Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: ipernity

Wow! How time flies! It's been three weeks since beginning this project for Pam and my life has changed so much for the better. Previously I had retreated into my shell to the point that I wasn't really communicating with anyone at all except my husband. I spent my free time playing a space game called Eve Online, where I became a "Capsuleer" and flew around a universe in my many different space ships. I mined asteroids for ore, I ferried goods across galaxies from station to station, I built ships and explored old relics, breaking codes to get precious cargo. But you see, Eve is a game where other players can actually attack and destroy your ship—and kill your character. I lived in fear when I went out on my adventures because I am not aggressive and just want to have a nice time. Unfortunately, this game is aimed at people who enjoy hunting and killing other players. A great many of them make it their mission to make non-aggressive people's lives miserable if they can. Though I stayed in an area that was generally safe, there are no guarantees, and I was always worried. Once I learned that Pam had come so close to losing her life, it shocked me back to reality. I looked at my life which had become so cold, grey and silent. My creative spirit was gone. The passion that once bubbled within me did not exist. I cared about nothing. I didn't even know who I was anymore, and it didn't matter. I wanted to show Pam that I cared about her, that I was thinking about her. As I mentioned in the first post of this project, I figured the best way to do this would be in the form of a picture along with something fun for her to read. When I realized that meant I'd actually have to pick up my camera, I was like, "NO! I'm not in the mood!" The idea of being creative felt like kryptonite to me. But I knew better and forced myself to do it. I took a picture and posted it, writing a journal entry to finish it off. The ipernity community, my old friends, acquaintances, so many people responded so warmly to welcome me back into the fold. I felt like I'd come home to a place I belonged. The suggestion to create a special Pictures for Pam group was perfect and brought everyone closer with a combined purpose to show Pam how much we care. The transformation back to my bubbly, effervescent self happened so fast that I sometimes question whether or not I'd actually sunk so low beforehand. There really is no question about it though. The important thing is that because of my desire to bring some joy to Pam, I found myself back on ipernity, and then all of you took over. You picked me up, held me high in the air and paraded me around, patting me with encouragement and showing me that I had value. That I was good for something...that I do have talent. I did not lose my ability to take nice pictures or to write well. Just as Pam has said to all of us, the care and genuine sincerity in your comments to me have left me overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. I am so thankful—but truly there isn't any way to properly express how much your caring has meant to me. Just know that my life has changed profoundly, and it has everything to do with all of you. *long, warm hugs to each of you* Today I share another leaf! To those of you who are tired of my leaves, I apologize but they are always singing to me and I cannot help but capture them for everyone to see! I found this lovely oak leaf on my walk the other day when I explored our lower forest to see what it looked like now. I'd been concentrating on where my feet were going, as I didn't want to step on anything special. At one point I looked up and BAM! Here's this leaf, cradled by pine needles and right in my face! I burst out with an excited "WOW!! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!" Part of me began to counter the idea since I am forever taking pictures of leaves, but I whacked the thought right out of my mind and wayyyyyy off into the bleachers. "NOOP! I'm taking this picture!" Pam, I hope that this has been a good week for you. I hope you can feel improvement from one week to the next. I hope your vision and energy is improving and I hope that you are comfortable and happy. We love you. Thank you for all that you have done for me...just by being you. Explored on 11/30/18, highest placement, #5.

(If you don't need convincing and just want to know what to do, read my ipernity article, Helpful Guide for Refugees From Flickr .) Flickr launched its new look back in May, and for many people, it has become very slow and clunky. Many also hate the way it looks. However, the thought of moving elsewhere may seem unbearable. Too much work went into your Flickr stream, and it will take FOREVER to upload all those pictures to a new site...RIGHT? Actually, NO! Here are some things to consider! Ipernity is Much Faster! If you can't get around Flickr like you used to because your internet connection isn't great, you are going to LOVE ipernity! When I first joined Flickr a couple of years ago, it was quite fast, and that's how fast ipernity is! About a year ago Flickr changed the size of the main pictures and things slowed down, but it wasn't very noticeable. With the big change in May, Flickr is so slow that it takes whole minutes for me to visit a person's stream. That's not reasonable, especially if you enjoy visiting many friends like I do! Ipernity has the Clean Look of "Old" Flickr. If you don't like the way "New" Flickr looks, you'll be delighted with ipernity. It has a very comfortable appearance and it's very easy on the eyes! It can also be customized to have the layout that suits you! Change the order of items on your main page, add or remove them, whatever looks best to you. Isn't it nice to have options?! "It will take too long to upload all my pictures!" No it won't! :D ipernity has a plug-in script which will allow you to transfer batches of pictures, 90 at a time, with one click of a mouse button! You can also choose specific pictures to transfer if you don't want to transfer all of them. Import your Flickr photos "I will have to recreate all of my sets...that would take way too long!" No, it won't! :D Ipernity also has a plug-in script that will transfer all of your albums over too, and it works great! Import your Flickr sets "I won't have any contacts and I won't have any friends!" You'll be surprised how fast it is to make new friends and generate contacts! Within a week I'd met a bunch of very cool and talented new friends, and had bunches of contacts. After a couple of months I have so many friends, it's just like my experience on Flickr! And contacts? Countless and growing! "What about all the comments and favorites I'm used to? This is really important to me!!!" Just like Flickr, you'll need to get out there and make yourself known! When I decided to make a concentrated effort on ipernity, I chose to recreate my old commenting experience on Flickr. I spent an hour every day replying to all comments left on my new pictures by visiting each person's stream and making thoughtful, meaningful comments in return. Then I would go to my contact list and comment on pictures I liked until my hour was up. As I expected, this worked like a charm. The very first day my comments and favorite shot up, and it has steadily increased to the point that I now have the same or more views, comments and favorites as I used to when Flickr was at its fastest. (100-200+ views/40-90+ comments/many favs) (And my additional pictures get tons of views, favorites and comments too!) "I'm used to getting my pictures Explored...will I have a chance to shine on ipernity?" That was something I wondered about too. After 3 weeks at ipernity and about a week after I began working hard to build my friendships and contacts, I got my first ipernity Explore. I have gotten an Explore almost every single day since then!! Ipernity's Explore section has 5 pages, each containing 27 pictures. Most of my pictures make it to page 2 and sometimes page 1! Like Flickr, Explored pictures change position with activity, so if your picture gets Explored, you can watch it advance up the ranks through the day. If you add a new picture to your stream, your Explored picture will either fall off completely or drop quickly to lower ranks. If you want to get Explored, be a good neighbor! Reply to comments left on your pictures consistently and visit new people, leaving thoughtful comments and favorites. If you make an effort, you'll be rewarded with Explored pictures of your own! :) "What about groups? I can't live without them!" It's true that the number of groups are fewer in number with less members and smaller pools, but you will come to find that "less is more" on ipernity. The active groups are wonderful, and you'll discover that it doesn't take many active people to make a group really fun! In fact, your contributions will actually be noticed instead of being instantly swallowed up in a raging river of pictures, swept out of sight and out of mind. If you become active in a group by commenting and taking part in discussions, the unique community aspect of ipernity will come into play immediately! Group participation on ipernity is so rewarding! Keep in mind too, that groups are swelling quickly since the flood of refuges began arriving in late May. (However, if you are an "award junkie" there are very few groups at ipernity that support this.) "Ipernity is European...I don't know any other language than English." Did you know that ipernity has a built-in translation feature?!! Whenever you see a comment or article in a language that isn't yours, you can click on the "Translate" rollover link below the comment (if it's an article, you'll be asked if you would like it to be translated). In other words, foreign languages are a non-issue! (Naturally the translation isn't always perfect but it's usually good enough to get a reasonable understanding.) "Automatic translation is cool, but does ipernity have anything else that Flickr doesn't have?" YES! There are two things that I love! 1) Inset images in notes on your picture! For an example, take a look at this picture, "Beautiful Cream & Lime Echinasia" With this feature, you can also show examples to explain a picture in more detail. Here's another example, showing the emergence of a monarch butterfly ! This is a cool way to give a more interactive experience in other instances too. I have a friend who takes pictures of beautiful churches and he shows a picture from the outside with an inset picture showing the inside! It's a very powerful feature and works much better than the solution for Flickr, which is adding pictures to comments. (If you're interested in learning how to do this, here's my step-by-step article: How to Insert an Image Into Your Notes ) 2) Blogging feature. Ipernity has an outstanding built-in blog which is very easy to use and works hand-in-hand with your photography. Have you ever wanted to spend some time writing about a trip and using pictures to dress it up? Or have you ever just wanted to write a story or talk about something important to you? With ipernity's blog feature, you will already have an audience who will see your new articles whenever they come to visit your stream! (You can see a complete list of my articles here: Janet Brien's Articles on ipernity ) "Do I have to pay money to have an account?" No, just like Flickr, you can have a free account, but you won't have access to all the features (such as inset notes, etc.) If you like the idea of transferring your pictures and giving ipernity a serious trial to see if you can make a happy home there, get a free account and try it out for a month or two! Remember, if you want to get a lot of views and comments, you'll need to generate that interest. It takes time but not as much as I thought it would! :) (For more information on different subscriptions, visit this page: ipernity club memberships "I want to get started, but I want some help...where do I go?" Well, as it happens, I wrote an article on ipernity just yesterday, with the hopes that some of my friends on Flickr would like to join me! Here it is: Helpful Guide for Refugees From Flickr I hope to see you there!!! *big hugs to all of my pod sisters and cyber brothers* I love you all! Keep up the AWESOME!!!

(Please be sure to see my next picture and the post I have with it!!) With a heavy heart, I'm writing this post to let all of you know that I'm leaving Flickr and will only be posting pictures to ipernity from now on. I will leave this picture and the next one up but I will be removing all others within the week. This is my home at ipernity: Janet Brien Photography I really hoped that Flickr would offer an option to choose a layout. More importantly, I also hoped that this site would speed up again. Unfortunately neither of these things happened, and sadly, my slow connection to the internet has made it impossible to comment in a reasonable fashion. I used to be able to reply to about 75 comments in an hour or so, but since Flickr has bogged down, I can barely reply to 25 in an hour. It's a deal-breaker, and I have absolutely no way to fix this problem. This slowdown is horribly frustrating and infuriating to me. The fact of the matter is that one of the most important aspects of Flickr is the number of friends I've made here, and the relationships I've made. I used to spend an hour every day bouncing around to all of your pages, seeing your awesome photography, and leaving comments to let you know what I thought. Those days are long gone. I can't even scratch the surface now because of the time-sink. This makes me mad, annoyed, and depressed to the point that I have been avoiding Flickr more and more. I feel so guilty and like a complete ass for not visiting or leaving comments. I feel sad because I miss you guys. It's like being on an island in a sea of tar with no way out. I've been putting off this decision since I got an account on ipernity and made it my new home. I don't want to leave Flickr. This decision was forced on me because I have no other choice. So, it's time for me to close this door. It breaks my heart. So many friends who I'll never see again. I just can't believe the enormous number of you that I must leave behind. It totally, utterly SUCKS. :( :( :( I would love to have your company, if any of you would like to join me over at ipernity! My next post explains why I think ipernity rocks and maybe what I have to say is all you need to push you over the edge! :) Saying goodbye sucks. I don't want to do it. So maybe I'll just say...see you later, Aligator...and you know the rest...