The new list has replaced the old list on our servers, so if you purchase the list now you will get the new one. Those of you who want to upgrade can just import the new list over your old list. Note that this will result in duplicate keywords in cases where a typo was fixed. So if we had a keyword called “tpyo” and we changed it to “typo”, your list will contain both after the re-import. One way to remove the old keywords is to remove *all* keywords before importing the new keyword list, but this would also remove keywords attached to your images, so only do this if you know what you are doing.

Those of you who aren’t coming to DEMA in person can still take advantage of our DEMA online special. Save 10% when you check out with discount code 2AK3281M. The code expires on November 15, 2009, so act quickly!

Underwater Photography Magazine (UwP), a free PDF magazine, has published a review of MarineLife Keywords written by marine biologist and award-winning photographer Alexander Mustard. The review can be found in their 50th issue, which is available as a free download from their website. Alex says:

The list includes the genus and species of 12,000 species, including over 4,000 fish, 4,000 invertebrates, and all known marine turtles, rays, skates, marine reptiles, and marine mammals… The first thing I did was to try to find any absentees. It is not easy. The coverage is fantastic…

… keywording is an essential part of workflow for anyone who supplies their images to photo stock libraries. MLKL was built for these tasks and having tasted it I could never give it up.

It is often said that time is money. I can’t think of many other products, designed for underwater photographers, which will save you as much time for so little money. A highly recommended purchase.

Alex likes it! :)

Finally, I had my first real-life chance to make use of the MarineLife Keywords List I wrote about a while ago.

All I had to do to label my squid shots was look-up “bigfin reef squid” in the MarineLife Keywords index that I had already imported into Aperture, and, like magic, I had everything I needed in order to tag the squid images:

bigfin reef squid: Sepioteuthis lessoniana; bigfin squid: Sepioteuthis lessoniana; Cephalopods: Cephalopoda; Invertebrates; Loliginidae; Mollusks: Mollusca; Squid: Teuthida; Teuthoidea

…in practical terms, meaning I didn’t have to (mis)type all those long multi-syllabic tongue-twisters into each photo’s metadata. All I had to do was drag-and-drop the list onto all my squid files and I was done!

Read the whole journal entry to learn more about Tony’s digital workflow.

Terence writes, “The install into Lightroom went smoothly, and I am looking forward to using the keywords list to start cataloging my images.”

… my entire image database of 130,000 images is on Adobe Lightroom and all images are keyworded. In many subject areas, my keywords are exact and extensive. Almost anyone in the English-speaking world can find a needed image if it’s in my file. In other subject areas, marine life included, my keywords are very basic, or general, and need help.

To help update my marine life keywords, I’ve done the Metadata Import of the nearly 13,000 keywords provided in your Master Marine Keywords List and I’m finding it extremely helpful and educational taking my marine files to the next level.

I especially like the ability to start keywording and if I don’t have time to consult an ID book at that moment, keyword a common name > MORE KEYWORDS. This gets me back later to resolve the keywords to a more concise level.

I appreciate the time and effort you and others put into making this product available.

MarineLife Keywords Trial Version Screenshot

The trial version can be imported into your keyword database without adversely affecting your current metadata, and can easily be upgraded to the full version.

To download the trial version, go to the MarineLife Keyword List product page.

MarineLife Keywords is incredibly easy to use and is a tremendous time saver. What a joy to never have to type in scientific names again. Species are searchable by common names or part of a common name and once selected the scientific name is automatically filled in along with other pertinent
information regarding the genus, species, and family etc.

I have yet to find a species in my library not listed in MarineLife Keywords.

Keywording your marine life photographs couldn’t be simpler. Not only does it save time, but it also eliminates typing mistakes and adds consistency to your catalogue system.

I highly recommend MarineLife Keywords for anyone wishing to properly label and track their marine life images.

I have been trying it and there is no doubt that it is awesome. Anyone who has to keyword marine life should get it – whether it is for library submissions or for your own indexing. For me its a no-brainer because it works and saves masses of time. Its that simple…

So far I have not found any marine species that are not there (and I have tried some tricky ones) – well apart from Sus scrofa – which I think should be added as a tribute to Wetpixel Expeditions!

Now you might think that I am only writing positive words because a friend of mine helped develop it. Far from it. I have tried to look as critically as I can, but it is hard to find criticism. It installs non-destructively to all you previous work in seconds, just works and saves masses of time.

You can read Alex’s full post at the Wetpixel forums.