Fotki Blog

Why some of your photos are not being displayed

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:22:04 GMT

Dear Fotkins, We know that many of you wrote to us about photos not being displayed. Here is the situation: As you all know, at the end of October Hurricane Sandy struck heart of New York City. Estimated losses, due to damage and business interruption, are estimated at $66 billion, which would make it the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane, behind only Hurricane Katrina. Many data centers in New York were flooded, and they still are not operational. Our data center was hit but only partially. It worked on generators for a while, but it was on. All your photos and videos are safe. Because of economic reasons we were forced to partially move our servers out. We are moving them to a new data center. We took down most of old servers, where mostly older photos and videos were stored. Please don't panic! We are trying to bring the offline servers back online in a month or so. We will keep you updated as we are work on finding a new home for them. You, your family and friends are still able to enjoy your recently uploaded photos and videos and most of the old ones. We know you miss your older photos but they will return! Now is the season to make and capture lots of new memories! Late, but not too late, the whole Fotki team wants to wish you a wonderful year 2013! May it be filled with joy and successes! Always Yours, Fotki Team

New Look for Fotki first page!

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:33:48 GMT

We are working on a new look for Fotki!

Hosted on Fotki

Be the first to try it here: http://www.fotki.com/int/?view=alternative

Send us your ideas to make Fotki's new look even better!

The Fotki Team

Gary G. Schempp, the Honeybee Savior!

Wed, 9 May 2012 02:48:14 GMT

Dear All,

We have always been saying how lucky we are to have our community knitted of such kind, amazing and talented members like yourselves. It's incredible how diverse we are and how many different careers, hobbies and good causes we pursue all the while not forgetting to capture a few great photos to share and remember.

A few days ago we've learned the story of one of our Fotkins - Gary G. Schempp, and would like to share it with you here. If you know GaryGS1, you are probably familiar with his work, but if not, we invite you to his page where he keeps visual journals about what he does day after day - helping the Nature! Many of us know that it has been struggling from human actions and so sometimes human actions are needed again to counterbalance. Gary does his part by relocating honeybees from house structures and other inappropriate places to the bee farm where they can live, flourish and keep pollinating! For the past few years researchers have been concerned about the drop in honeybee population but if Gary and people like him continue to rescue the bees and ensure their survival, there will always be hope.

In one recent case in April, written about by The Inquirer, Gary had removed an astonishing 30,000 honeybees from the attic of one couple's home in New Jersey where his organization - Busy Bees NJ is located.

Busy Bees is also part of the The New Jersey Beekeprs Organization that has over 2500 active bee savers! These people really love what they do and our Gary is ever so brave and passionate about helping people and nature around him and changing the world in his own way little by little that we feel greatly proud having him with us.

Thank you, Gary Schempp, for making our world a better place, showing your work in photos to inspire others and setting a wonderful example for all. Please keep going and know that we supports your cause and wish your great achievements now and in the future. We hope that other members will learn more about honeybees and the work you do for them and will give you and Busy Bees NJ all the support it needs!

We know Gary's story is not the only one amazing out there and we encourage our members to share what they do - we're interested to hear all about it!

Always Yours,

Fotki Team

Update for Fotki iPhone app is now available!

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:44:42 GMT

Hello Everyone,

We hope you all had a wonderful April and will be enjoying its last weekend before starting fresh in May. To make it even sweeter for you, we have released a new Fotki Mobile version you have been waiting for! If you haven't been prompted to update by your device, simply visit the App Store and search for Fotki. You will see our new 1.1 version and a brief description of what's been added or improved in this release.

The most important things that everyone was asking for are the ability to create albums right from your iPhone or iPad, view more than a 100 pictures at a time and have your photos and videos the right side up when you upload them!

Once you download the new version and log into your account, you can choose between Public or Private home and then check out the new "Actions" menu:

From there, you can either opt to take a second create a new album for your next upload:

or refresh a folder to view your latest upload. The latter will even happen automatically once your current upload is complete and you click "Done".

To simplify the process, we have removed the unnecessary extra steps of choosing between uploading from your roll and uploading a freshly taken shot so now you can go straight to your roll and pick the photos you want to upload. They will now upload as original, high-quality pictures and have their complete EXIF information attached to them!

Uploading process itself is now more convenient with a clear progress report:

and you can always send it to the background to continue using your device while your photos upload. Once the process is complete, you will be notified with a reassuring green checkmark and that's that!

Please enjoy the new conveniences and don't forget to share your thoughts with us. As always, feedback and new ideas are most welcomed!

Introducing Fotki Desktop for Mac and Releasing a New Version for Windows

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 07:18:37 GMT

Hi Everyone!

We're excited to let you know about our new Desktops for both Windows and Mac users! Although we have long been having a desktop uploading option for for our PC members, we keep working on it to make it even better and convenient for you. We invite you to download and check out the new Fotki PC Desktop that eliminates the old problems you've made us aware of and also makes it a little easier to upload your pictures.
One of the most important improvements is that if, by any chance, some of your photos fail to upload, new Fotki Desktop will automatically catch those missing pictures and make up to 5 attempts to re-upload them without your interference. No more incomplete uploads! Another great news that we know you'll love is that re-size feature is now fixed and your can go up to 1600px in size with all your Exif info still in place! To make your life even easier, we have also included an auto-sign-in feature that we allow you to be automatically connected to Fotki whenever you open your Desktop. Other changes include a different header image and the ability to see the exact number of pictures you are uploading to any particular album, and if you find that you're missing your "upload automatically to new album" option, don't worry - it's just been moved to the "options" section and is still available for your convenience. Please enjoy and let us know what you think!

Mac users who have previously been uploading mostly via Java uploaders now have their own Desktop to enjoy! We know you have been waiting for a chance to easily upload from your iPhoto and now you can. As always, Fotki Desktop is free for all of our precious members and can be found at the all-familiar app Store. Just type in "Fotki" in its search bar and you will see our icon with the yellow folder on it:

Download it, find it in your launchpad and voila! Don't worry if it seems like nothing is happening - we simply don't want to disturb your session and are staying quite discrete. Look at the very top bar of your Mac and you will see our little icon:

When you need to work with the desktop, simply click on the icon and you will see a small drop-down menu that will allow you to log-in and upload your images:

You sign in as usual, but you will only need to do this once and the Desktop will automatically remember you so you can always be ready to upload without any additional hassle:

Now that you're ready to upload your pictures, choose this option from the menu and you will see a window that looks like this:

If you click the "+" sign, you will be able to add pictures for uploading from anywhere on your Mac - any folder or application! You can either do it by browsing, or you can simply drag and drop your selection into the window. Even better, you can drag and drop batch selections right onto the little icon, without opening any windows! It will work too. You can drop your pictures, then take a pause, work or something else if you want, or add more pictures later on and when you're done and ready to upload, choose this option from the menu to open the uploading window. Pick an album, click "Upload" and the process will start. You will see each picture's path highlighted in green as it gets uploaded and in the end you will see the final report which will tell you if you have accidentally tried to upload the same picture twice or if any of the uploads have failed:

Once you make sure everything is alright, you can go right into your newly updated album. Clicking the link at the bottom of your uploading window will take you right to your Fotki page and, without any need to sing-in again, you will be in your album, enjoying the pictures you have just added. It's that easy!

Whichever Desktop you choose, we hope you will find it one of the most useful tools you have when working with your pictures. Life is easy when it comes to uploading photos to your Fotki page! Want to make it even better? Tell us how! We're always here to hear you out and take your advice seriously, so please come and share your thoughts.

Always Yours,

Fotki Team

Fotki iPhone/iPad App is here!

Mon, 5 Mar 2012 03:51:01 GMT

Dear all,

We have another exciting update for you! Don't you just love when it's good news all around, one after another? We know you've been patiently waiting for this one and now it's finally here, up and running. Fotki app will work for your iPhone, iPad and iPod and is extremely easy to use. We aimed for simplicity and functionality but it's up to you to place the final verdict which we hope you'll leave in comments for us to read.

So, here's our app in more detail:

1) Look for it in the app store. Just type in "Fotki" and the first result you'll see will be it. You'll recognize it by familiar Fotki logo :)

2) You can read more about it and what it does when you click on the icon and install the app for free. It will only take up 2.8MB of your space, less that a good-quality song.

3) Once the app is installed and you open it up, you'll see the usual log-in screen where you enter your user name and password

4) You can then click on "My albums" and see your again familiar Public and Private home domains

5) Enter one of your albums and you will see the pictures that are in it. You can then use your device to view them full-size and enjoy on your own or show to friends and family.

6) Perhaps one of the greatest things about our app is that it allows you to upload photos right from your device! No more transfers required!
Look up while in album view and you will see the upload button

7) Click on it and see the following two options:

Please note at this point that uploading from a gallery will work only if you have Location Services turned on. Otherwise, the following message will appear:

You can easily get out of this situation by clicking "settings". Your device will forward you to a section where you can turn on Location Services for Fotki app:

8) Once you're done, you can get back to the app and upload pictures from the photo gallery into one of your albums. Remember, you can only upload if you picked an album and are in it because our app needs to know where exactly you want your photos to be.
When you click "upload" you will be transfered to your device gallery and be able to choose the pictures that you want to upload. Click "Done" located at the top of the screen and your upload will start:

9) You will receive a notification once your upload is complete.

To view your newly uploaded pictures, move back into the album and refresh it by exiting and entering it again.

That's it! Try it and let us know what you think. We hope you'll enjoy it!

Always yours,

Fotki Team

Fotki Announces Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Publishing Service

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:06:05 GMT

Hello All!

It's been some time since we've last met here and we know we have promised some of you that we will revive our blog very soon, so at last, here we are!
As before, we will be sharing our news here, drawing your attention to everything important and exciting so you can make the best out of Fotki.

Today, we're happy to let you know that Adobe Lightroom plugin is finally available. Some of you have been asking and waiting for it, so please enjoy! For those of you who are not familiar with this application, Adobe Lightroom is a photography software program developed by Adobe Systems for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, designed to assist Adobe Photoshop users in managing large quantities of digital images and doing post production work. You can read more about it at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

Here are detailed instructions on how to install this plugin:

1) Go to Fotki download page and download Fotki Lightroom Publishing Service at http://downloads.fotki.com/

2) Unzip it and place it somewhere where it will stay (after you add it to Adobe Lightroom, you can not delete it)

3) Press + icon in Publishing Services panel on the left, and choose first item “Go to Publishing Manager...”

4) In the Lightroom Publisher Manager, click on “Plug-in Manager...” in the left bottom corner:

5) In the Lightroom Plug-in Manager, click on “Add” at the bottom left panel and tell Lightroom where you stored Fotki Lightroom plug-in, and press “Add Plug-in”.

6) Now press “Done” in Lightroom Plug-in Manager, select “Fotki” in the Lightroom Publisher Manager and enter your Fotki username and password and press “Login”. You also need to select which album will be used for publishing, press “Save” and you are ready to go!

Also, we tested and made sure that our plug-in works on beta version of upcoming Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.0 as great as in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.0.

All feedback is welcomed! Leave your comments and questions for us and we will try our best to address them in the next release of the plug-in.

Always yours,
Fotki Team

Friday Contest News.

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:49:01 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Welcome our contest winners for this week and be prepared for upcoming contests.

Check our latest winners of "My Photo of the Week (July 11 - 17) " and "My Photo of the Week (July 04 - 10)".

Here's our editors choice for this week.

We are still accepting new entries in our Lightning and get prepared for August Digital Art Contest.

We wish you all Good Luck!

Have fun and send us your contest suggestions at support@fotki.com

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Tips&Tricks. Drag&Drop upload.

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:21:41 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Today we would like to tell you about our new uploading tool. Please welcome Drag&Drop upload.

Please follow steps below to start your upload.

Contest Types

Open album you want to upload to.
Select photos you want to upload.
Drag them to the opened album on Fotki
Click "X" sign when upload is completed (you will see "OK" sign next to uploaded file).
Reload the page to see uploaded files.

Please share your feedback and enjoy uploading new photos to your Fotki.

Experiment and have fun!

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Friday Contest News.

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:29:00 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Welcome our contest winners for this week and be prepared for upcoming contests.

Check our latest winners of "June Digital Art Contest" and "My Photo of the Week (June 27 - July 03)".

Here's our editors choice for this week.

We are still accepting new entries in our My Photo of the Week (July 11 - 17) and get ready to our new themed contest Colossal Man-Made Wonders.

We wish you all Good Luck!

Have fun and send us your contest suggestions at support@fotki.com

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Fotki Photo Hunt. July. Edition#2

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:50:04 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

This Wednesday, find yourself in the crowds of Everyday People, featured by sovero1 . Check this great gallery of Animal Close-Ups, featured by MarkTheriot . And go bird watching with Wgregoryl

Check other beautiful photos we have discovered for you this week.

Enjoy and share your Fotki findings.

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Fotki Photo Hunt. July. Edition#1

Wed, 6 Jul 2011 09:07:05 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

This Wednesday, please meet a great photographer from Greece Zlatko-Visko and check this amazing collection of boats, people, underwater creatures and more. Take a trip to Lake of Como and magnificent Venice, featured by ambra2006 .

Check other beautiful photos we have discovered for you this week.

Enjoy and share your Fotki findings.

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Tips&Tricks. Public Home vs Private Home.

Mon, 4 Jul 2011 07:04:54 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Today we will talk about the difference of Public Home and Private Home folders.

As you may know Fotki offers more privacy features than any other photo web site. Private Home is one of them. But let's start at the very beginning!

Public Home

This folder is your general sharing folder on Fotki. All albums and folders uploaded here will be visible to your visitors (unless you password protect or hide them using other privacy tools).

Private Home

This folder is for your very private photos. Private Home is invisible to your visitors, search engines and so on. Only account owner can see it after login.

However if you wish to share this folder, you can adjust its "Sharing settings". Go to any folder under "Private Home" and click on "Sharing" link in the menu on your left. Authorize another Fotki member by choosing his/her user name from the list of your Fotki friends and "Save" changes.

After this change, your authorized friend will be able to see shared content on your account, under new "Shared Home" folder.

This new folder will be visible only to him/her, so you won't notice any difference, except now all your shared folders will get a "hand" icon.

Don't miss our next Tips&Trips article next Monday.

Experiment and have fun!

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Friday Contest News.

Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:32:14 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Welcome our contest winners for this week and be prepared for upcoming contests.

Check our latest winners of "My Photo of the Week (June 13 - 19)".

Here's our editors choice for this week.

We are still accepting new entries in our My Photo of the Week (June 27 - July 03)

We wish you all Good Luck!

Have fun and send us your contest suggestions at support@fotki.com

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Fotki Photo Hunt. June. Edition#5

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:17:54 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

This Wednesday, visit Georgia Aquarium with Scooteribcruisin . Check an amazing collection of butterflies , featured by PhotobyCindy . And don't miss this massive collection of cruise ships, featured by Radio88 .

Enjoy and share your Fotki findings.

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Tips&Tricks. Weekly contests.

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:44:55 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Fotki photo contests are the best way to get your photos noticed and a good start if you wish to get valuable feedback from fellow photographers. Of course it's also just plain fun to compete, vote and simply look at great photography.

We would like to encourage you to participate by voting and submitting your photos.

Contest Types

My photo of the week- no particular theme. Anyone can participate. Submit a photo you've selected to show to Fotkins this week.
Digital Art Contest - this contest is for digital art artists. We run this contest once a month.
Themed contest - for this contest we pick one particular theme. Examples : "Waterfalls", "Fog and mist", etc.

Themed contests are the most challenging once, since you are limited to one particular theme. If you like more freedom of imagination, our "My photo of the week" is perfect start for you. Digital art contests are for creative minds and masters of Photoshop.

NB! Remember that you can always suggest a new theme or a new monthly/weekly contest series. Your ideas are welcome.

Submit your photo

Find contest available for new entries.
Click "Submit your entry" link.

NB! If you don't find any contests for photo submission, don't forget to check other open contests and cast your vote.

Check description.
Read and accept our contest rules.
Choose uploading method. You can use Flash uploader (preferably), use HTML upload (works on all computers) or URL upload (allows to upload using direct link to the hosted image)
Fill in "Title" and "Description" (optional).
Submit your photo.

NB! You can always check your entry status here: http://contests.fotki.com/myentries/

Share and follow

You can invite your friends to participate in Fotki contests using either Facebook or Twitter icons on top.

You can also follow us on Twitter by adding Fotki to your "follow list" or subscribe to our RSS channel.

Don't miss our next Tips&Trips article next Monday.

Experiment and have fun!

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Friday Contest News.

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:45:58 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Welcome our contest winners for this week and be prepared for upcoming contests.

Check our latest winners of "Fog and Mist" and "My Photo of the Week (June 06 - 12)" contensts.

Here's our editors choice for this week.

We are waiting your photos in our My Photo of the Week (June 27 - July 03) contest and get ready to submit your digital art to our "June Digital Art" contest.

We wish you all Good Luck!

Have fun and send us your contest suggestions at support@fotki.com

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Fotki Photo Hunt. June. Edition#4

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:06:28 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

This Wednesday, check out this small, but beautiful collection of Schooners, featured by Fotoguy777. Visit Milwaukee with Dmitry Levin . And if you're into film photography, check this collection of old skool film cameras, featured by Krassphoto.

Enjoy and share your Fotki findings.

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Tips&Tricks. Virtual Gifts.

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:40:38 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Did you know that you can send Virtual Gifts to your friends straight from their user pic?

Hover your mouse over the user pic to bring up hidden options.
Click on "Send virtual gift" link.
Choose your gift.
Enter your text and send it either under your user name or anonymously.

Another way to send your friend a gift is to click on "Send a virtual gift" link on their page. Check the following screen shot.

Don't miss our next Tips&Trips article next Monday.

Experiment and have fun!

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.

Friday Contest News.

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:21:55 GMT

Greetings Fotkins,

Welcome our contest winners for this week and be prepared for upcoming contests.

Check our latest winners of "My Photo of the Week (May 30 - June 05)".

Here's our editors choice for this week.

We are waiting your photos in our My Photo of the Week (June 13 - 19) contest and get ready to submit your digital art to our "June Digital Art" contest.

We wish you all Good Luck!

Have fun and send us your contest suggestions at support@fotki.com

Always Yours,
Fotki Team.