The second WordPress question I’d like to address is from Hillary of FreeOurMidwives.org. She is using the Thesis theme and is currently using the random image widget included in Thesis, but wants something that will show off more photos
Her question:
I’m looking for a great way to show off photos on my wordpress blog. I use thesis and can add them to the rotating image box, but we are doing a photography project and would like a clean, easy to interface modality for showing off the pictures. Any ideas?
Adding photos to my sidebar is something I’ve never really needed to do before, so I’ll have to admit, I had to do a little research! I’ve found a couple of plugins that create nice slideshows for your sidebar…
Lazyest
This gallery/slideshow plugin is cool because it automatically resizes your images so you don’t have to worry about your images being too big for your sidebar. However, it has several downsides. You must also have a page for a full-gallery (and I did not like the way that worked), images must be uploaded one at a time, and must be done through the dashboard. I found there were way too many steps, setting up this plugin took time, and was a little confusing.
Drop In Image Slideshow
This plugin is very simple and while it doesn’t auto-resize for you, all the images are stored in the same folder (which you can specify!) and is completely managed via the widget in Appearance/Widgets. Images are added via FTP to the folder you specify and are automatically added to the show. I highly recommend this plugin as it seems very lightweight, quick loading, and run smoothly. You’ll just need to be sure and resize your images before upload.
Readers, if you have more suggestions, please add them to the comment area! I would love to see people with a little more experience in this area help to answer Hillary’s question!
Hi Erica,
timely post for me, I was just checking a few resources the other day. You have provided a couple more to have a look at.
Thanks for this.
Good resource you have going here Erica. I think I may have shamed my son into finishing off my new logo so I might be knocking on your door asking how I integrate it into my These theme headline.
Kevin, I would be more than happy to help you integrate the new header! I'm no Thesis pro (I actually refuse most jobs related to the system as I find it confusing) but I HAVE inserted a header in Thesis before! That's one thing I can do. haha
LOL @ Shaming the son into finishing. If he doesn't get to it soon, create a petition letter and get all your blog pals to sign it. We'll help with the shaming process.
Jimi,
So glad you found the post useful! Will you be showing off some pictures?
Yes, I will have a view in the gallery.
I have accumulated thousands of photos over the years, always been a camera buff.
Sounds great and I can't wait to see it! Since having my son, my time for photography has dwindled. I enjoy it, but I don't have enough hands to carry a kid and a camera and he doesn't have the patience to wait while mommy stops to take pictures of interesting things and places. haha
Hi Erica,
Great info post, now I really should get to uploading my new logo
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Erica Mueller, Erica Mueller and Jimi Jones, Consulting 2 Win. Consulting 2 Win said: RT @EricaMueller: New Post: Image Gallery or Slideshows for WordPress Sidebars http://digg.com/u1LX5Q [...]
You are right Erica, there does not appear to be many good photo plug ins out there. One thing I have done is great a video slideshow of my photos via YouTube and was then able to put that in my blogs sidebar. This also prevents people from right clicking photos to download, etc.
Patty,
The video is a great idea, especially for copyright purposes. The gal
with the question was wanting to be able to add photos at any time,
which is hard to do with a video.
I think with the second option I wrote about, if one web optimized their
images (72dpi) and made them no larger than needed for the sidebar, they
shouldn't have to worry too much… the images wouldn't be printable.
And, if one was still worried that could watermark their images!
I used the “NextGEN Gallery” plug-in ( http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gal… ) last year for a couple of projects.
It's fairly easy to use, although some users get confused by the fact that they have to insert a photo from the gallery into their posts instead of using the normal media icon.
You can define the photos into galleries and even albums, and there are varies ways of adding them to posts or to the sidebar. It also supports multiple widgets.
There is a “roles” section where you can define which user-levels are required for the different functions, and one feature that I particularly like is being able to define a watermark that is added to the pictures when they are uploaded. If you are blogging from a mobile device or from an internet café without access to a graphics editor this can be a real help!
The only downside is that the image rotator for the slideshow requires a license for commercial use. It's not that I object to someone earning money for writing such a great plug-in, but I found it very difficult to find the right option to actually purchase the license from the online store.
Here are the two websites that use that plug-in:
http://www.mut-tut-gut-2009.de/ (click on “Bilder” to see galleries)
http://www.lapiazzatoscana.de/lpt/
Thank you, Graham! I saw those, but having had a previous bad experience (a couple years ago) with a NextGEN Gallery plugin, I stayed away from it. I remember it being kinda complicated and going a lot more than I needed it to. However, I have seen it used on other people's sites and their galleries looked fantastic. So, maybe my bad experience was a user-error. haha
The new logo looks fantastic! Good job on the Thesis theme too. I don't believe I've seen it used in a layout like that before!
I want to thank you again for the guest post. It opened up a nice conversation and I think people really enjoyed it!