• Check out the Flickr blog for more details

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.

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

Are you testing out the new Flickr homepage?

Also of interest

• Have you tried Flickr with Flock?
• Project: My Best Photos From 2008
• My entries in the April Challenge

The social web browser

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!

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

Have you tried Flickr with Flock?

Also of interest

• Are you testing out the new Flickr homepage?
• Project: My Best Photos From 2008
• My entries in the April Challenge

Back in March I wrote a post on how to add your Flickr photos to your blog feed. During April, I participated in the April Challenge – Entropy at photochallenge.org. The challenge was to take a photo a day for the entire month of April and upload each one to Flickr. I don’t write daily posts here at Lilahpops but for that month my blog feed had new content every single day.

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:

• Google Reader
• Bloglines
• Newsgator

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.

For more information about RSS check out:

• RSS Day

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

Today is RSS Awareness Day

Also of interest

• 8 simple steps to add your Flickr photos to your blog feed

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.

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

8 simple steps to add your Flickr photos to your blog feed

Also of interest

• Project: My Best Photos From 2008
• Are you testing out the new Flickr homepage?
• Have you tried Flickr with Flock?

Life online – behind the scenes

I’ve always been a bit of a web geek. Not only does all that information on the internet fascinate me but I’m curious as to how the internet works and what makes it tick. So great was my interest that I eventually learned how to code and style webpages and now work as a web developer. Learning about photography is just as absorbing an interest and it seemed only natural that I would eventually create my own photography-related website.

I read bags of blogs on web design and photography and have learned so much along the way. I wanted to be a part of it. But I had never delved into the more social aspects of the internet, in fact I found it all a little daunting. I would read blogs but never leave comments – a self-confessed “lurker” who was a little hesitant to actively participate.

And then I found Flickr.

My introduction to social photography

Early symptoms of Flickritis

I joined Flickr in October 2006. It was easy: the basic accounts are free; the Flickr site is friendly; the instructions are easy to follow; there was software to download to help me upload my images; I found the privacy settings a comfort for family-related photos; I could also add my own copyright. Later, Picnik partnered with Flickr to enable online editing of uploaded photos. It was all very cool!

This is the first photo I uploaded.

Contracting Flickritis

I still kinda “lurked” around Flickr at first. I put a few photos up and spent hours viewing other people’s images, finding them through keyword searches and the amazing “Explore” button. And then I got a comment on one of my macro photos. And then someone invited me to post a photo to a group. Group? What are groups? I read about groups, joined a few, joined a few more, started commenting on other photos I found.

And then someone added me as a contact. Contact? Who are contacts? I read about contacts, discovered I could add my own and found it an efficient way to keep up to date with various photo streams and the people behind them.

And then someone asked to use one of my photos on their website.

Before I knew it, I was an active member of the online photography community. Dare I say my social photography experience evolved “organically’?

Living with Flickritis

The Flickr community was the unexpected surprise for me. I find it very friendly, easy-going and helpful. I look forward to viewing new photos from my contacts and I value their comments on my photos. People pop by to make a comment on a photo they like, they might “fave” it at the same time, they might even give advice on how to improve a composition. I learn. I enjoy. And my photography has improved as a result.

I “fave” photos I like or leave comments, I am no longer a “lurker”.

Playing it safe with Flickritis

I haven’t personally had any bad experiences using Flickr. I do take certain precautions (I mean there are weirdos out there on the web, right?) and use the available privacy control settings so that I’m not posting photos of my friends and family “to the world”.

When I get a comment on a photo from someone who isn’t on my contact list I usually head over to their photo stream to check it out. If I like their photos I often return the comment compliment or “fave” a photo that has particularly caught my eye. If their photos are of a dubious nature, however, I tend to ignore the comment. Don’t take the bait.

If someone adds me as a contact I do the same, check out their photo stream. If I like their photos I add them as a contact, if they are “dubious” I ignore it. I’m sure people check me out, too, if I add them as a contact first. Flickr is addictive, just use a bit of common-sense.

My photography-related website

About six months after joining Flickr I started this website, Lilahpops, with the view to learning more about photography. I regularly link to my Flickr photos and have begun to participate in photography-related projects, such as this one. I write posts on what I have learned and was pleasantly surprised to find that I have been a help to some people. My website does not attract the masses of internet users that other sites do but the traffic is slowly building.

It is all thanks to Flickr

Some of my Flickr-related posts were noticed by the owners of Photophlow, who sent me an invite to test out the beta version. While I have not really spent much time on Photophlow I was interested to read Brian Auer’s “how-to” guide which caught my attention.

It was through Flickr that one of my photos was added to the 4th Edition of Schmap, an interactive travel website which uses photos from Flickr users.

This is the photo that was “Schmapped” – a macro food shot taken at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna.

How do I contribute?

My contribution back to the online photography community is to write posts on my own website; stumble photography posts and websites when I can; bookmark articles on del.icio.us and vote for articles on PhotographyVoter.

I use Stumbleupon as a way of discovering new photography-related websites and to give the “thumbs up” to articles I have enjoyed. I use del.icio.us to bookmark photography information and add them to my sidebar for my readers. And I vote for articles on PhotograhyVoter that have caught my interest.

Flickr is definitely the key to my social photography experience. In fact, if I had not discovered Flickr, I may still be “lurking” my way around the internet.

Related posts

• Have any of your Flickr photos been Schmapped?
• My Flickr collection is now organised
• Edit your photos in Flickr
• 8 simple steps to add your Flickr photos to your blog feed

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

Flickr is the key to my social photography experience

Also of interest

• Project: My Best Photos From 2008
• Are you testing out the new Flickr homepage?
• Have you tried Flickr with Flock?

Schmap’s series of digital travel guides integrates dynamic maps with useful background reading, suggested tours, photos from the traveling public and reviews by local correspondents (for sights and attractions, hotels, restaurants, bars, parks, theaters, galleries, museums and more) to profile 200 destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
from the Schmap website

You can browse a destination online or download a Schmap Guide to your computer.

Plan your holiday with Schmap

I have to admit I hadn’t heard about Schmap until I received an email from the Editor saying one of my Flickr photos had been short-listed for the 4th edition. How exciting, I thought!

So, I checked out Schmap and was completely absorbed (it was also very timely as I was planning a short trip to Hobart, Tasmania). Simply pick a destination and browse interactive maps, suggestions of where to stay, what to see and do, as well as historical and local information about the area.

Did I get Schmapped?

I impatiently waited for two weeks for the final verdict and I’m happy to say that my photo has been included. The photo was taken at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna and is a macro shot of a Sacher Wurfel – like a mini Sachertorte. My photo appears in the slideshow on this Schmap page.

Schmap doesn’t offer payment for use of photographs but you are acknowledged as the photographer. It’s quite an enterprising way to present information, pulled from various sources, into an interactive travel guide mash-up. And the wide variety of photos on Flickr make for an interesting travel slideshow.

Does this mean that I can call myself a published photographer :)

Have any of your Flickr photos been Schmapped?

Related posts:

• Flickr is the key to my social photography
• My Flickr collection is now organised
• Edit your photos in Flickr

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

Have any of your Flickr photos been Schmapped?

Also of interest

• Project: My Best Photos From 2008
• Are you testing out the new Flickr homepage?
• Have you tried Flickr with Flock?

Motivated by a post over at Epic Edits Weblog, I decided to re-organise my Flickr photos. As with most Flickr fans, I only had sets arranged down the sidebar and had not delved into the collections (groups of sets) option. Collections allow you to group many sets into a few (or, if you wish, many) broader categories.

And I seem to have a lot of sets! Some sets have a large number of images and some are a more specific topic and contain only a few. Collections are a very efficient way to order your photos and you can add a set to more than one collection. I also like the mosaic that is generated for each collection’s thumbnail.

Getting the flick

During this process, I was able to look more critically at some of my earlier Flickr snaps and realise they had been madly, or prematurely, uploaded when I caught that contagious bug called Flickritis. So…some got the flick.

Now I feel much more organised.

My current collections

• Macro shots – 4 sets
• In Nature – 5 sets
• The Built Environment – 3 sets
• Food! – 3 sets
• Animals (mostly cats) – 4 sets
• B&W and Sepia – 2 sets
• Vintage camera – 2 sets
• Night images – 3 sets
• Colours – 3 sets
• Miscellaneous – 5 sets (includes “Made it to Epic Edits” weekly photodump…the suspense that one causes!)

I’m sure these will be refined over time. It’s really a never-ending process.

Are you ready to get organised?

I have 147 photos on Flickr which isn’t a lot compared to many other users. It still took me a while to sort my collections. My tip would be to get organised before your collection gets too big.

I also made sure to create the number of collections that would fit on the sidebar without having to use the “More” option.

How do you mange all your Flickr photos? Is it a practical and efficient process or perhaps a bit more haphazard? Let me know in the comments.

Related posts:

• Flickr is the key to my social photography
• Have any of your Flickr photos been Schmapped?
• Edit your photos in Flickr

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

My Flickr collection is now organised

Also of interest

• Project: My Best Photos From 2008
• Are you testing out the new Flickr homepage?
• Have you tried Flickr with Flock?