Okay everyone, I have something really fun to share with you all in an effort to expand Noshtopia's deliciousness. On the right sidebar, you will see a button that says, "Noshtopia iPhone Food Pics" Gallery. What that button links to is a new micro-blog featuring food pics I take with my iPhone 3GS.
It's no secret that I LUV my iPhone, but what blew me away is how good the camera can take pictures also considering that it's a mobile phone. Of course, I won't be taking DSLR quality pictures, but for on the go, it's pretty darn good and the quality gap is shrinking.
Looking at Noshtopia from a Pro blogger perspective
I wanted to separate out the iPhone pics from Noshtopia the main blog for these reasons:
- I take LOTS of iPhone pics, and I would like to post all of them all the time, and if I did that on Noshtopia it would just get obnoxious because most times, it's just a picture I want to post and say, "Hey isn't that cool." Giving the iPhone pics it's own place, gives you my readers breathing room and choices.
- Instead of posting pics on a third party picture hosting site like Twitpic (no offense guys), I'd like to get the traffic for my blogs. When I tweet, I like to attach pictures which again may not be appropriate for Noshtopia. On the new micro-blog, I can post whatever I want and get people to come visit a Noshtopia blog.
- I can talk more about photography tips and things I learn without infringing on the food. I'm really getting into photography particularly telling visual stories.
- The idea of being one of the best iPhone food photographers sounded like a really fun idea over a bottle of Shiraz one Saturday night. Hey, I became famous on Twitter because of a hydration nudge, so why not become famous for taking awesome food pictures on an iPhone? My whole social media career started because I wanted to wear my skinny jeans again. Sillier things have happened which is why I <3 being a blogger.
TypePad comes to my aid thanks to synchronicity
I've been thinking about doing the iPhone Food Pics gallery for awhile now, but wasn't sure how I was going to tactically do it. Perhaps the universe heard me because a solution arrived in the form of an email from @miz_ginevra, TypePad's Community Extraordinaire.
Today, Six Apart announced a new service called TypePad Micro. I got in a bit early because I'm an avid TypePader.I started playing with TP Micro and created Noshtopia iPhone Food Pics literally in less than 24 hours...minus some snooze time. It was really easy, not perfect, but very low on the stress.
Normally, I don't use pre-canned themes because the artsy in me wants to do something original, but I like the Chroma design because it's easy, and I like the look and feel. When I can figure out how to do some CSS, I will change the background of Noshtopia iPhone Food Pics to match Noshtopia.
A couple things about using the Chroma theme with TypePad Micro:
- The theme will generate a 3-choice color palette based on the color theme of the picture you upload to your banner. At first I was confused on how the palettes worked because I wanted to change it and couldn't figure out how. So, to get a background color that matched Noshtopia, I had to find a picture that had a similar shade to the Nosthopia color theme. Thus, I picked the raspberries.
- You don't have to use Chroma to create a Micro blog. You can just start from scratch and create a customized blog, and use the Micro features. Micro using Chroma is basically another way for those new to blogging or for those wanting to take their "socializing" to another level somewhere between blog and tweet.
One day, I may do the custom Micro, but for now, I'm good with Chroma because you can do some CSS an get creative. You just need someone to help you figure out what CSS you need if you're like me and don't do code. I'm a cut & paster.
- In Chroma, I like how the community aspect is built in. Now I can tap into the wider TypePad user community which I haven't before.
Noshtopia iPhone Food Pics will have its own RSS feed, and it's own url which is basically a subdomain of Noshtopia. I hope you enjoy the new micro-blog, as I will be posting pictures like crazy!
And as usual, please let me know your thoughts and suggestions :)
