Mobile Eyes

A few months ago I signed up for a Flickr account. Seemed like a great idea - but one I didn't pursue because I already had my regular photos online at a photo blogging site called Fotolog, as well as here and here; had started a Blogger photoblog here, had my mobile photos here, and later added a small portfolio at Americanphotojournalist.com. Five spots on the web (later six, counting the portfolio) for my photos was already too many. Adding Flickr seemed a bit excessive. Plus, I feared Flickr might be yet another version of Fotolog and Buzznet - a great place for casual photographers interested in making friends, but not well suited to serious work.

Since then, Fotolog has gone offline entirely (which is just as well, since it basically sucked) [not offline - just slower and buggier than ever] while Fotopic.net (hosting two of my sites) is often slow (though free), still firmly aimed at the occasional snapshooter, limited in functionality, and more crudely commercial than ever. My Blogger photolog never went anywhere, when I realized that blogger isn't natively suited to photoblogging (though some of my images still languish there in a kind of blog purgatory). And Buzznet, meanwhile, is still boring - an exercise that has more to do with the fun of tagging than the delight of good photography. All of which led me back to Flickr.

Flickr is amazing. There's some seriously interesting work on Flickr, the features are truly innovative, and the speed and functionality first rate. Tonight I finally uploaded pictures to my account there. You can see some of them in the little Java thing I've added to this weblog. The Java applet, where I have it, seems maybe a little too obtrusive; but in a few days I'll move it to the bottom of the sidebar, where it should be fine. For now I just want to give it some visibility.

I guess it's pretty obvious I like Flickr. If you haven't tried it, I suggest you check it out.

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Phototography
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