Today I felt like a change. So I installed this fab vintage-style theme Retromania 1.3 by Jay Hafling. Still a bit of tweaking to do but it ‘fit’ so well that I was instantly happy with it.
I’m also testing out polldaddy.com with a quick question: do you twitter about photography?
I have a Twitter account for work. It is so useful as a work tool: a great way to promote the organisation; an easy way to keep up-to-date with what others in my field are doing, especially the exciting innovations of Archives 2.0. You wouldn’t think so, but archivists are a prolific lot on Twitter!
I have been considering using Twitter for Lilahpops but I’m not so sure it would work as well. I follow only one photographer on Twitter (it is a work account after all) but I find that I do actually visit that Tweeter’s website more as a result.
So I’d love to know – and if you do Twitter about photography, please add your Twitter name to the comments below!
I have to say I’m loving the new look. Everything I could possibly want is there on the homepage. Not only do I get an instant view of the recent activity on my own photostream, I see the threads from where that activity is coming from; so if a comment is from a group I posted a photo to then parts of that thread are included. And for PRO user, those stats – do you sometimes get hooked on those stats? C’mon, we all do from time to time :-) Simply click the graph to the right of “Your Photostream” to open them up.
My contacts
I love viewing my contacts’ photos and this option is still there [note: I prefer using the Flock sidebar for this]. And if I have made a comment of faved a photo I can see recent activity on their photostreams, too. In fact, the recent activity includes the “Comments You’ve Made” option – you can change this in the recent activity settings if you wish to.
My groups
One new feature I enjoy has evitalised the social aspect of Flickr. Flickr is social media after all. Each time I visit my homepage I have a preview of the latest uploads from one of my Flickr groups … and it’s a different group each time. Try refreshing your homepage to see what I mean. The visual preview shows the latest uploads to a group rather than a simple notification telling me there is an upload. I don’t even have to click to see the new photos. But I find that I am clicking the new photos – and ‘fave’-ing and commenting more than I did with the old homepage.
Get lost
Hours at a time lost. I can lose loads of time Exploring photos on Flickr. Now it’s all there on the homepage. And do you remember when you first got hooked on Flickr? That feeling comes back. As I learn more about photography my focus on its different aspects changes and hence my interest in the groups. As you learn new techniques you become obsessed fascinated with particular groups and tend to forget about others. But, seeing the thumbnails of the recent uploads of these forgotten groups has reignited my interest. Perhaps you can give back some of your knowledge, or simply fave a few and comments on others.
Minimise your options
Too much going on with the new homepage? Simply minimise some options. Click the arrow to change the options.
Switch over
So how do you switch to this cool new look? Log in and then check to the bottom of the screen for an invite to ‘preview’ the new look. You might already have it … in which case I invite you to add your tips/thoughts in the comments below.
Can you switch back? I’m sure you can but do you think it’s worth it? After all, this will be the new look and we may as well start using it now.
I recently downloaded the beta version of Flock and it has quickly become my new favourite browser. It is built using Firefox technology (my other favourite browser) and comes with the tagline Flock: a social web browser. It has a large array of in-built features that make browsing the internet, checking email, uploading photos, writing blog posts all possible from the same place/application.
Get connected
Flock allows you to set up connections to your personal web network and you can activate your numerous online profiles from within the browser. There are many! Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Gmail, Yahoo!, Digg, Wordpress (in fact I’m writing this post from Flock’s Blog Editor) and much more.
Let’s concentrate on Flickr
Setting up Flickr on Flock is easy. On launching the browser go to the Accounts and Settings tab on the Sidebar and enter your Flickr account details. Now you can see your Flickr contacts when you click on the People option in the Sidebar. It’s pretty cool as you can see who on your contact list has recently uploaded photos (and therefore potentially online) without being on the Flickr website. The sidebar also informs you of new messages in your Flickr inbox and recents comments on your photos.
Check out this 53 second video to see just how easy it is:
Upload photos from Flock
I uploaded a photo to Flickr using the Photo Uploader. Flickr isn’t the only service you can connect to. It works in a similar fashion to other uploaders. One thing that wasn’t very useful was that it only let me add the photo to one set.
Do you use Flock?
Surf the net while keeping an eye on your social networks. The Sidebar is full of features. I like the interface too, very cool and slick. Just another feature … lucky today is not a work day. Whenever will I get the time to take some photos!
Are you already a Flock user? Let us know your tips in the comments. For instance, if you know how to add an image to the blog editor I’d be forever grateful!
The addition of my Flickr photos has become incredibly useful in providing fresh content more frequently to my RSS subscribers.
But you don’t have a blog?
So, you don’t have your own blog but you read tons of blogs and news sites and other stuff, right? Do you bookmark each site and visit them individually? There’s an easier, faster way and it’s called RSS!
RSS allows you to keep track of your favourite websites at once. You don’t need to visit each site for the latest news, the updates come to you.
How you can subscribe
Check out the video below and see how you can simplify and optimise your web surfing time. And if you are interested in learning about photography make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed.
The video suggests three places where you can subscribe to your faves:
I actually use iGoogle. I love it. Read below (after the video) to see how I use RSS.
How I subscribe to my faves
If you have an Google account and haven’t yet tried it you’ll see the iGoogle option next to your login name. I have six tabs arranged by subject. This is the break down:
one for various news websites I read (local and international)
one for web design/development
one for photography
one for my Gmail and Google calender
one for blog writing tips; and
one for miscellaneous sites I visit.
The benefit is that if you see a headline that catches your eye you can read it right then and there or visit the site for more. If you have regular websites that you visit this is a simple, smart way to surf the web.
Do you use Feedburner for your blog’s RSS feeds? I set up a Feedburner account when I first started Lilahpops but I hadn’t spent much time learning the ins-and-outs of it. A couple of days ago I decided to check my subscriber count and have a bit of a look around. I found this neat optimisation solution which lets you splice your Flickr photostream into your blog feed.
See the screenshot of my feed below. It’s quite easy to see which ones are my website posts and what is streaming from Flickr. As the focus of my website is photography I thought this was quite a neat trick:
Wanna try it?
This is a very simple process:
1. Login to your Feedburner account and select your feed link under Feed Title
2. Select the Optimize tab
Look down the left-hand column at the items under Services. There is a tick next to each service you have applied to your feed. In my feed you’ll see I have BrowserFriendly, SmartFeed and Photo Splicer working so far:
3. Select the Photo Splicer option
4. Choose Flickr from the Photo Service (Flickr, BuzzNet or Webshots are available)
5. Type in your Flickr ID … don’t know it? Pop over to BigHugeLabs and do a quick search on your username
6. Choose how many photos you want included in your feed (mine is currently set to 5)
7. Click Activate
which will change to:
8. Click Save and your done. You can de-activate your selection at any time.
These are the settings I used:
The update to my feed didn’t change immediately but it didn’t take very long either. Now you have a nice visual treat for your subscribers!
I have to thank Iain from The West Ring for asking me how I got my Flickr photos into my blog feed and giving me the idea for this post.
Have you got any other Feedburner tips? Let me know in the comments.
Initially intended to focus on digital photography, the acquisition of a 1950s vintage camera has broadened the field somewhat. Lilahpops is run by Anthea Brown, a photography enthusiast, who enjoys learning and sharing photography tips, tricks and techniques. Read more about Lilahpops ยป
