I recently received this in an email. What kind of advice can we offer here? I would suspect that many people have similar questions.

I’d like to ask for your help.

I am working on a project to accumulate and present “Images of Sustainability”. The project is to be sponsored by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association for their annual Building Energy conference in Boston. The plan is to invite people to share images that evoke the meaning, purpose, and living examples of the principle of “sustainability.” The appeal will begin within the member community but will encourage open participation. The accumulated images will be viewable on the site setup for the project, will hopefully inspire people to think about and submit their own images, and will be displayed as a slide show in a special room at the conference.

I am looking for the appropriate resource to receive and present the images. An administered photoblog seems appropriate. While most photoblogs seem to be personal, this would be a community project.

We are looking to create a site with these features:

• Display single images from categorized galleries
• Display text describing image and source
• Provide simple navigational tools
• Provide visitors the opportunity to comment – and list comments
• Archive images in categorized galleries viewable as thumbnails (at least hundreds – potentially thousands – if the project is successful and we continue to let it run)
• Feature to allow image sequences to run as slide shows
• “About” Page describing the Project and its Sponsors (with links)
• “Submit” Page describing the guidelines for submitting images with link to submission Page
• “Submission” form that includes required fields (are these e-mailed to an administrator to review and post – or is there a backstage area on the site that allows for that?)
• Splash page with Images of Sustainability movie
• Sidebar columns for navigation and sponsor listings
• Perhaps a banner for prime sponsor and Project logo
• Editable look and feel (we have a professional designer working on most conference content)
• Administration privileges assignable to more than one person
• Creative Commons link for those who need to control use of their work (we will appeal for the charitable donation of images by professionals).

I would appreciate your thoughts/suggestions about the most appropriate approach to this project

(I don't know if a similar thread has been posted already and I'm too lazy to look through the archives.)

Does anyone else have this problem? If I don't go online for a couple of days and then check my mail I notice about 20-40 new comments on my photos and 90% of them are spammers that want to advertise a site where you can play online poker. I try to delete them as soon as I get them but lately I've noticed I can barely keep up with them anymore.

Is there anything I can do except ban their ip adresses in MT? Because that doesn't seem to solve the problem in the long run...

I've wanted to do some nature shooting for the longest time now. But I'm worried about nasty animals, poisonous plants, crazy weather, and the lack of humans and hospitals.

What tips do you have for shooting in the middle of no where? For example, I know to put on bugspray, but will it attract some bad animals? Same goes for food. What foods won't attract dangerous critters? Any tips on plants? Etc.

Overall, I want a shooting experience that doesn't involve a cougar or bear chasing me, getting poison ivy, or freezing to death. Any tips from those that know?

By the Day
Presenting your Photos in a Daily Batch.

Over the past year, it has become standard to have a layout that features only your most recent photo on your main page. This is the ideal situation especially if your are following the one photo per day style that many photobloggers use on their sites. I on the other hand like to post more than one photo a day, which has it's benefits as well as a couple of drawbacks. Often the photos I have posted earlier in the day, won't get as much exposure on the site because of it's short shelf life on the main page. I know in a recent thread on this site, the question was also posed regarding if people posted more than one photo a day.

I created this little tutorial for users of MT photoblog sites that like to post more than one photo a day on their site. It will give your readers the option to click on one link to view your day's worth of images.

NOTE:
a) These instructions are strictly for Moveable Type Users
b) No plugins are required, but you should have a basic knowledge of how to change your templates, although I tried to be very step by step in my instructions
c) This may not be suitable if you are posting a large number of photos per day as the consolidated page will take much longer to load. Of course this is your own preference for you to decide.
d) This is perfect for photobloggers who consistently post more than one photo a day.

Click here to read the txt tutorial

I placed this in a txt file, cause it was easier to read and format the MT code snippits in txt format instead of trying to format the code for this blog

You can view this little MT trick at work on my site, photojunkie.ca
When you have the main page loaded, click on the More from Today hyperlink below the photo's title.

Enjoy

I designed my own photoblog to fit, without a scrollbar, on a screen resolution of 800x600. According to browser stats sites, the proportion of users with this rez setting is now at 37% and is set to continue declining as more and more move to the higher 1024x768 setting.
I use the 1024x768 rez myself but decided to browse some of the most popular photoblogs on 800x600 and have found that while I usually have to browse in Full Screen Mode to see all the picture without scrolling, the visual experience is definately superior. On my own site I find the image size of 400x300/300x400 pleasant on 800x600 while too small on 1024x768, certainly by comparison with many other photoblog sites.

I am now considering redesigning my site for the majority 1024x768 resolution or at least 800x600 in Full screen mode and am curious as to what other photobloggers think regarding some issues I'm considering:

1. what screen resolution did you design your photoblog for?
2. do you restrict your image size for your page/site design (logo/comments/thumbnails)?
3. do you prioritise posting horizonal shots more than vertical for screen dimension reasons?
4. do you ever reduce your screen resolution to see an image/site bigger?
5. do you browse in full screen mode?
6. do you restrict your image size for copyright violation fears?

tia everyone.

That, actually, is not the question.

I enjoy receiving feedback (and think that's one of the great features of a community), but sometimes I wonder if just responding with a "thank you!" is really enough when people comment. . . or if perhaps the "thank you" is sort of implied by virtue of what we're doing and a response is not necessary? Okay not that a thank you isn't necessary, mind you, but I think you know what I mean. Or at least I hope you do.

So I suppose the question is, "What are your feelings about the whole "responding to comments" issue?"

This is my first post here and I hope Im posting revelantly.
Ive had to admit to myself of late that trying to be something or do something that doesnt reflect the true you just isnt going to get you anywhere. Im using photoblogging here as an example but as you all probably know by now, unlike myself, if the shoes doesnt fit then don't try to wear it. It hurts when you do that.

When I first started my photoblog I simply took pictures and put them online to see. I really didnt even know of many other photoblog sites. It was fun, it was joyful. My parents oohhed and awwwed. Then I found photoblogs.org. I was suddenly the one oohhing and awwing. Shortly there after I realized "Hey, this is kind of like a competition thang going on here". I got caught up in the game. I visited Photoblog after photoblog and commented like nobodys business. My rating picked up.. I was moving up. (I was getting a piece of the pie) but then someone prominent on the list of list, made a statement to me in email that stopped me dead in my tracks.

He said

"Boy you do get around don't you, I see you everywhere, where do you find the time? I barely have time to turn on my computer."

That statement made me think and I asked myself several questions.

• Am I number 4 on the hot blogs because of the merit of my photos or am I number 4 because Ive visited every blog known to man?

• Do I really enjoy my photography as much as I did in the beginning?
• Do I even have time to take pictures like I want because visiting the universe of photoblogs takes way to much time?
• Why are you taking pictures of a rock and of rust ? Thats not your style. Because so and so takes those and he is way up there on the list?

I was forced the very next day to learn the horrid truth. My server went down and I crashed in a matter of days from number 4 on the hot blogs list to none existent on the list. At first this fact was very painful, but then I came to the conclusion that maybe I wasnt really putting the most effort into learning to photograph, to really see things and capturing them. Maybe I was on the list because most people are just nice and reciprocate a visit when they are visited? I wanted to know. So I stopped the frenzy of visiting every single blog on earth and became much more selective. No Im not on the list anymore but Im enjoying photography more of late. Photoblogs.org is a great place to enjoy great photography. Its a great place to learn photography too. Im so glad I found it. For me it was and is a great place to help you learn about yourself and develop your own style. Please tell me Im not the only one that has done this and felt like this?

Have you ever found yourself caught up in the game? Would you even call it a game and if so what are you feelings about playing?

I've spent hours upon heaps of hours browsing through the sites listed here at Photoblogs.org, and one thing I've discovered is that there are as many different copyright and image-protection schemas as there are layouts. Some use image-editing software to imprint each and every picture with a brief copyright blurb—"©2004 IDWIC," for example. Others detail accepted usage on their "about" pages, and some list it on ever page. In a few cases photobloggers use javascript to disable the save feature; in a few others, photos are encapsulated in Flash files.

Personally, I use a Creative Commons license to protect mine. My license basically says that you can use my photos as you like, as long as you don't make any bling off them, as long as you give me credit, and as long as the derivative work is released under a similar license. I'm not too concerned with people taking my photos and turning them into banner art for their weblogs, or something along those lines. But if Wal-Mart happens by and feels like it needs a photo for one of its fliers, then I'll come a knockin' for my cut.

I'm curious as to who else uses Creative Commons licenses, and if they feel these are sufficient protection. I've heard photographers argue that as long as their work is up on the web it's unprotected. And I've seen those who will only post ridiculously small images on their gallery sites as a way of protecting their work. On the other hand, most photobloggers tend toward large images (many of mine are 700x525 pixels—large enough for a decent 3x5 print) . . . Also, does anyone here use a robots file to keep Google from indexing images?

As many of you know, my photoblog DailySnap.com recently suffered a week's down time because my laptop broke (don't worry, it's back online!). I had nothing backed up, and lost a lot of data. And it got me thinking about my commenting service.

I currently use HaloScan.com for my photo's comments. I like it, but what if they crash down? What if it becomes non-profitable and the site goes offline? Etc... I update my site manually (that is, there's no MoveableType, Blogger, TypePad, etc.) and need a good commenting service. What other commenting scripts, services, tips do you recommend? I would like something that I can host on my own site that's easy to install and use, that doesn't depend on a third party. Anyone? Thanks in advance everyone...

While on a recent trip to Croatia I got to see how my photoblog looks on an old PC running Win98. Most of my images ended up much too dark and contrasty which is not that surprising since I work on a Mac. It did look better on the more recent PCs in the lab but this begs the question: How do you calibrate your monitor to ensure that your work will look its best in a variety of settings?