Take a peek inside other photographers' bags with InMyBag

When I was growing up, I was taught that it was rude to go ferreting around in a lady's handbag. Yes, your mother might have a handkerchief in there, but no you don't fish it out for yourself. It's a principle that applies to any bag, including camera bags. But don't you ever wonder what other photographers schlep around with them? If you are a bit of a nosey-parker, InMyBag is inviting photographers to open up their bags to public scrutiny so that you can take a look. You can see what a wedding photographer uses compared to a wildlife photographer against a sports photographer versus a portraiture photographer.

More than just having a look at the kit people use, participating photographers also share their favourite images and words of advice. The aim is to build an entertaining, inspiring, educational, and fascinating insight into photography.

Anyone who wants to share their photographic philosophy, their favourite photo, and a shot of the contents of their camera bags can sign up to do so. There's a goodly selection of kit there already, but the more the merrier!

More new stuff from Flickr

Flickr's full-screen fabulousness

Flickr promised more new toys when they announced the shiny, improved Uploadr last week. They've delivered on that today (or yesterday if you are where I am), with new photo sizes for all users and the ability for Pro users to control the sizes of their displayed images.

Head over to the Lightbox and you'll be able to see your images in 2048 and 1600 pixels, provided that they were uploaded after 1 March this year. Should you not have uploaded anything since then, try out the new Uploadr (mine appeared earlier this week) and have a peek.

As a Pro user, you can also upload your images in their original full resolution wonder, but set a limit for the size at which the rest of the world gets to gaze at them. You can do that in the Image Size setting. Sensible naming convention, that.

If you missed it earlier this week, Flickr has also worked with Pinterest to ensure that any photos that are pinned from Flickr are properly attributed. That means your name, the image's name, and a link back to it all come with the photo. Furthermore, if one of your images has been embedded in a blog and someone has pinned it from there, it'll miraculously be attributed to you and linked back to Flickr.

For the Pinterest lovers, there's a new Pinterest button in the 'Share' menu above every image. (It also works for groups and favourites.) For the Pinterest not-so-lovers, you can disable that feature on your images.

They have been having fun over at Flickr. I wonder if they've anything else up their sleeves?

Focussion, one year on

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? Well, I’ve certainly been having fun and I can’t quite believe that it has been very nearly a year since we took a peek at the community over at Focussion. It’s a photo-sharing site that actively encourages giving feedback to other members: you’re given an initial stash of tokens and every image that you upload costs you tokens. You can only replenish your token supply by dishing out feedback.

A year on, I was wondering how things were going for them, so I caught up with Aljan, one of the co-founders.

‘We’ve grown a whole heap in our first year,’ says Aljan ‘and we’ve added several new features to Focussion, too.’

A key feature that they’ve implemented is giving extra tokens to a member when her or his feedback is marked as helpful. Obviously that goes some way to ensuring that feedback is more than just ‘Great shot!’ (And I’ll admit that I’m rather pleased about this because it was something that I recommended when I jumped in last year.)

In a bit of a FaceBook-esque move, you no longer rate photos, but ‘like’ them instead.

The front page still shows the most recently uploaded images, but over on the sidebar you now get to see most liked images and most helpful members in addition to most recently commented-on images.

Realising that their members wanted to talk to eachother outside of photo critique, the team created some forums, too. So now there’s chatter about gear, techniques, and what’s happening on the site.

As for what’s happening on site, they’ve a few plans up their sleeves: ‘We’re going to launch a photo contest soon, as well as enable members of uplaod sets or series of images. And we’re working on allowing photos to be displayed across the width of the page, too.’

It’s great to see that people have embraced Focussion and it isn’t just another photo-sharing site that’s slipped by the wayside. If you’ve not checked it out yet, and you’re looking for some feedback on your work, wander over and have a look.

Found: Translocation - animals in unusual places

Whilst Basil Fawlty was convinced that herds of wildebeest could not be seen sweeping majestically through Torquay, Scottish photographer George Logan has created a series of great photos that show a host of beautiful African animals in the unlikeliest of places.

Rhinos standing at a Highland dry-stone wall? Warthogs congregating on a cobbled street? Giraffes grazing in the shade of windmills? Mongooses at a bus stop? They’re all part of the Translocation project, a collaboration between Logan, the Born Free Foundation, and Hewlett Packard Indigo, which aims to raise funds for the construction of Ensessakotteh, a conservation centre near Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

The website is great, but I bet that the book looks even better. You should go take a peek.

Found: Misadventures by Matt Sartain

Some times, you get some hellacool projects happening here and there. “Misadventures”, by San Francisco-based photographer Matt Sartain explores individuals on long and epic journeys through dreamlike landscapes.

A fantastic collection of photos – and well worth a peek!

Check it out: Matt Sartain via PetaPixel