I wanted to add an image gallery to the site for quite some time. Now that I got a new camera, I thought it’s a good time! And then I read Kishore’s post about integrating Gallery2 with WordPress. And I said, ok, I got to do this too! So I now have my photo gallery setup! In the setup, I also upgraded WordPress, got the Gallery2 Remote app, setup the same pictures on Flickr, tried the 1001 software (it’s very cool btw), and even got ImageMagick setup on my Mac! It was fun doing all this, I must add.
So now to the main actor! I had taken a picture of this cute kitty the other day. I was in my office working, and she came and sat outside the window. I immediately took out the camera and took the picture. But she ran away. The photo is one of the best photos I have taken so far!
I was even looking for the same cat to come back for many days. She came twice, but ran away as soon as I tried to take pictures. Today she came back. Looked as if she was not feeling alright. She sat and I took pictures from behind the window. And then opened the window slowly to take some more pictures, but then she walked away.
I am still stunned by the expressions on her face!
What kind of integration are you trying to do with gallery and wordpress?
I use iPhoto with copperexport to upload photos directly into my coppermine photo gallery. Recently moved my website to wordpress and the coppermine integration with the wordpress look and feel is on its way.
The WPG2 allows not only inserting images into a blog post from your gallery, but also viewing the gallery from within the blog. Click on the kitty image in the post above and it will show you the image in the blog template. You can also navigate the full album from there.
Of course the image inclusion on the sidebar is standard. WPG2 has many more features too – including user auth integration with WP. And I loved the simplicity of installation! Gallery is the next best web app installer I have seen after WP.
The Gallery Remote is a good software for uploading pictures. I wish they had an iPhoto integration. And also hope to figure out a way for it to detect my ImageMagick installation!
I am still to find a theme for Gallery that suits my needs. The current Siriux theme is simple enough. But I want something with slightly more features, but not too complicated like the Matrix etc themes that Gallery comes with.
Ah, nice.
I found a wp style theme for coppermine and am in the process of modifying to suit my taste (while learning to deal with css).
Have you looked at iphoto2gallery.?
Here’s my working alternative to your WordPress plugins:
# Get two Flickr accounts
# Set one up for email-to-upload (you don’t really have to “set” anything, really..). This one will be your “moblog” – the Flickr gallery for your cameraphone picture uploads. Since cameraphone images are traditionally not as bulky, they don’t tend to swamp the upload limit on free Flickr accounts.
# Set up the other as a “Pro” account if you’ve got $25 to spare for the year and/or plan to take and upload a lot of pictures in the first few months, while the euphoria lasts…
# Use the FlickRSS widget / plugin to get the latest image from a certain series / tag, from your Flickr account, onto your blog
# Use an image rotator PHP script to serve up random thumbnails from a certain section of your website, hyperlinked to the Flickr account of your choice
At my blog, here’s how its done:
I’ve got the most recent ten images fed from both my “moblog” off Flickr and my “photoblog” off Flickr. The image rotator script adds to the variety for the new visitor. Keeps the page “feeling fresh”.
Why?
Photogalleries on one’s own webserver tend to be a bandwidth hog. Flickr’s a high-traffic website, and since accounts are free, you don’t really have to spend the change to get yourself onto there. Also, tagging and its purchase by Yahoo! lends both functionality and credibility to the service.
The image rotator script serving up the thumbnail can be linked to anything, as long as you have the PHP script and a folder full of thumbnails to offer. Ideally, it could be used as a hyperlink to a Flickr gallery of your choice that speaks to “current events”. etc.
Also, Flickr’s RSS feeds and slideshow features beg to be used. So, as long as all of its free / reasonably priced; there’s really no reason to lose your bandwidth quota over an image gallery.
A very important caveat: If the picture’s really, really, really good – keep it on your own webserver. I don’t care what Flickr says about “some rights reserved” – an image on the Internet is an image on the Internet. You can kiss any ownership privileges goodbye as soon as you upload it to a public site. Watermark and download-protect the good ones, as best you can – and hope you don’t see them being used by some ‘photographer’ as the winning entry in an amateur shutterbug contest!
Finally, have you checked out JAlbum? Its OS-independent and blows most photogallery creators out of the water. Seriously. It’ll even work for that Big Mac you’ve got!
Later,
Sujeet
Hey Sujeet! Thanks for the ideas. I still need to checkout JAlbum. I considered the bandwidth issue, but then I am not expecting a lot of visitors to my pics 😉 Didn’t want to spend money for Flickr (when I have a line of servers of our own) so went ahead with Gallery. It also allows for easy backup and better integration.
I am not a moblogger, but looking at your images, I am considering using the little camera in my phone more often!