Multiple Wordpress Loops different categories - wordpress

Question

I'm really confused about how this works, I have looked in the Wordpress documentation but I can never find anything simple there anyway. I need 3 loops in my main index page, each loop will be based on one category and will need to grab just the latest post from that category.
I've got it working fine, but I'm just wondering if it is the right way of doing it? Obviously it works, but is it going to cause me any problems doing it this way? Is there a proper way of doing it?
//loop 1
<div class="large-4 columns">
<?php query_posts( 'category_name=stories&posts_per_page=1' ); ?>
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<?php the_title(); ?>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div>
//loop 2
<div class="large-4 columns">
<?php query_posts( 'category_name=pictures&posts_per_page=1' ); ?>
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<?php the_title(); ?>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div>
//loop 3
<div class="large-4 columns">
<?php query_posts( 'category_name=videos&posts_per_page=1' ); ?>
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<?php the_title(); ?>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div>
Ignore the HTML as I haven't formatted it yet. Any help please? Thanks

Answer 1

Yes there are possible problems with this.. You are modifying the original wordpress query. You should ignore using query_posts. You better use one of the following.
1.) get_posts ref
2.) custom wp query ref
Change
<?php query_posts( 'category_name=stories&posts_per_page=1' ); ?>
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<?php the_title(); ?>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div>
TO
<div class="large-4 columns">
<?php
$the_query = new WP_Query( 'category_name=stories&posts_per_page=1' );
while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
$the_query->the_post();
the_title();
the_content();
}
/* Restore original Post Data */
wp_reset_postdata();
/* Added */
?>
</div>