Posts Tagged ‘Flickr’

Flickr fans may want to give this post a wide berth, although what I am bitching about isn’t exactly the fault of the good folk at Flickr, well I don’t think it is.

I can recall a day when I used to love to join in discussions in Flickr groups. They were helpful, informative, funny, controversial and a pleasure to be a part of. The last 12 months have seen things slide like a eel on a Teflon slippery dip. I don’t know if it is the groups I had joined, or all groups are suffering from the same general decline in the social aspect. In the past 3 weeks I have left 4 groups that I had been a member for for nearly the whole time I have been a part of the extended Flickr family. These groups were once like immediate family. You knew the other members well. You even socialised with them.

The reason I left each group was the same. It was less like a group of friends with a shared passion, and more like a bunch of teenage boys for ever trying to prove who had the biggest dick, which is terrific if you are an angsty acne sufferer with a backwards baseball cap, but less fun than a prostrate exam (this is supposition on my behalf, my back door has not yet seen a doctors gloved finger approaching)  for a 40 plus cranky bastard like myself. I miss the chit chat, the sharing of links to interesting photographic gold nuggets. I miss the willingness to share advice, experiences and equipment. I miss the friendly banter.

What has happened? I was going to point the finger at all the different types of Flickr user that piss me off, but I can’t see that doing anyone any good at all. Me sitting here whinging and ranting will no more fix things than if I could clone a pig to an eagle and finally stop people telling me I will take a great photo when pigs fly.

So, I ask you, dear visitor, is it just me? Have you found similar happenings on your travels around Flickr groups?

I’m off to find an eagle!

There are some very cool sites that intergrate into Flickr, but if you are looking for one that will get you out there exploring, this has to be one of the better ones. It is a bit buggy at the moment, so I wouldn’t be purchasing the iPhone app just yet.

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Here is a bit of an explanation from their site.

What is Noticings?

Noticings is a game about learning to look at the world around you.

Cities are wonderful places, and everybody finds different things in them. Some of us like to take pictures of interesting, unusual, or beautiful things we see, but many of use are moving so fast through the urban landscape we don’t take in the things around us.

Noticings is a game you play by going a bit slower, and having a look around you. It doesn’t require you change your behaviour significantly, or interrupt your routine: you just take photographs of things that you think are interesting, or things you see. You’ll get points for just noticing things, and you might get bonuses for interesting coincidences.

So if you have lost you phojo of late, maybe had a crack at noticings. A novel and interesting concept.

Looking Glass 10, originally uploaded by sugarock.

Strap your eyeballs in ladies and gents, for you are in for a hell of a ride. Some of the photos in sugarock’s photo stream are fantistic to look at, and some of the most original underwater photos I have seen.

Most excellent.

What happens when Flickr and LightRoom get down and dirty behind the shelter sheds? Flickroom, thats what!

AIR does weird things to my Mac, so I will leave it up to you good reader to try it out and get back to me.

Flickroom – BETA.

Flickr Blog has got some Tour de France goodness for us. Keep an eye on this Flickr group for more goodies to come.

Tour de France 2009 « Flickr Blog.

So you want some more love over at Flickr? You want the #1 photo in Explorer? You want to be the next Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir? Well, I have a link here that will bring you closer to your ambitions.

10 Top Tips to get Noticed on Flickr.

Get ready for a barrage of Flickr photos on the Tweet Highway. Flickr has just added Twitter integration to its site. Whoohoo.

Twitter your Flickr « Flickr Blog.

Flickr, SmugMug, Picasa or any other photo website. Why do you do it? Kudos from strangers, friends etc. To learn?

I was asked yesterday why I post photos on Flickr and photo forums? It is a good question. Like most people, I like having others say positive things about my photos, but I think there is more to it than that. By posting my photos, I think I have improved as a photographer. I have learnt a lot. My views have changed. All by getting feedback to my photos. Flickr is probably not the best place to go to get constructive criticism, but some of the photography forums I visit certainly are. To have someone point out small details in an image that could have been done better is a great way to learn, but it isn’t for those with fragile egos. There are plenty of things that others would like me to change in a photo that I am not willing to. This shot for example.

Although I posted it on Flickr and asked people to refrain from asking me to clone out the power lines, plenty of people on photography forums who didn’t see that request told me the shot would be improved by cloning out the power lines. One person even did it for me and I agree, the image did look better, but I am a bit of a stickler for not manipulating my images, so they stayed in. Had I not posted it, I would never had seen the result of the image with out the power lines.

Its the same with numerous images I have put on Flickr. People have suggested crops, levels changes, saturation changes etc etc, all of which I probably wouldn’t have even considered unless some new eyes had seen the image. It is a fantastic way of learning. Whether you take on board all the suggestions, it does give you a new perspective on a given image.

So I suppose the main reason I make public the photos I take is for the kudos, but the constructive criticisms I have received have made me a better photographer. And that on its own is worth the time to upload my photos to a public place.

What drives you to place your photos in the public eye?