Lilahpops

This is my entry in Jim M. Goldstein’s project Your Best Photos From 2008.

Whilst the project specifications don’t limit the number of best photos you can enter, I decided to stay with a Top 10 theme. I didn’t taken gazillions of photos during the past year but I still found it difficult to select just a small number of them.

These links take you to the images on Flickr.

1. Skies are blue and white, 2. Droplets, 3. Black cat through the fence, 4. Tulip, 5. Run run run!, 6. Blue and Gold Sunset, 7. Buzzing around the rosemary, 8. Old books, 9. Blue rust, 10. Horsin’ around

I’m happy with this set. I note that two of the images are from the April 2008 Challenge – Entropy which should be incentive enough for me to participate in more projects and challenges this year.

How did you fare in choosing your best photos? If you have a Top 10 list of your from 2008 pop a link to them in 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.

Flock has renewed my enjoyment of Flickr

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!

Well, it’s all over now. I had loads of fun participating in the April Challenge and learned quite a lot about macro photography in the process. I’m still in entropy mode and finding many things to photograph – I’ll have to do a series of ‘the ones that didn’t make it to the challenge.’

Here are my 30 entries: I created this image using Mosaic Maker. The links underneath the image take you to the individual images on Flickr or you can view them here at my Photo Gallery.

I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did photographing them.

1. A brick taking a bath in a field, 2. Old leather, 3. Boarded window, 4. Worn through, 5. Armless beauty, 6. Rusted latch, 7. Blue rust, 8. A cracking driveway, 9. Unwired, 10. Undelivered, 11. End of the life cycle, 12. Just a bit crooked, 13. Peeling paint, 14. Rusty paperclip, 15. Rusted latch, 16. Clips of old, 17. Old books, 18. More rust, 19. Mixed entropy, 20. Entropy in the cemetery, 21. Entropic barbed wire, 22. Old maps, 23. Old wood, 24. End of the road, 25. Rusted fence, 26. Dappled, 27. You’ve got mail, 28. A flawed floor, 29. Colourful copper, 30. Last of the old leather

Are you doing the April Challenge over at photochallenge.org?

So, we are halfway there and now I know why it’s called a challenge; yesterday I almost forgot to take a photo! There’s quite a bit of discipline involved in taking a photo a day on a specific topic. I know I’ll miss it when it’s all over, but I have to admit it’s starting to get more difficult to find something entropic to photograph that I haven’t tapped into in previous photos. Rust is looking good.

If you haven’t been following, or participating in, the April Challenge is all about Entropy. Decay, deterioration, chaos, disorder. You’d be amazed at how much is out there! If you have been following, or particpating in, I’d love to hear how you have been going in the comments.

Check out the new gallery of images that I have submitted to challenge (I’ll be updating this throughout the month of April). The photos are also available on my Flickr account – I created a set dedicated specifically to the April Challenge.

If you have been subscribing to Lilahpops through a feed reader then you would already be getting your daily dose of images already. You can subscribe here.

Make sure to check out all the entries in the April Challenge – there are some stunning photos.