Flickr

Random

A lot of people have been talking about Flickr’s big change. They are limiting the free accounts to only 1,000 photos instead of the terabyte offered several years ago (2013). I had been a pro user since 2006 and then switched to a free account when they offered the free terabyte because I didn’t see the point in paying for a pro account. It seems this change has pissed a lot of people off. I am throwing my unpopular opinion into the ring. I applaud Flickr for making this decision. I switched back to a Pro account almost as soon as they announced this change.

I applaud the change because of what I wrote about in this post. Social media has become an enterprise where we are providing content for these multi-million dollar companies but not getting paid for our content. To add insult to injury, our brains are getting hacked and manipulated so that we will buy the products of the REAL customers of these websites, the advertisers. This is evil. I welcome a model that gets back to genuine connection with other people all over the world, no strings attached. I am more than happy to pay for this service. I realize now that if a social media service is offered “for free” there are possibly evil motives.

I am happy to pay the mere $50 a year to Flickr. Flickr has served me well for over a decade. I applaud their decision to follow a different path, and appreciate that they are making sure their users continue to be the customers of their product.

Drum Circles, and other random thoughts

Random

My last Instagram photo. :cue taps:

My last Instagram photo. :cue taps:

Last night I went to a solstice celebration.  We arranged ourselves in a circle and one by one we walked up to an altar and lit a  candle. Then we took a percussion instrument from a basket and went back to our seat where we joined the drumming started by Susie, the officiator. The room progressively got lighter and lighter as each candle was lit. It also got louder and louder as each person began drumming. It was amazing and so fun. As we were drumming I thought about what I wanted for the coming year. What are the desires of my heart? Photography instantly popped up, as it usually does. I also want to delve deeper into the Dharma. I also thought about how I want to experience more love and light. I feel like the world needs more of it lately. These are the things I thought about as I was clacking my two sticks together. It felt good. It felt good to get in touch with that part of myself that can keep a beat. It is primal. You don’t think. You just do.

Instagram. I decided to quit Instagram, like many others. You probably already know what happened. They made it clear in their TOS that they would use our photos in advertisements. Facebook currently does this and I hate it. It is sleazy. Frankly, I am fed up with it. I put up with Facebook because everyone I know is on it and I actually use it to communicate with people. But Instagram? No. I don’t care if the photos I have over there are crap, it still doesn’t change the fact that this practice is sleazy. Because of the backlash, Instagram changed their mind and I guess the new story now is that they are not going to use our photos? I guess? I don’t know and I don’t care because I am not going back. The fact is that I have been wanting to scale back a bit anyway. I use Flickr and I pay for the service so I will use it for all of my photo hosting needs. Plus, they have a fantastic new iPhone app (how excellent is their timing?!?).

I am also thinking about starting up my daily photography blog again. Maybe do a daily Hipstamatic post or something? I love playing around with iPhone photo apps and this seems like a good place to post these photos. I have a nerdy plan for this that is mind-blowing. Have you heard of IFTTT? It is the best website ever. I created a recipe that will post a new photo post when I upoad and tag a Flickr photo. I used it for yesterday’s Wayback Wednesday post. I am going to use this to post images to my photoblog from Flickr so that I only have to upload to one service. I am in nerd heaven right now.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

Photography

made with my Holga on Feb. 20th 2012 at the Sandy River Delta.

Spokane Flickr Reunion Tour 2012

Photography

I mentioned last week that I met up with some Spokane Flickr friends a couple of weekends ago in my home town. Fun times! We really need to get together more often. It is one thing to interact online but a whole other thing to interact in person. Way better.

Here are the photos I took with my Pentax K7. I will post the Holga shots next week (after they are developed).