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This blog started out as a way for me to share some images and just post some random musings on the world of photography. But in the two years I have been doing it, it’s grown to a level far beyond anything I’d ever expected. It’s opened wonderful doors for me, and helped forge new relationships with people who I respect and who I admire.
But as I am humbled and (quite frankly) amazed by the traffic it is now getting, I am looking to offer options and features which are simply not available on its current host.
I am beginning the absurdly arduous task of moving it off of the centrally hosted WordPress.com, to a self-hosted option utilizing WordPress.org. This is going to take some time as I don’t want to launch the new site without it being on par with this one. I have the site itself set up and hosted, and moving the posts and comments has been fairly easy (through an export XML file), but I’m unable to move other things like images and layout/UI settings. I also want to make sure that readers and search engines can find the site when it goes live at the new URL.
If anyone has been through this before and can offer some advice, please let me know by either commenting or sending me an email at contact@garretthauenstein.com
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Yet another update of the 500px BETA iPad app was released today. I’ve never seen a development team work quite this fast and yet still release a relatively bug-free software.
If you haven’t read my three previous posts which describe the app in detail and show off the screenshots for the main pages of the app, please see:
Today… The update included, among other things, the release of the very solid Slideshow feature.
This feature allows you to
TIP: Any photo enthusiast worth his salt knows that Toto’s Africa makes an especially good backdrop for Landscape photos (Ed. Note: This statement is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the musical preference of 500px, although we’re pretty sure they would agree, because… honestly, who the hell doesn’t love that song?)
As for what the Slideshow actually looks like, it is the full screen version of the photos, as crystal clear as if you’d expanded the images manually, which was described in my previous posts.
More updates to come as new builds are released!
Today, Adobe moved Lightroom 3.5 out of RC status and made it officially available.
It includes the following updates:
This afternoon, I was informed that the restrictions on NOT publishing any Screenshots from the new 500px BETA iPad app had been lifted. As a result, I am pleased to finally be able to show the images below. I’ve been asked to reinforce the fact that this is a work in progress, with changes being made daily.
If you haven’t read my two previous posts which describe the app in detail, please see:
BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App (30 minute review) and BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App (Part II)
Click image to see Landscape view:
TWO MORE SHOTS AFTER THE JUMP:
THIS IS A FOLLOW UP TO PART 1 (read first)
NOTE: At the time of writing this, I was asked NOT to include Screenshots, thus there are not here. But since then, they have lifted that restriction. Please see THIS POST FOR SCREENSHOTS.
I received an UPDATE to the 500px BETA iPad app this afternoon and finally had a chance to sit down and play with it this evening. I wanted to just offer a couple quick updates, letting you know what’s happening with it.
Already I am growing more and more impressed with it as it seems they are taking to heart some of what I brought up in my first review. Now… I have it on good authority that these changes were already on the books to be implemented, but it is so much more pleasing for my ego to think I played some role in this.
Seriously though… Banged away on it for an hour tonight and I am noticing the following changes:
On a separate note… Something I neglected to mention in my original write up: I’d really like to see the ability to Filter by Category in all of the galleries. On the website, I am able to select (from a drop down) which type of images I want to see, i.e. Landscape, Fine Art, Macro, Portrait, etc. Maybe even a search by tag… But I don’t think i even need that much sort power, so I’ll just stick to the Filter by Category request.
Again… Still looking good. Load times and image quality still top notch. For the new Fresh functionality, increasing my rating to:
3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Still waiting to see where we net out on some other points mentioned in the first post. Until next time…
I was fortunate enough to be one of the beta testers for the as-yet-to-be-released 500px iPad app, currently in beta form. I am going to give you just my initial thoughts and then will likely do a follow up post once I have lived with it for a while longer.
NOTE: At the time of writing this, I was asked NOT to include Screenshots, thus there are not here. But since then, they have lifted that restriction. Please see THIS POST FOR SCREENSHOTS.
500px is a fairly under-appreciated photo portfolio site on the internet… in my humble opinion. There are dozens of great articles telling you about the site, what it offers and why it’s superior to most other portfolio offerings out there. But I’ll give you my quick list, just to add some context to the iPad app.
500px has successfully prevented you from ever having to login and see a given user’s 423 vacation pictures of Disneyland. This alone it what makes them a great home for photographers and photo-related artists. They do this by either charging a very reasonable fee for unlimited uploads, which scares off the majority of dump-loaders (those who dump their whole memory card into the service)… or limiting the number of images that the free users may upload to 10 per week. As a result… at least 75% of the images uploaded are worth a solid look. It’s my absolute favorite way to find new and interesting artists… hands down.
They also have a very unique rating system that successfully gives EVERY member a shot at the spotlight on the “Popular” images page. Over time (and by time… I mean… daily) ratings vastly change and you rarely see the same thing at the top of the Popular page.
In short… it’s not Flickr.
iPad BETA APP REVIEW:
Okay… on to the reason you’re here. I am going to cover mostly features and what I think (although I can never be sure) the product is going for. Minor bugs or things that I’m positive will be worked out will be sent to the developers but don’t need to be covered ad nauseam here.
LAUNCH: A splash page starts the software off. 500px is holding a contest to find an image to be the “cover image” for the app. From here, you flip into the app itself.
*** FULL REVIEW AFTER THE JUMP ***
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