If there is one thing that bugs the flick out of most of us “social media” folks it is a scam. I know that Flickr has been around for a while, and although it never crossed my mind to use it, there was an opportunity to try it out.
We had just come from a huge wonderful family reunion in of all places “New Harmony Utah” and the urge to share all of the wonderful photographs that were downloaded on my computer on the way back home from my daughter, my wife, and my two cameras (one $3,000 Canon and one iPhone) was tremendously overwhelming and I thought that Flickr would be a cool thing to try out to share. Now how was that for a completely run-on sentence that reminded me of one of my teenage daughters , although they are no longer teen age and it must have been the mocha carp-a-chino that has invaded my brain and making me think like, no not talk like but I feel the same frenzy, a valley girl. Yikes! (I thought I owed you a short sentence after that entire dribble).
Being the diligent follower of technology I logged into my Flickr account and began the usually intuitive process of uploading photos. Having been a professional photographer for some 35 years, I have become an aficionado of the digital age, as most have. There is no longer the constraint of the 36 exposure “roll” of “film” rather the limitations of your memory card. The result of this is that where in the ‘70’s I would have been restricted to the several cans of film that would have been loaded from my 100 foot reel of bulk film, there are now virtually limitless exposures available to anyone with the temerity to invest in extra “memory.” The result of my current process is that it is a rare occasion indeed when my “picture count” is not in excess of the many hundreds, particularly when the event is a hugely family oriented thing, and one can be relatively certain that everyone involved is interested in seeing themselves represented. I.E. I had lots of images to upload.
Flickr is most enticing in that every move that I made was well received. There were no questions as to the length or breadth of my photographic content. There were no admonitions of an impending limit other than the broadcast “300Meg” maximum. After I had uploaded roughly half of my images, at a cost to me of roughly a half of an hour, the little mother Flickr declared that I would need to “upgrade” in order for any but my last 200 uploaded images to appear on my “page.”
Well, Flick you! I have subsequently uploaded the entirety of the family reunion onto WebShots, a website that is not run by Yahoo but still seems to remain solvent without deception. I offer this only for those who might be similarly seduced into thinking that most people are actually trying to offer a decent service on the web, and let their excellence entice the payment out of respect. Apparently Flickr doesn’t think they have to play that game.
I wish you well.
My Black Lab 