Photographica
Posted on | January 31, 2010 | No Comments
I’ve been hanging out on Flickr for a very long time now. Five years? Maybe more. Certainly since the very early days and long before it was a Yahoo* joint.
The rise of Flickr was perfectly timed to coincide with my rediscovery of photography. It’s fair to say that the the narcotic combination of newly affordable digital cameras and the vibrant online community of Flickr was largely responsible for the extent to which I became an obsessive snapper for a few years.
Flickr was the first of the “2.0″ social websites I got excited about, and is one of only two which has had any discernable impact on my social life outside of the digital (Twitter being the other). I made real friends on Flickr and, when I was at my most active online, these friendships spilled over into the real world with numerous meetups and even a large group photography exhibition a few years back. I’m still in casual contact with some Flickrers now, despite the fact that my online activity has dropped away to almost zero these days.
There was also the geek factor. As a web developer, Flickr was one of my favourite examples of user interface design done properly. Clever, fun interface features existed entirely in the service of the site’s function rather than for the sake of being cool. Dragging annotations over the top of photographs, editing titles and captions without reloading the page, being greeted in new laguage every time you log in. This was a clever and quirky site from which I have drawn inspiration and examples for years.
Did I mention the API?
It was the first time I had ever seen such a thing. A complete programming interface which allows any programmer to tap into the vast pool of images, data and functionality of Flickr to create entirely new applications. Thousands of API-driven websites and application cropped up, many of which existed purely for the joy of being playful, creative or funny. These days an API on a social networking site is the norm but back then, for me at least, it was a revelation and evidence that these people were doing something special.
And yet…
I don’t use Flickr so much these days.
Part of the reason is simply that I’m taking less photos now. Another part is because I have less free time, and maintaining an active social engagement on a site like Flickr takes up a surprising number of hours. Beside all that is the simple fact that Flickr is big now. Really big. It grows by an impossible number of new photos, new discussions, new users every minute of every day, and with massive growth comes a diminished sense of involvement – for me at least.
Anyway.
An hour or so ago I started writing this post, intending it to be a simple pointer to my new photoblog. I somehow ended up writing a love letter to Flickr by mistake. But that’s ok. I think my Flickr days are more or less over and that makes me a little bit sad, so some nostalgic wallowing is probably called for. Flickr was a source of inspiration to me, creatively and professionally, for many years. It led me to new friends, and nearly bankrupted me in my pursuit of radtastic new camera gear. We had good times.
Oh, and my new photoblog is http://photography.flamingmongrel.net.
Check it out already.
*I can’t bring myself to write it with an exclamation mark.
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