Introduction & how to use this site
INTRODUCTION
This site collects photographs I have taken of the flora of Zermatt, Switzerland since 2013. I first visited Zermatt at the age of 11 in 1961 on a family skiing holiday, returning again in 1962 and 1964. After a gap of several decades I revisited Zermatt again in the autumn of 2013. As a professional ecologist and botanist, i was struck by the quality and variety of the Alpine flora, and resolved to return the following spring to study
Plant photography and equipment page.
The Swiss flora website InfoFlora is the botanical records centre for Switzerland and contains descriptions, photographs and other information on all the plant species shown here and many more. It also has interactive species distribution maps for the whole of Switzerland, which continuously update as records are received. All the photographs in my collection are of plants that I have recorded on the InfoFlora site
HOW TO NAVIGATE THE SITE
There are two ways to get to the photographs, both of which are based on the photographs being categorised in Albums according to plant family. The first way is via the default page of the software Scroll all photo albums, which presents the Albums containing the photos of each plant family with a cover picture of one member of that family. This is is fine, but the covers take up space and so you may need to do a lot of scrolling and moving through pages to find the plant family you are looking for.
The second way is via the page Flora photos by plant or species list. This goes first to a list of all the plant families. From here you can either click on the family name to go to the respective Album, or you can click on Species list, which takes you to another page listing the individual species by family. Here again you can either click on the species name to take you to the photo of that species (or to the first of them if there is more than one of that species) or you can click on InfoFlora to go directly to their website for information on that species.
If you click on the photo again, a full-screen image will appear.
In addition there are text pages on the top menu with information describing the environment (habitat, geology, etc) and on cameras and techniques. Go to the bottom menu for terms and conditions of use and for further links, references and acknowledgements.
DOWNLOADING AND USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS
When you get to a photo, you will see text on the right hand side. To download a photo, click on the file dimensions numbers under "Download" to download the image.
All the photographs may be downloaded either for private use or for use in publications. There are some restrictions on use listed in Terms and conditions, (also in the navigation at the bottom of this page).The photographs are downloadable at their original file sizes. All photos are JPEGs, however I can supply them in other formats if requested (see the contact form). I already have most as PNG files.
PICTURE QUALITY
Regarding picture quality, I have set the software to generate the highest definition image (so don't be surprised if you find you have to wait a bit for it to appear). When seen at maximum size on the website on a PC, the photographic quality is pretty good. However I have noticed that they may not be quite as clear as my originals on my PC. So if you interested in a particular photograph, you may want to download it anyway in order to see it at its best on a PC. The quality of the pictures when seen on an iPad is much better - better indeed than my originals as seen on my PC. This has to do with the site software, which is designed to transmit better quality images to take advantage of the retina technology of iPads and phones.