Flickring

Well, it's finally happened. I gave in and joined Flickr. It's not as though I was opposed to Flickr before--I was just thoroughly disinterested. My understanding of Flickr was that it was simply a place to upload your favorite vacation pictures and share them with your friends. And, hey, I already have Facebook for that, right? Turns out, though, I underestimated Flickr. I'll try my best not to be too cheesy here, but now that I've entered the wonderful world of Flickr, it strikes as more of a community of people who are passionate about photography. Sure, there are people who just use it to upload pictures of their babies for their families. Don't get me wrong--that's great. But it's also full of people who take beautiful photos, who appreciate beautiful photos, and who are looking for opportunities for artistic growth.

Now, I'll admit, getting started on Flickr was a frustrating process. For one thing, the terminology is a little different from what I'm accustomed to. A gallery, for instance, is not a collection of your own work. An album of your own work is referred to as a set. After a little fiddling around and holding my head in confusion, I managed to figure these things out. I also discovered the joy of groups. There are groups for just about every photograph interest under the sun on Flickr, and they seem to be a good way to find an audience of people who are interested in your subject. Some of these groups allow you to display your work, no strings attached; others are centered on an award process, where you upload your photo, and then vote for other photos in the group that you feel deserve some recognition. Awarding other photos involves copying and pasting html code, however, and some groups are a little better at explaining this than others, so this was another point of confusion at first. Luckily, it seems that all groups follow the same format, with the award code pasted at the bottom of the group homepage, so it's just a matter of copying this code and pasting it into the comments section on the photograph.


Thankfully, I've made it through the frustration of learning a new site, and I think I've got the hang of it now. So far I've received a lot of positive feedback on my photos, been discovered by some new followers, and seen a lot of beautiful photography. I'm enjoying seeing everyone's work--it's a great exercise in thinking about what makes a photograph compelling, and what makes for an unremarkable photo. All in all, I'd call operation Flickr a success. If you're on Flickr, I'd love to have you as a contact. Please consider adding me!

And, for good measure, a few of the photos that I've happily received some feedback on: