Google+ Is the social network for photographers. The format and layout are conducive to sharing any sort of creative output, especially photographs. If you don't have a Google+ Account, it's worth having one so you can check out these communities. I selected the ten communities below because they cover a wide gamut of photographic types, styles, and techniques. The ranking is asynchronous and shouldn't be taken to indicate that I think any community is better or worse than any other. There are all great communities and I've either joined or asked to join all of them. Adding these communities to your Google+ stream will provide you with enough amazing photography every day as to help keep you inspired to strive harder and seek more intense creative expression.
10- Mobile Photography
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103659359160371839404
As of this writing, the community has around 6,100 members and many posts each day. The photography is really good for that type of photo that looks like a cell phone image. For people who use phones as creative tools, this will be a very helpful and beneficial community.
9- Surreal Fine Art and Conceptual Portraiture
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103197674348053622460
As of this writing, this community has more than 46,000 members and a boatload of shared work every day. It's actually so active that keeping up with everything is impossible. I really love this community. I don't contribute often, but I love seeing the work from it show up on my Google+ feed. There are some very talented photographers and other-media artists here who have and share amazing and creatively imaginitive works.
8- Post Processing Enthusiasts
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/114540425448875209230
As of this writing, this community has just less than 1,000 members but still offers up many posts each week. I like this community because I'm not huge into post work, but I love seeing what other people do. I see post work of the type typical in this community as making a photo something else, a non-photo art piece. That's not a denigration, even though I think excessive post work takes a photo's photo-ness away from it. The skill required to achive some of the images in the community is staggering.
7- Auto Enthusiasts
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113554392160229272044
As of this writing, this community has more than 84,000 members and is fairly active. I picked this community because I like cars and some of the photos shared in it. However, if you're into railroads, planes, boats, statues, or anything else that can be photographed, there's a community like this dedicated ot that subject somewhere on Google+.
6- Nature Photography
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117200292412580229233
As of this writing, this community has almost 170,000 member and posts that keep my feed scrolling like a waterfall. This community has stunning nature photography. I picked it as a representation of many other communities - architecture, portraits, and so forth. If you enjoy a type of photography, multiple communities exist to support it.
5- San Francisco Bay Area Photography
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/111227108516108654818
As of this writing, this community has more than 12,000 members and is very well organized into sections for various discussions. Most if not all major cities have a community or two. I know I've also seen them for New York and London. If you have a city you love or live in, there's probably a community you can join.
4- Pinhole Photography
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/102149738622375537274
As of this writing, this community only has 24 members. It has few posts, but pinhole photographers are a dedicated lot and when they post here the images are typically good.
3- Black and White Photographers
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115514618923019584278
As of this writing, this community is bearing down on 24,000 members and has multiple posts an hour. Black and white photography is huge right now and I don't think this is a passing vogue, either. This is a great community to get your silver fill and spur a lot of creative ideas.
2-Long Exposure Photography
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113835599504494437905
As of this writing, this community has a few more than 84,000 members and many posts every day. The posts in this community are very good because long-exposure photography is not something all people can do and fewer can do it well. This is a great place to learn what subjects and locations make good long-duration images and to get ideas on how to create good long-exposure photos.
1- Behind the Lens - Photo Critiquing
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104372631743405201291
As of this writing, this community is about to break 2,800 members. That's a SIGNIFICANT pool of people who you can ask to comment on your work. With 2,800 or more people in the community, the likelihood of receiving comments is high. Also, I've never been trolled in the community and have found the critiques to be very helpful.
Top Ten Tuesday will be back next week with Ten Great Portrait Photographers.
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