very cool I'm going to reach out in one more place.

[dzoladz]

Buffalo sign would be very cool I'm going to reach out in one more place

Sounds good @yarnetsky. Keep us posted.

[yarnetsky]

@dzoladz -- I'd say roll with option 1 or 2 for now. I'm happy to edit either to better fit the hero image space.

Essentially none of my inquiries have returned messages. I wish the photographer of option 2 had. He has some great photography of Buffalo.

I also found some additional search terms and found a couple possibilities, but they were copyright and the CC licensed images would not hold up well to the size requirements. Poorly exposed or boringly framed.

I'll definitely holler if anything emerges.

[dzoladz]

Sounds good. Let's go with this one.

I can apply it over the weekend. And if needed, we can made any edits next week after everyone on the team has a change to review.

[dzoladz]

Hero image is up

[yarnetsky]

I just heard back from the photographer I reached out to. He believes he can help us out with a photo. Here's his portfolio... https://buffalophotoblog.com/city. There are a few that could work, but I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Also, I"m not seeing the hero image from the public page. (I haven't tried building locally yet)

[dzoladz]

Hmm... the path to the hero image is borked. I'm not quite sure why Github Pages wants to serve the site from https://code4lib.org/2022.code4lib.org/ rather than https://code4lib.github.io/2022.code4lib.org/ like I would expect.

I'll get the proper DNS setup and that will take care of the issue.

[dzoladz]

@yarnetsky The site is up at https://2022.code4lib.org/ Do you want to experiment with a few hero images from the new photographer?

Essentially, testing new images would involve adding the new hero image file to the /assets/img/theme-images directory, updating the file reference variable hero-image-filename: in _data/conf.yml, and rebuilding the site locally. I'd be happy to walk through this process with you, if you'd like.

[yarnetsky]

Yep, that's clear. As soon as I get the bugs worked out on my new M1 Apple laptop I'll dig in on it.

[kaitlinnewson]

@yarnetsky Are you still planning to tackle this? I noticed some issues with the responsiveness of the current image and would like to resolve them if this is the one we are sticking with.

[yarnetsky]

@kaitlinnewson I'm attending an e-conference this week, but I got a Windows machine working with this repo so I'm hoping to test other possible photos this week (hopefully this afternoon).

[yarnetsky]

@kaitlinnewson @dzoladz. I'd say we roll with what we have. If we need a slightly different aspect ratio, just holler and I can edit the image to make it a better fit.

This afternoon, I used Derek's instructions above, to go through the photos from the photographer I spoke with. I found photos I liked, but they were all way off compositionally or aspect ratio-wise for the space (or so esoteric only a Buffalonian would appreciate them). Here were some of the finalists

[yarnetsky]

I have the photos up in the header-experiments branch if we could see them in action. One of them are up on that branch now.

[dzoladz]

I'd say we roll with what we have

Sounds good. Feel free to make your modifications, @kaitlinnewson. Once you're satisfied, go ahead and close this issue with your PR.