Photografr.com

Hey all…sorry for the lack of updates over the last few weeks. It’s hard work this being a parent. I’ll hopefully be posting a few photos this week, and getting back on track in the weeks ahead.

Yesterday one of my photos was blogged by the Flickr Scotland Blog. It’s a great photo blog concentrating on photo from Scotland. I’m in great company there. It’s a blog well worth visiting, definitely worth adding to your feed reader.

Yesterday we launched our new Flickr Group at a new URL. The old group still had the Flickr Hits URL, and I felt it needed tidied up to avoid confusion going forward.

You’ll notice in the sidebar of the Photografr.com site, we now have a web presence at Flickr, Zooomr, Ipernity, Upcoming, and Photophlow. Expanding our opportunities for more two-way discussion of the photos featured.

I’m looking to add a couple of writers to the blog over the next few months. I would especially like somebody who is able to review new kit, and somebody who can give beginners advice on photography. There is no payment for the writing, bar publicity, as the site has no actual income, but you would retain ownership of your work. There is also no commitment to a large amount of posting. If you would like to write for Photografr.com, send me an email with a link to an example of your writing to photografr {at} gmail {dot} com.

As we roll towards Christmas and New Year, I am continually impressed by the standard of photography I can see for free on the internet every day. I don’t have to go to a gallery, or buy an expensive book. It’s all there at the click of a button.

Here’s a small selection of what has impressed me most in November.

How to Build the Ultimate Photo Sharing Website: I’ve been having a play with new photo sharing site Tagmee, over the last week, when one of the developers asked me what I thought a photo sharing site needed to appeal to photographers. The short reply I started writing turned into this epic.

Flickr Places Launches: Having spent all of ten minutes on the new Flickr Places feature, I have to say I’m extremely impressed. This feature might just push me to give Flickr another go. Places will help me keep in touch with local photographers in a way that no other site can do at the moment.

Flickr Reaches Two Billionth Photo: Flickr yesterday passed their two billionth uploaded image. An important milestone, I’m sure you’ agree. The two billionth photo, taken and uploaded by Yukiko Kawabata from Brisbane, Australia was of a gum tree in Sydney.

Photography Link Heaven: Brian over at Epic Edits has posted a superb list of his 87 top photography blogs and feeds. All are those he regularly follows. This is a great resource, and definitely worth a look for readers with an interest in photography.

flickr, epic edits, links, tagmee

It’s been another interesting month in the world of photography, and we have been blessed with some great photographs from the photo sharing sites. I am constantly surprised, inspired and uplifted by the photographs I see every day.

Here are a small selection of my favorites from the past month on Photografr.com.

Zooomr Launches Social Stream: A feature that has been missing since the re-launch of the site earlier in the year, Social Stream allows you to see recent activity on your Photographs. There are different views available including the classic ‘timeline’ and the new ‘timeframe’.

The Photografr.com Fifty: As Photografr.com approaches it’s 1000th post I’ve been looking for a way to highlight some of our earlier photographs. The video slideshow was one of our most popular posts this month.

Flickr to Update Global Views: Flickr are to update one feature, and introduce another. The new map experience makes it easier for users find photos from around the world. Places Pages lets visitors explore 70,000 locations worldwide through photographs, groups, tags and featured photographs of that region.

Zipfox for Zooomr: Zooomr launched the Zipfox extension for Firefox. The extension gives you handy shortcuts for many of Zooomr’s features, but best of all gives you a great sidebar for viewing your Zipline.

Flickr Signs Deal with Picnik: Flickr are on the verge of announcing a deal with Picnik to let it’s users edit their photographs easily on site. The deal has been signed, and both companies are now working hard to make the integration as smooth and easy as possible.

BBC Four’s Genius of Photography: BBC Four in the UK are taking it’s most comprehensive ever look at “the most influential art form in the world” in a new six episode documentary show, The Genius of Photography.

It’s been a great first month here at Photografr.com. After the initial peak in visitors thanks to Thomas Hawk and StumbleUpon, the daily readership has grown steadily. We currently have double the visitors that we had three weeks ago. Hopefully that shows that people are enjoying the blog.

Here’s what we wrote about this month:

• We launched: It was kind of unexpected. We had been planning it for ages, but everything came together on that day…and Photografr.com was born.
• Canon National Park Photography Classes: A great opportunity for photographers in the US to explore their national parks, and improve their photography.
• SnapVillage Microstock Launch: SnapVillage launched their microstock site giving photographers the opportunity to make a little money from their work.
• Flickr Hits Second Place: The bench-mark photo sharing site became the second biggest on the market as Yahoo Photos wound down.
• Looking to National Geographic for Inspiration: Showed how the science and nature journal should also be used to inspire your photography.
• Zooomr Feature Update: The latest in the ever increasing list of new features for Zooomr.

All this on top of some brilliant photography from Flickr, Zooomr and iPernity.

If you like a photograph on Photografr.com please click through and tell the photographer that you like their work. People always like a compliment, and it makes us look good too. If you think a photograph should be featured on the site or have an idea for an article send an email to photografr [at] googlemail [dot] com.

I would appreciate any feedback you have as to where we could improve Photografr.com. Should there be more news? Should we feature photos from more sites? Should we be posting more or less photographs each week? Let me know in the comments.

All the best…have a great August.

Technorati Tags: photography

December has been a really great month for Zooomr Hits. I’m really pleased with the quality of photography that is showing up on the site. I think it’s improving all the time as more photographers are beginning to discover the charms of Zooomr.

The December Photo of the Month is simply brilliant. Ade has taken a great macro photograph. The DoF is stunning, but best of all is the capture of the smoke. It draws you in, and is always worth just one more look. Well done Ade.

Please click through, fave this, and explore some of his other photographs. I have no doubt that he’ll be featured again on this site.

incense Hosted on Zooomr

I thought it was about time to highlight the very best of the already excellent photography that we showcase here at Zooomr Hits with a monthly award.

While looking back over the past month, I’ve noticed that two people have been blogged twice; Davidson Ward, and Thomas Hawk. Congratulations. You are both a great credit to Zooomr.

The winning photograph for November, however, goes to Don for Nor’easter. Taken in October this year, he has done an amazing job of capturing an impending coastal storm. The under exposure has allowed Don to show us the turbulent clouds, and puts the beach house and it’s reflection in silhouette. It looks lonely and exposed to the elements. This is extremely dramatic photography. Don has brought nature’s power to a still image.

Well done! This is seriously good photography.

nor’easter Hosted on Zooomr