bioneural.net » istockphoto

Embedding iStockPhoto feeds revisited

Bruce — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:17:53 +0000

In an earlier post I described a JavaScript-based method to include recently-approved iStockPhoto images in a page on your website. When I migrated from a static blogging system (iBlog) to WordPress I found a useful plugin that worked very well in MAMP. Unfortunately it broke when I moved my developmental site to a live DreamHost server. Here is a bit more background to the problem and an eventual solution that uses SimplePie. Although the focus here is on displaying photographs, it's a solution that should work with practically any feed you might wish to embed. No go with latestistockimages.php I was initially using Christine's (of UTW fame) iStockPhoto plug-in for WordPress to display my latest approved images. This worked fine under a localhost development environment, but when I went "live" with DreamHost it stopped working due to the blocking out "outdated" PHP code that posed a security risk. For some reason my e-mails to the author went unanswered, and the download link has been a 404 for ages. Plugging the gap with Feed2JS I turned back to Feed2JS, with this in my sidebar: My iStockPhoto photocast

How to put iStockPhoto images on your website

Bruce — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:13:32 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Maybe you've seen the almost ubiquitous Flickr badge? This small bit of code lets you display images from your Flickr RSS feed on your website. If you have an iStockPhoto account you might want to do the same; a feed is available for your recently approved images. Trawling the iStockPhoto site for information about making use of this feed isn't very rewarding. However, where there's a will there's a way... Update 15.06.06: This problem has been revisited here. The iStockPhoto feeds are in the Atom XML format. They look like this: http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_myfiles_rss.php?ID=430123 ...where ID= is your iStockPhoto member ID number. You can subscribe to such a feed using an RSS newsreader or aggregator to view the 10 most recently approved images. What about modifying the feed to customise display of the images on your own site? It is possible; there is a (free) plug-in for WordPress by Christine Davis here that will parse the feed to display the images with or without descriptions, relying on PHP scripting (and therefore a server you can configure). Sean Locke has written a PHP module to do a similar thing using the Mambo content management system. But what if you don't have access to a PHP-based parser—is there another option? Yes. If you use blogging software that generates static pages (e.g. iBlog), you could use a JavaScript and CSS-based solution to achieve a similar result. The first step is to input your iStockPhoto feed into Feed2JS. Choose your own options, or copy-and-paste from the file download below (changing the ID ...

Sell your digital images online

Bruce — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 07:01:35 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

In a previous post I looked at making your photos available to others as prints or photo gifts. Another option is to upload your images to one of the digital stock libraries, where they can be purchased, typically by designers, for use in other people's publications. It gives you quite a buzz to receive a couple of books through the post from a publisher, containing some of your work. Yes, you could set up a PayPal account and open your own online store as I initially did, but the reality of the situation is that your images on a personal site aren't going to get anything like the exposure they might get on a purpose-built and established one. So where do you start? What is "stock photography"? A definition is always a good place to start. Here's one from Wikipedia: Stock photography is photography or other imagery of common landmarks, concepts, and events that can be used and reused for commercial design purposes. Book publishers, specialty publishers, magazines, advertising agencies, film makers, web designers, graphic artists, interior decor firms, corporate creative groups, and other entities utilize stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative assignments. By using stock photography instead of hiring a photographer to perform on location shooting, customers can save valuable time and stay on budget. With a wealth of images, stock photography databases that may be searched online save photo researchers valuable time when they are looking for just the right image. With today's digital delivery methods, images may ...