Tag Archives: Photography

Where does Birmingham Instagram?

herefeed screenshotInstagram is still a major player in our local online media consumption in Birmingham, AL. The folks behind InstagramBham do a really great job of making sure those active on the service in the community are connected. They’ve definitely continued to grow since our original brief on them in 2012. Perhaps a tool like HereFeed will help them discover even more people.

The San Diego, CA, web-based service just launched this month, receiving coverage from the likes of Fast Company, The Daily Dot, and all those Curbed websites. Its capturing interest because of its ability to provide real-time tracking of uploads to the popular photo-sharing service.

The pink bubbles grow as more people upload geo-tagged photos. You’re able to see the images if you either click on the bubbles or scroll down. Users may toggle between “top” and “recent” maps as well, though the rawness of real-time means some images, though public, may not be suitable for work. Plus, you’ll need to enable your web browser to share its location to take full advantage if you check the site out on a non-mobile device.

The Daily Dot reminded its readers of the existence of an iPhone app, Skedadel, that isn’t as focused on real-time. The folks at FC give us a bit more background as we learn the project’s creator, a former vice president of social products at MySpace and a founder of Science, Inc. (a company focused on funding, developing and advising “companies focused on solving the everyday problems of modern living”) named Ryan Sit has been working on this for some time. It provides only a glimpse of what could be possible for the delivery of information in our location-based world.

 

Instagrams of Birmingham? There’s an online home for them

instagrambham badgeSome who’ve been online in Birmingham, AL for a while probably remember the Magic City Flickr Group. It still exists (with more than 20,600 photos and 800+ members as of this digital entry) as does The Terminal‘s Flickr Group, Birmingham Weekly‘s SEEN pool, and a profile maintained by Weld for Birmingham.

Well there appears to be a new and growing group of individuals who’ve turned to the popular photo sharing app Instagram to expose themselves and others to images of Alabama’s largest city. Instagram Birmingham lives entirely online; its Twitter profile only has 10 followers (& it hasn’t said anything… yet), but its brand page on Facebook currently has 80 people sharing what they’ve been able to capture digitally – with that number only able to go up.

The group connects using the hashtag #instagrambham when sharing their images on Twitter. Local fans of the smartphone app have gathered in person before as well, including back in March as part of the first annual Instagram International Photowalk. Incidentally, our namesake in the UK is preparing to hold one their own on July 26 as part of the next international photowalk that weekend.

Maybe we’ll learn some more about how our folks plan on taking part soon?

Random Shots: Writing about turnips at Pepper Place

DISCO at Pepper Place. acnatta/Flickr

One of the additions to this year’s Pepper Place Farmers Market is the weekly writing booth being conducted by the Desert Island Supply Company. This past Saturday visitors to the booth wrote pieces about turnips; last week the focus was lettuce.

This new writing center is based in Birmingham’s Woodlawn neighborhood is currently in the process of securing 501©3 status. It’s similar to programs found in Valencia, CA and Austin, TX.

It recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to expand their efforts and this weekend became one of the first organizations to be awarded funds by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham via the Kresge Arts in Birmingham program.

The full list of organizations awarded grants (and descriptions of their projects) is available over on Timetable.

Photo: DISCO Birmingham writing booth at Pepper Place. acnatta/Flickr

Random Shots: Progress at CiTYViLLE

cityville_0030

Construction workers drag metal reinforcements to be used in the foundation of the CiTYViLLE BLOCK 121 mixed-use development on Birmingham’s Southside Tuesday morning. As we’ve previously reported, the development is slated to include 255 apartments and more than 21,000 square feet of retail space.

Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo

Thanks for coming out!

Just wanted to take a moment and thank those of you that came out last night to the Bottletree Bailout Happy Hour.
Bottletree Bailout outside
Maybe we’ll see some of you today (Friday, July 3) starting at 11 a.m. for lunch as the bailout continues.

Photo: acnatta/Flickr

Random Shots: What a difference a week makes

Bob Farley/f8Photo

As Birmingham wakes up to the start of Daylight Savings Time and hints at temperatures getting close to 80°, we thought we’d share a few images from last week’s snowfall.

Bob Farley headed out to Ruffner Mountain Nature Center shortly after the 3″ had finished accumulating, giving us this photo set over in The Gallery.

Enjoy!

Ritz Camera files for bankruptcy

Ritz Camera Centers, Inc., which at more than 1,ooo locations in 45 states, presumably makes it the world’s largest camera chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Locally, the company operates as Wolf Camera, with six locations in the metro Birmingham area and 10 overall statewide.

Its online component, Ritz Interactive, is a separate company, though the announcement is sure to have an impact on the e-commerce side of things. Ritz Camera Centers serves as the web company’s largest supplier.

They still plan to operate during the restructuring.