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which_chickI'm flipping through facebook of a morning and it came to me that even in this super-media-rich, media-aware world, people still don't look at their shit before they post it.
I still have facebook and use it for super-personal and drama-worthy postings like (honest to dog my last three):
Most recent: 1-20-19 Main road plowed (one lane), sidewalks done. Taking a warm-up break, then hitting road down to dad's and on the other side of pond. Left the dozer on slow idle, putting on The Coveralls after I'm warm.
Next most recent: 1-12-19 Bird for a spin, Genie the project pony for a spin. And now I'm in front of the fire and waiting for my chili to be done. :)
Next most recent: 1-6-19 Bird, working on his fitness. Yes, that IS mud on his left ear. He is an expert at getting all of his parts covered in mud. You keep doing you, Bird.
Yep, you're gonna have ALL KINDS of drama on my facebook. ALL KINDS. ALL MY SHIT IS JUST RIGHT OUT THERE IN PUBLIC.
So I'm facebooking responsibly, like a middle-aged person with a super-exciting lyfe and whatnot, the which I now feel I have to apologize to Kids These Days about before we can even get to the damn point of the post which is this:
Please to be making another person look at your images before you set them free on the internets. No, seriously. Ask the other person to scrutinize the images and make sure that they don't suck or display crappy backgrounds that make your organization appear to be skiffy.
To wit, this organization was advertising a kid playday for horses... come, pet the horses, meet the horses, spend time around horses and possibly get a pony ride. It's a way to get horse-interested kids to your facility to sign them up for lessons or birthday party ponies or whatever. I'm ok with that and I'm ok with advertising pony-related events to children and their parents. (More expensive than heroin, similarly addictive, possibility of Actual Physical Harm, including death, but yeah. Go ahead and advertise this to kids.)
And they used an image. This was the image.
Two appropriately-aged kids on what appear to be very kindly ponies. Good. The grey in particular, looks like a really good egg. Kids wearing helmets. Good. Boots with heels. Good. Horses being ridden are cleanish (it's winter, clean is hard) and in good weight. Nicely done. Horses being ridden have feet that don't look obviously horrible. Also good. But this is not a good image.
In the background, we have a bay horse. Bay horse is wearing a nylon halter in the field, which is no bueno, but the bigger problem is that the bay horse is really, really skinny. Like, super skinny. Like excessively skinny. You can't see ribs (because winter fur) but you CAN see the straight horizontal line about 4" down from the backbone, a feature NOT VISIBLE on horses in good weight or even halfway decent weight. You only get the straight horizontal line on VERY SKINNY HORSES. Take a look at the Henneke scale over at wikipedia, helpfully illustrated with pictures. Note that only 2's and 1's have that visible straight horizontal line thing going on. Once a horse gets to Henneke 3, you can't see the straight horizontal line thing anymore.
Now, we know nothing besides this picture. Skinny horse in background could be... old and toothless and beloved so they keep said horse alive by way of soaked pellets that the horse gums up but they can't really afford as many as the horse needs to stay in good shape nor can they bring themselves to put the horse down. Or it could be that skinny horse is a rescue that they just got and are in the process of fattening up, not real friendly yet, so wearing the halter to be easy to catch. Skinny horse could be just getting over some kind of intestinal illness (diarrhea pulls weight off horses instantly, like in a week) and on the road to recovery. Skinny horse could be dropping weight while dying of cancer and breaking the owner's heart, said owner babying the horse along until her foal is big enough to survive without her.
(I may be projecting a bit. Damn it, Nick.)
Anyway, we do not know the story behind the picture. We don't. But it is not a good thing to have in the background of a photograph advertising your business. And honestly, if it is your really skinny horse, probably you're like "Oh, that's Misty, she's just old" and you don't really see her. You don't see her like someone who is a potential customer might see her. And that's why you need a second set of eyeballs for your promotional images.
I still have facebook and use it for super-personal and drama-worthy postings like (honest to dog my last three):
Most recent: 1-20-19 Main road plowed (one lane), sidewalks done. Taking a warm-up break, then hitting road down to dad's and on the other side of pond. Left the dozer on slow idle, putting on The Coveralls after I'm warm.
Next most recent: 1-12-19 Bird for a spin, Genie the project pony for a spin. And now I'm in front of the fire and waiting for my chili to be done. :)
Next most recent: 1-6-19 Bird, working on his fitness. Yes, that IS mud on his left ear. He is an expert at getting all of his parts covered in mud. You keep doing you, Bird.
Yep, you're gonna have ALL KINDS of drama on my facebook. ALL KINDS. ALL MY SHIT IS JUST RIGHT OUT THERE IN PUBLIC.
So I'm facebooking responsibly, like a middle-aged person with a super-exciting lyfe and whatnot, the which I now feel I have to apologize to Kids These Days about before we can even get to the damn point of the post which is this:
Please to be making another person look at your images before you set them free on the internets. No, seriously. Ask the other person to scrutinize the images and make sure that they don't suck or display crappy backgrounds that make your organization appear to be skiffy.
To wit, this organization was advertising a kid playday for horses... come, pet the horses, meet the horses, spend time around horses and possibly get a pony ride. It's a way to get horse-interested kids to your facility to sign them up for lessons or birthday party ponies or whatever. I'm ok with that and I'm ok with advertising pony-related events to children and their parents. (More expensive than heroin, similarly addictive, possibility of Actual Physical Harm, including death, but yeah. Go ahead and advertise this to kids.)
And they used an image. This was the image.
Two appropriately-aged kids on what appear to be very kindly ponies. Good. The grey in particular, looks like a really good egg. Kids wearing helmets. Good. Boots with heels. Good. Horses being ridden are cleanish (it's winter, clean is hard) and in good weight. Nicely done. Horses being ridden have feet that don't look obviously horrible. Also good. But this is not a good image.
In the background, we have a bay horse. Bay horse is wearing a nylon halter in the field, which is no bueno, but the bigger problem is that the bay horse is really, really skinny. Like, super skinny. Like excessively skinny. You can't see ribs (because winter fur) but you CAN see the straight horizontal line about 4" down from the backbone, a feature NOT VISIBLE on horses in good weight or even halfway decent weight. You only get the straight horizontal line on VERY SKINNY HORSES. Take a look at the Henneke scale over at wikipedia, helpfully illustrated with pictures. Note that only 2's and 1's have that visible straight horizontal line thing going on. Once a horse gets to Henneke 3, you can't see the straight horizontal line thing anymore.
Now, we know nothing besides this picture. Skinny horse in background could be... old and toothless and beloved so they keep said horse alive by way of soaked pellets that the horse gums up but they can't really afford as many as the horse needs to stay in good shape nor can they bring themselves to put the horse down. Or it could be that skinny horse is a rescue that they just got and are in the process of fattening up, not real friendly yet, so wearing the halter to be easy to catch. Skinny horse could be just getting over some kind of intestinal illness (diarrhea pulls weight off horses instantly, like in a week) and on the road to recovery. Skinny horse could be dropping weight while dying of cancer and breaking the owner's heart, said owner babying the horse along until her foal is big enough to survive without her.
(I may be projecting a bit. Damn it, Nick.)
Anyway, we do not know the story behind the picture. We don't. But it is not a good thing to have in the background of a photograph advertising your business. And honestly, if it is your really skinny horse, probably you're like "Oh, that's Misty, she's just old" and you don't really see her. You don't see her like someone who is a potential customer might see her. And that's why you need a second set of eyeballs for your promotional images.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-22 05:01 pm (UTC)