Guest Editor Matthew C. Smith tries out Flickr (disclaimer: I think cupcakes are delicious), the photosharing app and shares his impressions below.
Looking for a quick, simple and systematic way of uploading photos to my blog, I stumbled from one site to another. Once again, as a card-carrying member of the Mac cult, my search was yielding no results. Enter Flickr… an online photo sharing community powered by a photographer’s attention to detail and an open source sense of community. What started as a simple moblog solution has grown into an essential tool for my digital day-to-day.
Lets take a tour, shall we? (after the jump)
Registration
I know. I know. One more website means one more pain-in-the-arse form to fill out. Trust me, this is one of the tamer ones. Simply choose your screenname, password and email address, and (upon email validation) you can begin uploading photos! However, I would recommend sticking around and creating a bio. This will allow your friends to stumble upon your photos easier (could be a good thing, could be a bad thing).
Uploading Photos
Flickr stands apart from most other photo sites with their variety of uploading methods. You’ve got online forms, email attachments, desktop clients, bookmarklets, cell phones…. you name it and it’s probably available. All of which is thanks to their exposed developer’s framework (API). This allows ad-hoc programmers to contribute to Flickr’s success. Genius!
Through the upload process, adding “tags” or keywords to photos allow you to index and search your shots. You can also choose to share your tame photos with everyone, while keeping those incriminating shots private. You sick little puppy!
As another means of uploading, Flickr provides you with a unique “magic” email address for attaching and uploading photos from any computer or device. Simply attach the photo to an email and send it along. Its subject becomes the photo’s title and its body the description.
And yes, as stated above, this works with camera phones and mobile devices as well. Simply “share” your snapped photo by sending it to your “magic” email address and it adds it to your collection.
Own a blog? Tickle its fancy by introducing it to Flickr (you know you want to). Doing so gives you the ability to post your photo (or anyone else’s) via the detail page’s “Blog This” button. Want more? Add a second “magic” address and automatically post fresh photos to your site by simply emailing them. Of course, this process is suitably customizable.
Photostream and Organizr
Yippie skippy… you’ve uploaded every photo you can find of your extensive pencil-toppers collection. Don’t stop yet! Your photos have entered what’s known as your Photostream. This is simply an online folder where your photos reside, and are sorted by date. From this repository, you can view the multiple sizes of the image, see its EXIF information, and even draw comment boxes on your (or anyone else’s) photograph. Flickr’s identity crisis continues with its ability to act as your website’s free image host, a feature that I have yet to see on any other feature packed service.
Organizing your photos is best done through Organizr (read: iPhoto on the web). You can browse by date, search text, view a photo’s detail, and group photos into sets. These set pages are a Godsend… especially the sexy, cross-fading slideshow feature. It looks good enough to make this Apple user say “aaaaah,” and it’s so easy to set up. Simply create a set in Organizr, then visit that set’s page and click the slideshow link. Of course, you’ll have to hum your own favorite background music… but c’mon folks, it’s still in Beta.
Cons
As you will find by poking around the site, the UI is anything but intuitive. In fact, its down right scary! Their unclear labeling of links can really turn you around. C’mon Ludicorp, lets see some simpler button names in the 1.0 release. Rest assured, my fair reader, after a couple of click-and-see sessions, you should become fluent enough in “Flickr-eese” to make your way through the site.
Summary
In this photographer’s opinion, Flickr is a community photo site best used for its utilities. Its “Groups” feature can be fun, but don’t delete your Friendster account just yet… the whiz-bang appeal dies off rather quickly. Stick to the site’s broad spectrum of photo sharing functions and you’ll be a happy little Flickr.
