Tag: Wordpress

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Editorial Other Photographic

Attention PixelPost users: Graph Paper Press to release photoblog themes for WordPress in 2012

UPDATE August 2013: The theme I was waiting for is now running on my photoblog and I’ve written a full guide to migrating from Pixelpost here. The theme is called Retouch Pro and although I had to tweak it a little to fit my design it’s working extremely well. Check it out!

ORIGINAL POST: Attention, PixelPost users looking to switch to WordPress – this is the news you’ve been waiting for!

My photoblog originally ran on the Blogger site and was called i-Shot. After a year or so I got the confidence to set up my own site using PixelPost software, which I branded my glass eye.

PixelPost was great software – created by and for photobloggers all you had to do was install the code, pick a theme, and get posting. Sadly in 2009 the developers had to officially cease supporting the project as they had real jobs and there just wasn’t the financial support to keep it going. The software still works but looking to the future I would prefer not to be reliant on code that is no longer supported.

The site you’re reading now and my portfolio site both run on WordPress using themes created by Graph Paper Press. I’ve seen a lot of premium theme developers in the WordPress community but GPP are by far my favourites, with over two dozen slick and highly customisable themes. Even their free themes are impressive.

But there’s no real photoblog theme. They have one called Uno which is aimed at photobloggers who also want to make text posts, but it’s not as simple as a PixelPost theme and although the guys in the superb Support Forum were tireless in helping me tweak all the code to bash the theme into the sort of shape I wanted it, the basic design wouldn’t satisfy the long-term PixelPost user, especially one who had no desire to leap into the guts of the code to tweak it.

I started a thread in the forum listing the sorts of things I felt a good photoblog theme should start with, there was a bit of back and forth with their guys, and this morning Thad Allender posted the following reply:

“… many thanks for all your feedback. We will build a theme (or two or three) that cater to your needs. There seems to be sufficient demand. Please feel free to spread the word in the PixelPost community if you want. We will have the theme ready by the middle of January.”

This is great news, especially as I’ve long since stopped posting to my photoblog while I tinkered with a potential switch to WordPress. Now that could be as soon as next month.

Thanks, Graph Paper Press, and also Merry Christmas everyone!

(or Happy Hanukkah, or Splendid Saturnalia, or whatever other festival you choose to honour in your family!)

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to comment on anything I’m @myglasseye on Twitter.

Categories
Editorial Other Photographic

new website a-go-go!

I finally have my new website up and running. It’s pretty much the same as the old one but better, in my opinion, for having finally ditched that hateful chunk of buggy code they call Flash. This means I’ve also had to give up on SlideshowPro and while I’ll miss the very lovely SlideshowPro Director content management system, I will in absolutely no way whatsoever miss working with Flash.

So, goodbye headaches, hello mobile devices! Yes, the new site runs on pretty much any device you care to mention, at last!

It’s running on WordPress using a theme from GraphPaperPress called Sidewinder. This allows me to display my photos in a side-scrolling stream that users have complete control over. No more waiting for the picture you wanted to see to come round again on the slideshow.

It also allows me to use hassle-free menus to display links to individual collections of images, incorporate new features easily with plugins, and all the other lovely stuff that comes with WordPress. Ah, but doesn’t everyone complain that it’s not very stable under pressure? Don’t worry – in the extremely unlikely event that Mr John ‘Daring Fireball’ Gruber links to my site or something, I’ve got W3 Total Cache activated.

So have a look around and let me know if you manage to break it or if anything doesn’t work how it should. I am currently working on a Photoshelter page as well, for easier distribution of images to clients and in case anyone would like to buy prints or license images. Nobody ever does, but what the hell, building the site keeps me quiet of a weekend!

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How-Tos iOS & Mac how-tos Photography how-tos Pictorial

Photoblogging from the iPhone

(This was going to be a post about some iPhone photos I took at Westfield recently, but started to become an iPhone post instead! Photos at the bottom…)

So here at mge towers we’re still devoid of connection to the real world, er, I mean The Internet. My iPhone has been pushed to the limit in the meantime and has needed charging a couple of times a day! It’s still by far the most incredible gadget I’ve ever owned, despite the numerous shortcomings (copy & paste, MMS, SMS forwarding…). It’s as a ‘take everywhere’ camera that it’s been proving most useful lately, though. Here’s a little run down of the apps that get the most use when it comes to photography and blogging from my iPhone.

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