Photo blogs

Photo blogs - also known as 'phlogs' or 'photologs' - use the conventional format of a blog, but the focus is mainly on images rather than text.

The growth in this area is attributable to the wider use of camera phones and digital cameras.

There are 2 basic types of photo blogs that most people will use:

- Use of popular blogging tools such as Wordpress or Blogger which were designed primarily for text

- Custom tools for blogging with images such as photoblog.com or flickr.com

The crucial factor in this type of blogging tool is that you can use RSS feeds which allow users to subscribe to your feed of photos automatically without having to actually go to your website to view them.

A static website which is full of photos, but which doesn't offer an RSS feed is not, in my view, a 'proper' blog.

I think that if you're starting a new photo blog I'd recomend that you go for a customized product rather than using an existing blogging tool that's aimed primarily at text users ... after all, why use a horse and cart when the car has been invented?

flickr.com

The 'daddy' of them all must be Flickr, which is has won a couple of Webbys now for its stunning product and superb community.

Flickr allows you to post photos (and videos if you wish) to your own area and gives you full control over who can see them.

You can create a family photo blog, one for invited members only, a public access feed or an online group, where you can share your images with like-minded individuals.

Flickr provides the all-important RSS feeds that go with blogging territory as well as many other features that make it my preferred service:

# Ability to create and share galleries of your photos and comments

# Lots of add-ons such as the ability to make business cards, stickers and buy prints.

# Clear marking of copyright restrictions on your images in line with the Creative Commons Licence

# Easy posting of blog images via email or mobile phone ... essential if you're blogging on the move.

photoblog.com

This website is certainly worth a look because - unlike flickr.com - it retains the look and feel of a conventional text blog, even though it is clearly geared for image use.

Like flickr.com, this site allows you to post images via email and mobile phone, pretty well a standard requirement for all photo blogs I'd say nowadays.

You can upgrade for additional features and it's easy to share with friends and family as well as getting involved in the wider photographic community.

What's wrong with conventional blogging tools?

The honest answer is 'not a lot' and I'd certainly say that Wordpress in particular is more than capable of letting you run a really effective photo blog offering as it does so many photographic add-ons and widgets.

In addition, Blogger has also evolved to take account of how many people are adding photos to their blogs nowadays, and it too has more than adequate functionality as a photo blog.

If you're starting from scratch though, check out the customized tools first as they're geared specifically to your requirements as a photographer.

Don't forget Twitter

If you're already heavily into social networking sites, and you're happy to spread your photos about for the entire world to see, it's worth considering Twitpic as an effective alternative or add-on to your photo blogging outlets.

Remember the U.S. Airways plane that crashed in the Hudson River in early 2009?

That was achieved via Twitter and Twitpic, so it's an incredibly effective tool to use for photographers ... especially if you're ver lucky enough to get a brilliant shot like the plane afloat on the Hudson!

Great tool for photo blogs

Finally, you might come to photo blogs having already committed time and effort to a static website or text blog.

Or you may simply wish to incorporate more images into what's predominantly a text blog and prefer not to have to change to a competely new piece of software or browser based tool.

If that's the case, then you need to take a close look at Shozu.com which will allow you to post images via email and your mobile phone directly to Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, Picassa, Wordpress blogs, LiveJournal, Vox and many more outlets.

It's incredibly easy to use - free - and allows you to download software onto many major phones or work entirely via the browser based system.

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