I’m actually really pleased with how powerful the system is turning out. I’ve got geolocation support in (manual, or auto if you upload using the official WordPress apps from iPhone, Android etc.), EXIF processing (camera model used, time taken, etc.), “People in this photo” and optional visitor tagging (like Flickr!) and more is already in. It’s also structured entirely in HTML5, uses Canvas to render images smoothly, and uses some neat tricks to protect images from theft and hotlinking.

It’s still a work in progress, but it’s coming along nicely. I need to get the iPhone and Android mobile interfaces polished up, and implement a few more details into the system, but all in all it’s pretty much there.

I’ll take a month or two sampling the dog food here before I push out a beta release of the Theme for everyone to try.

I’ve started looking at sites like Deviantart, SmugMug and, as I said, Flickr for inspiration. I intend on using HTML5 for the structure, WordPress for the backend, and CSS3 and the Canvas element for some polish. I want it to be dead simple, but also beautiful — of course, minimalist designs are often the hardest to pull off respectfully.

Here’s some early mock-ups:

So, at this early stage in the design process, I ask you; what photo sharing sites do you love, and why? What elements would you like to see in a photoblog theme? If you built Flickr, what would you change?