photo by Destany Maddox / Ashley Hittinger

The “ultimate” measure of whether a guide is really the ultimate is not in how many links it can put into one place, but in how many dodgy resources it leaves out. I have sifted through the vastness of space we call the interwebs, employing all manners of searching, in order to bring you the best resources available on creative a WordPress photoblog – minus, of course, the outdated, useless and repetitive information you really don’t need.

While various dedicated photoblogging services can be found online, most of them are very simplistic. Converting WordPress into a photoblog allows you to tap into the vast array of features available with WordPress while still displaying your much-loved photos in a context that suits them.

For every one photoblog resource there were at least 20 WordPress gallery resources. This collection features the most up to date resources available for people wanting to make a genuine photoblog using WordPress.

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Tumblelogs are a popular form of blogging, whether they take the traditional minimalistic form or not. When the amount of information is available the way it is online via blogs, strong and simple messages are all the more valuable. The popularity of Jason Kottke’s kottke.org and John Gruber’s Daring Fireball are two examples of this trend in action, despite the fact that their sites don’t fit the new accepted tumblelog design format.

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My last post on magazine themes brought quite a bit of attention to the Theme Playground, which I can’t really complain about. After bringing in over 1,400 visits on Friday, nearly 4,000 on Saturday, and almost 1,500 today (Sunday), We’ve reached a new high for Theme Playground. Thank you everyone that visited, and those that subscribed. I appreciate it, and it definitely encourages me to push what I’m doing here to the next level. Again, I can’t thank you enough.

I’m thankful for all of the themes that were mentioned in the comments as well, and I mean to review each of them here, same as before. Credit will be given to those that brought the themes to my suggestion, too. I’m going to aim a bit higher even, and see if I can’t blow the lid off the top of this blog again this week.

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Maybe girly isn’t politically correct, but both of these thems at the very least have a cute theme going for them.

Any female WordPress bloggers out there to speak up on this one? I’d be curious to know if these themes really are attractive to girls—and if not, who?

Spring 1.0

I do like the airiness of Spring 1.0, as well as the way the clouds are layered with the border on the right and the left of the header.

Honestly I think it was just the bunny that made me call this a girly theme.

PinkCountry 1.0

Pink is a bit of an understatement. How about the graphic in the back, that’s like a girl’s dream, right?

Or maybe I’m clueless. Maybe a little bit of both.

I’m a sucker for simplicity. I find it very usable. The nice part about the following WordPress themes, being that they are simple, is that their uses are far more varied than other themes. This makes them very powerful, and in some cases, easy to brand and make your own.

Yourblog 2.0

I like the colors on this one. It feels like a business or a young professional’s website.

Note: Be sure to fix the secondary list items if you go with this theme. They jut out to the side, and will need to be tweaked a bit before any serious use. A simple oversight, but an oversight nonetheless.

Amazingblog 1.0

The colors and gradients are very current, but then the simplicity of the content areas make them pop. I’m loving the gray to white gradient lately too.

Pure Minimalism 1.1

This one is a style all its own. I love the look and feel, and the almost snobbish simplicity of it. Someone use this and show me, I’d love to see some content in it.

Scooby Snacks 1.2

Not exactly sure where the name of this theme came from, but the style is very slick. If the header font works for you, cool, but otherwise you may want to try something that will fit with the simplicity of the rest of the theme.

Arabian Sea 1.0

The curves in the header of this theme are very clean and it looks nice. The right sidebar is slightly awkward (can’t put my finger on it) but otherwise it’s very clean and simple. Useful indeed.

I haven’t done a very good job of hiding my opinions about the default WordPress Theme Viewer. I have to say it is a bit frustrating at times. To do my part, I would like to begin featuring some of the best themes each day, to lighten the load on the part of the user: instead of weeding through to find all the good themes, just check here. Believe me, I’m pretty tough on these designs.

Today I believe I’ve chosen 5 beautiful WordPress themes that are also very usable. There’s potential with these themes.

Talian 1.0

Talian is a beautiful use of the three column layout. I especially love the look of the search bar.

Simplicity 2.0

Pretty much anything with the word simplicity in the title will interest me. But honestly, I thought twice about this one but ended up choosing it almost entirely because of the blocks on the left. Those are very unique, and could be a great visual marker for someone using this website. A little too colorful for my tastes maybe, but beautiful for the right person.

Genman WordPress Theme 1.1

I love the possibilities of this one. I can see an academic sprucing this up and enjoying the red wine flavor of it, or a working adult choosing it as their sophisticated blog. One of my favorites (preview the test run to see this) is how the archived posts show up under a classic Previously under the main post.

It definitely needs a header though, for sure. But the capability is there, just needs a little artistic work and some know-how.

Santigwar 1.0

Depending on the contrast of your screen, this theme may look really good or really icky. What’s enticing about this one is the possibility. There are a number of creative thoughts that come to mind when I see this theme. Cutting the site in half, doing some sort of paper theme…but even if you use it as-is, the candles are sweet and the layout isn’t half bad.

RedAtom 1.0

The trees did it for me. Be sure to run the test version on this one, just to appreciate the image at full size. It’s very cool. And lately I’m loving that color of red.

Those were some decent themes, one that will be good to know are around. I can think of a couple people who would be interested in each of these. More tomorrow!