Where can I host a 2-columned photography blog?

July 13, 2010 7:22 AM

What (free) blog platform should I use for a collaborative photography project? I want the photographs to be side by side in two columns.

We're working on a long distance photography project and I'm looking for a website to host it.

I envision our photography side by side in two columns. I have basically no knowledge about html or css... Budget is limited, free is best.

posted by maca to computers & internet (10 answers total)

Any blog platform can do what you want, unless you've got other requirements you didn't mention.

However, no blog platform will be set up to present your photos in exactly the way you envision, right out of the box (even if there is a theme that is designed to do it, finding it would be like finding a needle in a haystack). So you'll either need to learn about HTML and CSS, or you'll need to pay someone to set things up for you so you minimize your learning curve.

Wordpress is free, well-supported, and has numerous photo-oriented features and plugins. Many webhosts have one-click install for Wordpress; you could also host the blog at Wordpress.com
posted by adamrice at 7:28 AM on July 13, 2010

Or you can photoshop 2 images together in the way that you want. If you save it as PNG you can even use transparencies.
posted by pyro979 at 8:06 AM on July 13, 2010

Alright, I've thought of a few ways you can pull this off.

1 - Get a 3 column theme and use the Side Posts extension. You'd want to edit the size of the sidebar so it's big enough to show the images correctly.

2 - Wordpress multiple loops. This seems to be a good run through. I see no reason why you couldn't take that idea and set 1 loop to look for your category/authership and another loop to look for your partners.

There are also plenty of magazine styled themes for WordPress that are set to show different categories. Most of them have the newest post up top and then a table (2x3 or so) of the newest posts from each category. You could easily edit one of those.
posted by theichibun at 8:17 AM on July 13, 2010

Hmmm... The loop thing is interesting, but if you're trying to achieve separation between two different contributors, it seems like you'd have to police when each person was posting to keep the two sides separated by authorship. Although, thanks, theichibun, it seems like a great way to play photoshop tennis with someone, which I had been trying to find some easily displayable way to do.

Can a side blog be made the same size as the main blog?
posted by umberto at 9:12 AM on July 13, 2010

I haven't played with one, but I'm assuming that you could set the right sidebar (or left) to be just as wide as the regular content area and have the side blog be the only thing in there. I'm not sure if you'd be able to get the pagination in there though.

As for the post order, you can set the loop to only show things from a certain author or category. For example, On Assignment is set to show 5 columns of things under that main image. If it's in the Art category that's where it shows up, and not under the News category.

Normally I'd think that just having two posts on the front page would work. But then you run into the issue of one person posting a lot and hogging the front page space. pyro979's idea runs into the other end of the spectrum, where 1 author doesn't do anything for a while and holds the other person back.

WordPress's article on multiple loops does a good bit of explaining stuff. Cre8ed Design has an article that also mentions how to get a loop to only display certain categories.

But finding a magazine layout and working from there is probably going to be one of the easier ways of pulling this off.
posted by theichibun at 10:26 AM on July 13, 2010

if anyone knows of a tumblr theme that would let me do this, let me know. thanks for all your help.
posted by maca at 11:22 AM on July 13, 2010

A friend and I did exactly this using wordpress. We don't do any custom coding, or do anything fancy with the theme. Here's the workflow (we share the same username and password):

* after we choose our daily photos, we resize them to the right width and height for the blog. Wordpress can do this automatically in a limited way but this way we have full control.
* whoever is first to post today's photo will create a new post, and use the Add an Image button to insert their photo, then save the post as a draft.
* the second person will edit the draft post and insert the second photo (either to the left or the right of the existing photo), and then publish the post.

That's all!

If you make sure your theme is wide enough to contain the two photos side-by-side, then all you have to do is insert them next to each other with no spaces. It can all be done with no HTML or CSS tricks at posting time. (Of course, we do have some custom HTML and CSS on our site, but it only had to be done once, and wasn't necessary for the basic idea to work.)
posted by moonmilk at 12:12 PM on July 13, 2010

ha, i was coming in here to post a link to moonmilk's don't wiggle!
posted by lia at 1:19 PM on July 13, 2010

moonmilk, that's a huge help! is your theme one of the free ones or do it yourself? if not, anyone know how to adjust the width of a preexisting theme?
posted by maca at 4:13 AM on July 14, 2010

maca, contact me by the email address in my profile and I'll help you choose and (if necessary) adjust a wordpress theme.
posted by moonmilk at 12:51 PM on July 14, 2010