I’ve been having more thoughts on photo sharing. I think the problem is that I need a bit of structure. A few rules (just for me) about what I share and where. It’s got very complicated. Does anyone else have this issue?
Let me tell you about some of the ways I share photos…
Flickr: I have a Flickr account and I am a Pro user which means my membership costs me (not much, but it’s still a cost). Previously I used to host all of my website images on Flickr, until I realised this was a bad idea, not least because it slowed my website down. All of my images are hosted on WordPress now, but because of this, I am not sure how I should be using Flickr. It’s become a dumping ground for my photos in a way. Nothing is properly organised or tagged.
Photography apps: I have lots of apps on my iPhone but use very few. Camera+ is my favourite and it’s pretty good for sharing to social networks. The Flickr app is great, but still slow and as far as I know, it doesn’t allow me to share photos on my Facebook page.
iPhoneography feature: I had been showcasing my favourite iPhone photos here on the blog as a regular iPhoneography feature. This is something I have really enjoyed doing.
Social networks: I like occasionally sharing shots on Facebook and Google+. I tend to share “everyday/look what I’m knitting” type shots on Twitter.
So how can I get more organised? Well I am not really sure and would appreciate some guidance actually. To start working this out, I have set out a few aims below. I suspect these will get clearer as time goes on. This is what I want:
- I’d like to be more efficient and organised and have a (flexible) photo-sharing process/workflow
- I only want to share interesting/relevant photos with iMake blog readers and followers of my social networks
- I’d like a way to showcase my favourite photos
- I want my Creative Commons licensing requirements to be clear
So where am I going to start?
I will:
- Start using Flickr properly. This means, starting now, I will tag every photo I share correctly and put them into sets as appropriate. I have nearly 2000 photos on there already (I have just culled a load) so I am not going to set about tagging my archive, that would be mad. But I can start my good habits now.
- Go through all of my photography apps and just keep those that I like and use. This frees me up to search for new photography apps that will get me into iPhoneography again.
- DELETE the unusable photos straight away! Why I am not doing this already??
So that’s a start. The other thing I have done is set up an image-only blog as a bit of an experiment. I have called it iMakeography and you can find it over on Tumblr (controversial, I know!) I wanted to keep it separate from this blog for a number of reasons, but mainly because it is a bit of an experiment. I really enjoy following other people’s photo blogs and I figured that this could be a way to showcase my favourite photos, in addition to regular photo features on the blog.
I upload my photos from Flickr too. I got that tip from you:) what do you mean you host them on WordPress now? And, is it an option for blogger?
Hi Libby
Nothing to worry about on the hosting on Flickr front. The only reason I stopped doing it was that I found it was slowing my website down. This was a lot to do with other issues I was having with my self-hosted WordPress install. I really struggled with self-hosted as I am not techie enough, so I switched back to a basic WordPress.com account (won’t mean much to you if you are Blogger).
So what I mean when I say I host my pics on WordPress is that when I write a post, I upload my image within the post so it’s effectively sitting on WordPress’s servers (as opposed to Flickr’s).
There are plusses and minuses either way. Having images and content in the same place makes things load quicker in theory, although if your images aren’t huge, then it doesn’t make a much of a difference anyway. The major plus for hosting on Flickr is that if you ever moved your blog, the images would still be present. I am certain Flickr aren’t going anywhere and their servers are likely to be as stable as Bloggers/Wordpress etc. Lots of people host their blog images this way.
Does that make sense?
Martine
Perfect sense. Phew. I’m not changing.
I SO love that shot from the shore above, Martine. It is so gorgeous! I pinned it.
Thanks Linda! Amazing what an iPhone can do with the right scene!
I’m having much the same issues at the moment too, although I’m still on instagram. All my blog images are hosted on blogger which links in to Picasa, but it’s a bit clunky and it’s default organisation’s a bit strange. I keep meaning to sort out what I do with my photos so the process is always the same, but I’ve still not got round to it!
As always I’ll be interested to see what you come up with
I am glad I am not alone in wanting a smoother system. I worry that sometimes I might sound a bit obsessed with procedures! But it’s all about wanting to be efficient. I am getting there though – I will post more about this soon