I joined Flickr in July 2005, a few months after the site was acquired by Yahoo. Seven and a half years later I’m rediscovering the site as a social media connection with my family and friends. Having just acquired a new digital SLR camera, I’ve been challenged by one of my daughters, along with the rest of the family, to join in Project 365. Each day, for a whole year, we’ll each be uploading a photograph to our Flickr profiles (like Flickr.com/photos/Postkiwi) and sharing them on a group we administer together. We can provide each other affirmation, make comments and inspire each other to keep looking for new insights in the world around us. In the process, we’ll make sure we’re all being good stewards of our creativity, sharing what we see with our friends on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.
Flickr can handle photos from iPhones and Android phones, as well as the more upmarket digital cameras, or scanned images. A free account gives you the capacity to upload 300 MB of images and two videos per month. A Pro account, for $24.95 a year, gives you the capacity to upload an unlimited number of images and videos every month and receive unlimited bandwidth and storage. Photos in a Pro account may be placed in up to 60 group pools, and galleries. The other benefit of having a Pro account is avoiding having your site put into suspension mode if it’s inactive for 90 days.
Licensing for each image can be set for anything from all rights reserved through to a variety of Creative Commons approaches. I’ve had one photograph, Shrine of Remembrance in Brisbane, used on the Schmap Brisbane page. And a photograph of a monument to James Mackenzie, written in Gaelic, included in the Gàidhlig Flickr group.
Social connections can be added in to each photo by adding geolocation, tags, people, and adding to groups. And of course an organisation can have a Flickr account, like The Inspiration Room.
One more thing to think about. I dropped a portable hard drive back in 2009, losing hundreds of digital photographs I’d been storing on it, forever. However I’d saved a few on my Flickr account. Phew!