Mar 10, 2013 / Community Pool

Community Pool: Photography

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for input, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

In honor of phoneography month, this week’s Community Pool is for the shutterbugs. Get feedback on your composition, use of galleries, or anything else photo-related (non-photo posts are welcome as well). Read on for the guidelines and to leave a comment . . .

  • You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • To keep from losing your place in the comment thread while you visit others’ blogs, right-click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.
  • No running on the deck.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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  1. Great blogs to see here! I have just start mine http://longdelayspossible.wordpress.com/ Still playing with themes and focusing in writing content. My idea is to post mostly photos but all of them with some notes about how they were made. I wanted also to add other kind of posts, but categorized, so people not interested in reading them can skip them easily. That part is not there yet, but there isn’t still too much content either…Any feedback is welcomed! 🙂

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      1. Thanks for your feedback. I have had a look at yours. I would prefer something that shows photos in a bigger size, without the need to click on them. And having to scroll down entirely to see the categories, for me doesn’t work too well. Apart from that, great photos!

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      2. Thanks for comment C. But I guess mine is not really a photo blog. I am probably more interested in story telling. The photos just make the whole thing more interesting. That’s my idea anyway. But also love photography. Good luck with your efforts

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      3. Yes, of course. Yours is clearly more oriented to tell things. I wanted mine to be a mix, but with more emphasis on pictures. As I said, your pictures are nice, maybe a kind of portfolio page is a nice addition. 😉

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    2. First of all – I like the title of your blog. It’s both clever and amusing with multiple meanings. That’s tough to do. Second, I really like your photos. They are all composed well, well-thought, with good color and focus. Also, the idea of sharing the time and effort into each photograph is really interesting as well. You just gained a follower! Hope this helps. 🙂

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    1. Firstly – love the name of the blog. It’s clever and to the point. I also love the idea of having a dominating picture at the top but you have to be careful that your title and the brief summary below don’t get lost in the picture (the white does get a bit lost in the photo).
      I read through a few of your posts – love the imagery. Good composition of photos. I like how you talk with the reader about your thoughts. As an editor, I take note of little things – but I noticed that you switched tenses a few times in the one post I read. Otherwise, it was interesting and a good story. Hope this helps! 🙂

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  3. astrawally.wordpress.com is my site and would like to know what people think on it? the presentation of the photos, how easy the site is to navigate and what people feel about the content. The photos, the writing, etc…
    Thank you

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    1. I really enjoyed the simplicity of your posts – just a photo or two and then your thoughts/musings. It’s interesting and contemplative. The site is very simplistic and therefore easy to navigate. That’s not a problem. For the photos, I really enjoy your use of color and general composition. Your macro photos are really beautiful. As for the writing, I did notice that occasionally, you would misspell words – for example, you used “quiet” instead of “quite” in one post and in another it was “except” instead of “accept”. Those are just little things that the spell-checker wouldn’t pick up but since your writing is normally only a paragraph or two, I figured every word counts. Hope this helps!! 🙂

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      1. Definitely helps thank you! I had a feeling I was missing a few words here and there but something I can work on!:) thank you takin the time to do that:)

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      3. Sorry about the late reply!.. I like the layout, strong, bold and pleasing on the eye. The writing is very accessible and the photos fit well with each piece:) All in all I like it!!:)

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  4. My front page is a gallery of photos that if you click on each it will lead into a blog. I find many people just check the front page and not go into the blog. Is it obvious not to everyone that you need to click on a picture to get more? When I started in January I only put on one photo, now I have a much fuller blog. Is the title misleading? Should I change it up a bit?
    Thanks for some input on this.
    My site: http://www.itsinthepicture365.com

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    1. For me, the whole point of having the gallery of photos is so people get intrigued at the thumbnails and they want to click on them to see more. So, the key to getting people clicking is the interest of the photos – the best and the brightest should be shone in the gallery.
      The title is a bit misleading since it implies that there is only one photo per post. If people aren’t viewing the full post, then that might be your primary problem. Maybe play around with the title and see what happens. It should define the blog a bit. Hope this helps!! 🙂

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    2. Did you change anything after receiving Guy&Gal’s answer? Because it all looks so clean and easy to me, I’d say, of course you have to click on the thumbs… I worked with the idea of a gallery too. Now I wonder if it might not do the trick…

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      1. Yes I did change the title from Photo a Day to what you saw, adding – for photos and stories, click on picture or something to that effect. I think that should do it. The title was misleading once I changed the format. I like the gallery look and I find the blog page is wide and uncluttered as some other themes that I have seen. Try it, and if you don’t like it change themes. I was getting the visitors but a lot were not going one step further. Today seemed better, so maybe its working. Thanks for commenting….

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  5. Do you know what really HACKS ME OFF!!! People who think my blog is their own personal place to place their nonsense. If you are going to put a comment then put one do not use my blog to post your ping. I have had 5 so far not a single comment but just a ping. I have deleted 2 and I am now shaming the other 3 if you see some are posting twice. Stop wasting my time, if you had the slightest common decency you would have read my post and then comment on it. How do I know you didn’t ? Because I have install a spy and it tells me what visitors have read and how long, I wish I could read a whole page in 5 seconds, you may have found it boring and not read it, it still doesn’t give you the right to use my blog for just pings.

    These are those so far, its a good job I have it moderated….

    Pingback on View of my neighbourhood. #

    Phoneography: My Neighborhood | Rebecca Barray

    […] View of my neighbourhood. | | Photography, Pain & Life […]

    Pingback on View of my neighbourhood. #

    52 Bolivian Sundays [week 10, ‘My Neighborhood’]. | 3rdculturechildren

    […] View of my neighbourhood. | | Photography, Pain & Life […]

    Pingback on View of my neighbourhood. #

    52 Bolivian Sundays [week 10, ‘My Neighborhood’]. | 3rdculturechildren

    […] View of my neighbourhood. | | Photography, Pain & Life […]

    If you cannot post and play nicely **** off!!!

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      1. Hi TMS, I know I can do that but why should I stop the legitimate posters leaving comments and pings . its a matter of respect for each other. Thank you for leaving the comment. 🙂

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    1. Props for starting a blog solely on photography. I personally think that takes a bit of bravery since, a majority of the time, the images will need to speak to themselves. I like the raw feeling of your photos – everything is so natural and pure. It’s like I’m actually there. One thing to note is that the portrait/vertical photos are hard to view in a normal browser because of the size/length of them. I like to merge two photos in Photoshop before loading them into my blog post – that way the photos play off each other and people can really get a good look at the entire photo. Hope this helps!

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    1. You guys are so cute! 🙂 I really like your blog. The photography is gorgeous and it gives you a great impression of the beautiful places you are visiting. I also like your sense of humor. Great blog!

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    2. Great blog. The only thing is that i find very long the list of categories, and archives, may be that makes navigation a bit less easier (too much scrolling). Photos are nice also, a bit overproccesed some of them for my taste, but thats something very personal.

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  9. Hi – I am new to blogging and think I am not doing a very good job of attracting an audience nor of arranging my photos. Comments that help me to improve my blog are greatly appreciated.

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    1. How many views are you looking for? We all have a different point of view on that so it makes your question a bit hard to answer.
      I don’t know how long you have been blogging but unless you are you are extremely lucky and right on the moment it is a slow build. I am finally at the point where I have more followers than I can visit in a week but that is over 2.5 years. It did start to explode when I started responding to the The Photo Challenge and responding to Ailsa’s Travel Theme over at http://wheresmybackpack.com/ and pinging others work.

      I do think that if you are going to have a “Search This Site” button it should go somewhere other than a blank screen.

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      1. Thank you very much for your comments. I’ve been doing this for about three weeks, stumbling along … there is a lot to learn. I assumed the “Search This Site” widget would automatically search the site.

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    2. Nice website, but its REALLY HARD to find your follow button, its buried way down on the left hand column – move it up to the top and make it easy to find 🙂

      Also agree with other poster, taking part in Weekly Photo Challenges and other ones is a good way of attracting people to your blog. I like your photography even tho you say you dont take it seriously.

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    3. Nice blog and great photos ! I don’t understand why bloggers who only blog a few weeks are always asking for more views. Like everything else newly started it takes time to attract people 😉
      Have a look around the community and start using the challenges. Slowly but steadily you will have more viewers 🙂
      Cheers Angela 🙂

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    1. First, I think the theme is very fitting. Good choice. I’m not the best person to give advice on how to gain viewers as I have been having quite a bit of trouble myself! I wish I knew the secret! I like the range that your blog has – reviews, poetry, quotes, quizzes, etc. I enjoyed reading your posts – especially the poetry and the colorscope – that was really interesting! I hope this helps (a little). 🙂

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      2. Yeah! I think this community pool is such a good idea (and it does indeed help with the follower/viewer count). I’d appreciate it if you could take a look at my blog, too (if you have the time). Thanks so much! 🙂

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    1. Very interesting work.
      On the one hand, I like it when people tell me the “who what when and where and how”. On the other hand, I read and look at more blogs then I really have time for so it is always refreshing to get the image, drink it in, and move on!

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  12. What are people’s thoughts on watermarking? I go back and forth. Part of me agrees with several professional photographers I know who say: “Why do you want to destroy your own work.” I know others who swear by it even though, as we all know, they admit a good photoshopper can get rid of a watermark pretty quickly but they figure it slows them down. Several of my friends do watermark just to prevent FB et. al. from using their shot in an ad.

    I would love to hear your thoughts.
    Feel free to pass by http://quotidianhudsonriver.com/
    I always love feedback. I also think it may be time for a new theme but I can’t find a better one then what I have.
    Thanks and keep shooting.

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    2. I think the watermark is a personal preference. While you can watermark photos you can’t watermark your words so what if someone just copies and pastes what you wrote into an ad or something similar? Is that different? Personally, as long as the watermark isn’t distracting, I think it’s fine.
      I had a hard time finding a decent theme, too. I chose one that gave me the most flexibility that didn’t require me to pay money…then I customize with my own backgrounds, headers, sidebars, etc. It works well enough for me. 🙂 Hope this helps! 🙂

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    3. Looking at your photos your watermark is quite small and unintrusive. Its also usually on the edge of the photo with plenty of space for someone to crop it off without further interfering with the photo. If thats the case why bother? I went back and forward about it myself a few years ago, and if the only option is to put a big watermark in the middle of the image and ruin peoples enjoyment of it, or not and risk someone stealing it? Well images get stolen all the time so I guess you make your call.

      I also struggle with theme, you either have to have a really narrow option or a ‘photography’ based one that has your images laid out like tiles that then have to be clicked on to find out more which I see from many comments here readers dont like. WordPress are you listening? Give us WIDER COLUMN options – stop wasting half the space on nothing, give photographers more flexibility to both post images *and* text!!

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  13. My name is David Alexander, but you may know me as Popcorn, and I a future writer. I need help getting exposed to the literary world. I am asking for your support and for you to ask friends, family and love one to check out my bloghttp://thegreatpopcorn1999.wordpress.com

    I am searching for a woman that can turn my misery into eternal bliss. A woman that will discover the Devil within in me and will love me in spite of it. I want to meet my counterpart. She will be the right hand of doom that will wear ocean blue dress.The love I will have for her will be the starting point of my insanity. I’m afraid what would happen to me, when my devotion to her will overpower…See More

    I want to get us fellow writer together if and any intersected in starting group, or a dead poet society. Email me atthegreatpopcorn1999@gmail.com

    I like option on a story that I am writing. I want all constructive criticism I can get. Write on my blo

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    1. I like your layout – you show some teaser photos at the top to get people interested. The summary/intro below is a little wordy though and seems more fitting for an about page. Your photos are great but I personally don’t like to click to get a better look at photos – maybe set them up in one of the WordPress Gallery formats? Or upload as bigger files so they appear bigger in posts? Hope this helps! 🙂

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    2. Your photos are indeed stunning. They really speak for themselves and I think you have the right idea for the layout – you don’t want to distract from your photos. I love how you include little details about each photo as well. The only thing I would suggest is maybe a softer background – maybe a beige/brown neutral tone so it doesn’t look so stark in contrast. Keep up the good work. Hope this helps! 🙂

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      1. Thanks for the feedback! I’ll play around with a few colours for the background again. 😀

        I always try (sometimes I forget…it’s a me thing) to include the camera settings and when I do off camera flash (“strobist”) shots, those as well. Again, thanks for the feedback, greatly appreciated!

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  16. I have already wrote one and showed a photo taken with my phone, but a fellow blogger was missing bacon so I had a photo of my bacon and egg sandwich so I wrote about it. I will say that the only photo on the page that belongs to me is the one of the bacon and egg sandwich ( in Scots ‘a piece’ ) All the rest are from the net. Enjoy. Just to say that I don’t accept ‘pings’ without comments Thank you 🙂
    http://mysoresoul.co.uk/?p=391

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    1. First, I like the general format of your posts – photo with a basic description of the location/your feelings at the time or now, etc. I like the simplicity. It allows the photos to speak for themselves and I am impressed with your photos. They are all interesting and full of color and life. The only thing I would change would be the blog format – a white background (in my opinion) always feels so cold and stark in contrast to people’s photos. Maybe have a softer, neutral background like a light brown or green or something complimentary. Hope this helps! If you have the time, I’d appreciate it if you could look at my blog as well. Thanks! 🙂

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      1. Thank you, I really appreciate it. I decided to go with a white background to follow traditional photo presentation style, but I definitely see your point!

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