10/30/09 11:58pm

How about joining in the fun with next week’s group photo feature? It’s easy. We’re looking for photos taken within 500 ft. of the intersection of West 43rd St. and Ella Blvd., up in the Oak Forest-Garden Oaks-Shepherd Park Plaza area. Again this week, reader Mr. Kimberly has been kind enough to supply a map of the target area, above.

Submitting your photos is a cinch: Just add them to the Swamplot Flickr pool, and make sure they’re tagged with the phrase “West 43rd & Ella” (including the quotation marks). The deadline is midnight next Thursday, November 5th. The feature will run the next day.

Graphic: Mr. Kimberly [license]

10/28/09 3:03pm



Some great photos
have already come in for this week’s group photo feature. The subject this time? Anything you want, as long as it’s within 500 ft. of the intersection of Washington Ave. and White St. in the Old Sixth Ward.

If you’d like to have some fun with this assignment yourself, there’s still time to get your photos in! The deadline is midnight on Thursday. You can find a few more details about the project here.

Graphic: Mr. Kimberly [license]

10/23/09 11:29pm

Want to participate in this coming week’s group photo feature? Great! Here’s a map showing the location, courtesy of participating photographer Mr. Kimberly. This time, we’ll be looking for photos taken within 500 ft. of the intersection of Washington Ave. and White St., in and around the Old Sixth Ward.

Submit your pix to the Swamplot Flickr pool, and tag them “Washington & White” (including the quotation marks). Make sure they’re in before midnight next Thursday, October 30th. The feature will run the next day.

Questions? Check out the FAQ from this past week’s assignment or ask them below.

Graphic: Mr. Kimberly [license]

10/22/09 3:00pm

We already have some great reader pix on tap for Swamplot’s first-ever group photo feature, which premieres tomorrow! And if you’d like to participate, there’s still time: The deadline to get your photos of the area in and around the intersection of Kirby and West Alabama is midnight tonight. You can find more details about the project here.

What comes next? The Swamplot group photo feature for the following Friday, October 30th. Same idea, just a different location. We’ll try a one-week deadline for this one: Get your photos in by next Thursday at midnight.

So what’s that new location?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/16/09 11:27pm

Interested in taking photos for Swamplot’s new group photo feature? Great! Here’s our streetcorner-photographing FAQ:

Okay, I’m at the corner of Kirby and West Alabama. What am I supposed to be snapping pictures of?
Whatever you want. Really. Anything that’s within 500 ft. of that intersection.

Swamplot is a real-estate site. That means you want photos of buildings, right?
Well, sure. But . . . really, it’ll be a little sad if that’s all we get. What else do you see going on near that corner?

I can already see everything I want in that area from my computer, using Google Street View. What’s the point of having us take more photos?
Try taking pictures of things you can’t see from Google Maps. Then we’ll see!

I’m not a particularly good photographer, but I can snap photos with my cameraphone. Do you want those?
Photos from any kind of camera and any kind of photographer are welcome. We all love to see spectacular images, but that’s not necessarily the point of this feature. We’re just trying to get a sense of a place. And sometimes quick-and-dirty snaps can do that better than polished portraits.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/15/09 11:50am

Interested in snapping some pix for Swamplot’s new group photo project — but feeling a little swamped for time?

No problem. By popular request, we’re resetting the deadline for this site’s inaugural group photo feature — giving you an extra week. Now you’ll have until midnight next Thursday, October 22nd, to post your photos! Just make sure they show a subject that’s within 500 ft. of the intersection of Kirby and West Alabama. Reader Mr. Kimberly has been nice enough to indicate the target area for you in the graphic above.

If you’d like to participate (and we hope you will!), be sure to read the instructions we posted last week. We’ll answer a few questions about the project here later.

Graphic: Mr. Kimberly [license]

10/09/09 1:09pm

If you are a talented photographer — or are trying to become one — Swamplot needs your help. And if you’re a reader who just likes to snap fun cameraphone pix, Swamplot needs your help too.

We’re trying out a new group documentation project, and we’re doing it one week — and one streetcorner — at a time.

Here’s how it’ll work: Each week, Swamplot will ask readers to document a particular location in the Houston area. If you’d like to participate, just visit the location, take some terrific photos, and send them in!

What’ll that get us? A new weekly photo feature, which we’ll run on Fridays.

Interested in participating? Here’s your first assignment:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/07/09 5:57pm

Are you a photographer? Do you like exploring Houston? Would you like your photos to appear on Swamplot?

This Friday we’ll be announcing a new feature that will incorporate fun pix from our readers. And we’ll be handing out the first assignment then. If you have snap-happy friends who might enjoy this sort of thing, please let them know about it. And get your camera ready!

09/23/09 10:07am

Today we welcome 2 new advertisers to Swamplot! Here they are:

Located in the Houston Heights, Habitation Realty is a full-service real estate company specializing in “inner-loop luxury and green properties.”

Barden returns as an advertiser with more information about her latest project: The Tree House, at 1608 Indiana St.

And who are our continuing advertisers?

We hope you’ll support these organizations and businesses, because they make Swamplot possible.

If you’d like to help support Swamplot and your own business — and reach this site’s large and growing audience of Houston real-estate fans — please contact our advertising department! (Here’s our rate sheet [PDF])

09/21/09 10:50pm

Sometime over the past weekend, Swamplot reached its second birthday. Look out: We’re now headed into our Terrible Twos.

This is as good a time as any to thank all of you: our readers, commenters, neighborhood correspondents, photographers, tipsters, top-secret tipsters, contest sponsors, and advertisers for making Swamplot a fun and happening place to check in on what’s happening around this town. We greatly appreciate all that you do.

No presents, please. But . . . do keep sending in those tips!

09/15/09 10:48am

THE SWAMPLOT PRICE ADJUSTER NEEDS MORE OF YOUR ADJUSTMENTS Why was there no Price Adjuster feature on Swamplot yesterday? Because we’ve run out of your submissions! Really, is every for-sale listing in Houston now perfectly priced? If not, send us an email and tell us which ones aren’t! For each property you tell us about, be sure to explain why you think it needs a price adjustment, and what price you think would be better.

09/10/09 11:33pm

We’ve been itching to give away 2 — yeah, count ’em: two — Houston. It’s Worth It. books now . . . for 2 weeks! The new HIWI: Ike book and the original HIWI book. And that HIWI brand “Hunkered Down” stencil kit. Really, one of you should win these great prizes.

But you’re going to have to do a better job of guessing to get it.

That’s right: None of your guesses have been close enough. Maybe if we extend the game one more day . . . until Friday? Will one of you get it then?

Sure hope so. Go add your guesses to the original post. If you’ve already guessed, go ahead and guess again.

And focus on this — just part of what you could win:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY