Good photography is more than just taking pictures with a good camera. As with other forms of art, well-executed photography always strives to convey an idea or message in one way or another – a good example of this is conceptual photography.

Conceptual photography is basically the art of creating photographs that illustrate ideas. Be it an illustration of a story, a dramatic moment or even just some simple things in life that would bring a smile to your face, a good conceptual portrait should never leave you indifferent. In that vein, here’s a collection of 50 exceptionally thought-provoking conceptual portraits.

Recommended Reading: 80 Impressive Photography Portfolios And Photoblogs

If you have any conceptual portraits of your own that you would like to share, do let us know in the comments below.

Liquid Mouth by Nilanja

Silvan Portrait II by DavidSchermann

Down The Dale, Down The Dell. [30/365] by DaphneNg

Snack Heart Healthy by JeanFan (JFotography)

Thorough by R. de Ruijter

Disappearing Act by Caitlin Worthington

Monster Inside by starlit-sky

Ying Yang by Senju-HiMe

The Rainmaker [55/365] by DaphneNg

10strong>The Edges Of My Soul by oO-Rein-Oo

A Family Portrait by Elreyfoto

I’ll Keep Walking Through The Dark by ziksky

Bright ideas by JeanFan (JFotography)

Hands of God by Barbaros Cangürgel

I Do Not Feel IV by Barbaros Cangürgel

The Story Of Stuff by Marinshe

The Wild Blood by Marinshe

Twilight Omens by thebjoernsons

A Bacteria Called Popcorn by Daniel Torres Storni

Missing Tape III by Andross01

Stolen Dreams by MissUnfortunate

Time Out by petits-reves

Come To Me by Lilliva-Dast

V by sanjalydia

Muse by ezorenier

Art Of Multi-Tasking by PlaceInTheDirt

Element II by VeraAda

Eve And The Apple by xBassxHarmingx

The Fallen, Arise by xBassxHarmingx

The Sweet Prison by anneclaires

I Can Sea You by By-who-photography

Enclosing by TicK46

Inner Universe by Marinshe

April 2 by loganart

In My Place by EugenieA

Taming Dreams by astridle

Stepping Into Daydreams by HollyBroomhall

Read to Know We Are Not Alone by haytraveler

Concrete Dive by Draken413o

Procrastination by robottriceratops

Held to the Past by danthemainman777

Squeeze me to ‘Perfection’ by Emzii-x

Fall by liljackslade

A Little Too Much by Jazzs-art

Princess And The Pea by its-saiby

Goodbye V by Moosiatko

Catch Your Dreams by cilveki

. by IsisPina

Lost Somewhere In Between by oO-Rein-Oo

Head In The Clouds by kiwix

Do You Have Something to Say?

Of course, for your worldly-wise eyes these portraits may seem ordinary, but they are not. It's really difficult to come up with the idea, and even more difficult to bring it to life. If you have something to say, feel free to use comment section and start the conversation.

Are you tired of looking at the same old Android homescreen? If you own an Android device you can have your device homescreen looking stunning with a few touch up of good apps and widgets. There are just so many kinds of homescreens out there and the question is whether you have the time to set up your own custom Android homescreen.

Well, maybe these 30 stunning Android homescreens can inspire you to try making your own homescreen. We have also provided the elements you require to setup the homescreen you see in the homescreen title link. You will find the apps, widgets, ROM and theme used by the creator to make the homescreen you see.

Recommended Reading: 40 Really Cool Android Homescreens For Your Inspiration

Amber Waves. This homescreen is to be used with Themer app.

Full Control. A full screen panel displaying your quick settings, weather conditions, notifications, location and favourite apps. Required apps: ssLauncher, Power Toggles and UCCW.

Comic Glory. Comic Glory is based on Nova Launcher and UCCW.

Grayscale. Cool and calm, with scrollable screens. It uses apps such as Simple Rss Widget, Media Utilities and UCCW to work.

Coogle. Now this is what a Google Android theme would look like. You will need to run this theme using Zooper Widget and Coogle wallpapers.

Chrome OS. Emulate the feeling of having ChromeOS right from within your homescreens. This homescreen is based on Nova Launcher BETA and Zooper Widget Pro.

Cristal. You are required to download Zooper Widget Pro, Media Utilities, Cristal Wallpaper along with this theme.

GoogleNewsStand. Inspired by Google News Stand, set up this homescreen with Nova Launcher Beta, Zooper Widget, Media Utilities and this pack.

Feld. To get this homescreen, complete with Google profile, weather, alerts, calendar, music player, grab Apex Launcher, Media Utilities and UCCW together with this uzip file and wallpaper.

Minion Avengers. Get Minion Avengers on your homescreen with Buzz Launcher, and this homepack.

2Flat. Get flat design on your phone with Buzz Launcher, this homepack, icons and widgets.

High In The Sky. Want High in The Sky on your phone? You’re going to need (1) Animated Photo Frame Widget, (2) Widget Locker, (3) UCCW (4) widget locker theme (5) uccw theme, (6) wallpaper 1 and 2.

Red Levitt. Bored with the green and black theme? Want to try red and black instead? You will need Buzz Launcher and this homepack to start using it.

Businessman. Fancy wallet skin theme on your homescreen? This one requires Buzz Launcher and this homepack.

Minima.A. Download Buzz Launcher, UCCW and this uzip file to bring this simple homescreen to your device.

Colored Jeans. Jeans, chic and neglectful youth. Try this homescreen based on Buzz Launcher and this homepack.

Natura 2. This minimalistic style requires Themer and this zip.

Timeline 5. Ever thought of having a timeline-based homescreen? Now you can, by downloading Zooper Widget and Media Utilities then this zip.

Bulb Homepack. Get a light bulb filled with clocks, temperatures, battery life and apps. Download Buzz Launcher this homepack to start using it.

Orbion. Show your apps and your shortcuts in a list format with Orbion. To run Orbion you will need ssLauncher, MultiPicture Live Wallpaper, UCCW, Lipse Icons and this zip.

Simple 3 Screen. A light and simple homescreen mixed with colorful background and icons. Download Buzz Launcher and this homepack to use it.

Typhoon. Flat UI will look amazing if you can pull it off like this one does. To do that you will need to download Nova Launcher, UCCW, and themes Pure Fat Clock, Win Phone 8 Like Clock.

Hammerhead. Blurry background, vintage style, mysterious Hammerhead; get it by grabbing UCCW, Zooper Widget Pro, Simple RSS Widget, Widgetlocker and the icons.

The One. To get a misty, night-themed The One homescreen you will need Zooper Widget and this icons pack.

Ironman JarvisQ. Love Ironman but love Jarvis more? Apply Ironman JarvisQ theme on your device using UCCW, Media Utilities this theme and others.

On The Ground. Like what you see? All you need is (1) Apex Launcher, (2) WidgetLocker, (3) UCCW, (4) MultiPicture Live Wallpaper, (5) Scrollable News Widget, (6) Weather Eye, (7) Font Changer, and everything else here.

Flatism. Get this clean and minimalistic homescreen with Zooper Widget, Media Utilities and the zip here.

Colors. If you like having your homescreens filled with colorful widgets, then this one is for you. Grab HikiPlayer and the wallpapers 1 and 2.

Nanartaters. For this nice setup, you will need to download (1) UCCW, (2) WidgetLocker, (3) Simple RSS Widget, (4) Apex Launcher Pro, (5) the icons and (6) the rest of the stuff here.

Word Line. A cool red and black theme that blends well with the popular game Assasin Creed. This cool setup requires a lot of items, that include (1) Nova Launcher, (2) UCCW, (3) MultiPicture Live Wallpaper, (4) Power Toggle, (5) Zooper Widget, (6) Widgetlocker, (7) Media Utilities, and (8) all other files here.

If you have your own homescreen designs to share with us, let us know.

Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Samantha Greenaway, a freelance researcher and writer of security within technology. She is currently working as a researcher for the University of Birmingham, UK. You can contact her via email.

When ‘sell your phone’ companies exploded onto the scene a few years ago it changed the way we dealt with our unwanted smartphones. When the contract expires or when the device falls apart from a bad fall, you can recycle it at a company and reclaim a bit of extra cash at the same time. As we are contributing to the environment and making a little extra money, we often forget that we are in fact sending off a device that once held a considerable amount of personal information – to a complete stranger!

(Image source: Xraijs_)

As smartphone technology continues to advance, we are trusting our mobile devices with more and more with our personal data. From the type of media we consume, to passwords, contact and account details. Could we potentially be dropping our guard, too low, when giving our phones away?

Concerns regarding the erase of sensitive files is certainly not a new fret, it was even tackled well here before but thanks to technological developments, removing data from smartphones has become much trickier.

Recommended Reading: Are Smartphones Putting Your Data At Risk?

Doing It Properly

If like most people, you use your smartphone for things like online banking, where you are required to insert codes/pins that give you access to bank accounts and savings (something that was unheard of a few years ago). Even if you delete the Banking App and its history, the data could still be left on your phone without you realising.

The deleted information can be recovered with software called Forensic Data Retrieval. For years the police have been using this to recover data for criminal investigations, primarily cases surrounding child abuse.

Retrieval Software

Now forensic software like Oxygen Forensics and Encase Forensic have been made available to the general public and at incredibly affordable prices. This means, even if you were to delete your smartphone’s data or perform a factory reset, if the person that buys your phone has forensic software, they can recover it all back.

This kind of software can retrieve:

• photos, videos, SMS history
• calendars, apps
• messengers
• phonebook details, call information
• Wi/Fi history, web connections
• passwords
• GEO event positioning
• device logs
• deleted messages and more.

How Permanent Data Removal Should Be Done

At one point simply deleting your phone data, re-installing the software or performing a factory reset would have been an adequate option. Sadly and worryingly this is no longer the case.

Phone recycling experts Bozowi explains that 99% of mobile devices store data in separate locations within a flash chip known as "solid state memory". Reinstalling the operating software or performing a factory reset will only affect the software and the paths that lead to the data, not the data itself.

This means hackers that are using good forensic software will be able to distinguish new pathways to your data, whether the original ones are there or not.

Read Also: 5 Simple Steps To Keeping Your Smartphone (And Data) Safe

Guarding By Removing

The only known way of preventing forensic software from retrieving data off your smartphone is with permanent data removal tools. Using tools like these can be quite time-consuming compared to a factory reset, but this is because it actually wipes the whole of the data, not just the paths that lead to it.

Unfortunately only few phone recycling companies offer permanent data removal services, but it is worth choosing the ones that do, even if it is just to permanently remove the data (you could always recycle the phone somewhere else afterwards).

At the moment the only company that offer this fully as a separate service are a UK-based Recycling company called Bozowi, but I’m sure more recyclers will offer it as smartphone data protection awareness increases (just keep your eyes open for it).

How To Check If It Has Been Done Properly

As of August 25th 2013 The EU declared that smartphone users should be held responsible for the protection of their phone data, not phone recyclers (this will hopefully change soon though, I’m sure). So until the EU change their policy, it seems the few "sell my phone" companies that do offer permanent data removal will charge you for it.

If you’re going to pay for it, you need to make sure you are actually going to get it. First thing to do is make sure the company give you a serial number and a tracking ID (it should be stated on their website). This means you are able to monitor the process as the procedure happens.

Also make sure you receive a "certificate of destruction" which confirms the process has been completed, this also puts the responsibility on the company make sure they live up to their promise.
There is no reason why any company that offers this service should refuse you either of these.

Another area to be aware of is "Data Delete Tools", do not confuse this with a real permanent data removal. Smartphone recyclers often use this term to mask a glorified factory reset."Permanent" is the key word here and if it’s not mentioned, it usually means it’s not offered.

To Conclude

To avoid giving you an anxiety attack over this, I should stress that it is still safe to sell or recycle your smartphone without fearing that your personal content will end up in the hands of a hacker. You must however, be careful and patient enough to put it through a permanent data removal service beforehand.

It maybe more time consuming than a simple factory reset and even cost a little extra too, but for the sake of your security and general peace of mind, it is worth it.

WordPress comes with all the features that allows you to build a website, then operate it on your own. However, as your website and its business grow, you need to start hiring a team to work on expanding the website. Some of them will likely need access to the site’s back-end administration (WP-Admin).

It may eventually become hard to keep track of who does what, so you would probably need some tracking method or tool to monitor your team activities on the website. There are a number of WordPress plugins that offer solutions, but none does the job better, or makes it look nicer, than Stream.

Recommended Reading: Create A Mini Social Network For Your Business With Bitrix24

Using Stream

Stream is a plugin that allows you to track (almost) every change that happens in your WordPress website. These include all the changes in the Post, Page, Themes, Plugins, and Custom Post Type area. Activities like Post/Page creation, updates, deletion, plugin/theme activation and deactivation will all be recorded.

Once you have it activated, a new side-menu called Stream is added. This is where the log resides.

As you can see from the above screenshot, the logged information is quite comprehensive. Even an invalid login attempt is logged. We can also sort the log items by the Author, the Connector – the area where the activity occurs, the Context – the thing in the connector/area that is affected by the activity, and the Actions.

Under the Settings page, you can set the time span to keep the log. You can also select the User Role – who gets to access the log.

Activity Feed

Stream allows us to access the log in Feed form. By using Feed, you can access and see the log with Feed reader applications such as Reeder or ReadKit, so you can keep up with your website acitvities quickly, and without having to login to your website.

To use this, ensure that you have enabled the Private Feed option under the Settings page. Then go to Your Profile, scroll down, and find the Feed URL with the private key.

Grab it, and add it into the Feed reader app of your preference.

Future Development

At the time of this writing, Stream is in very active development, which means there are a lot more features to look forward to in upcoming versions. These include Live Update that will probably allow us to see the record in real-time, WordPress Core Update monitoring, and support for WordPress Multisite.