My Flikr rant

[Michaelaw]

I always find myself wondering why people post a hundred images in one fell swoop in some Flikr groups of Ho Hum family pic nick images and the like. I always end up thinking, "why didn't they just choose a couple of the best shots and submit those?" Does this bother any of you guys? Maybe I should go back on my meds?

[kurtdriver]

I don't know about those meds, but I do wonder about some very ordinary pictures. Maybe they don't realize how ordinary those photos are? A while back, I was sitting in Stanley Park near the fire engine waiting for some other people, when a guy came down the stairs to the engine, stood right in front and snapped a pic, and then went back up the stairs, all within 20 seconds. This is how most people think you take pictures. And they are, usually, happy with the results.

[AntZ]

I always find myself wondering why people post a hundred images in one fell swoop in some Flikr groups of Ho Hum family pic nick images and the like. I always end up thinking, "why didn't they just choose a couple of the best shots and submit those?" Does this bother any of you guys? Maybe I should go back on my meds?

Yep, I think it is strange. Especially when some of the pics are so ordinary. Nothing keep photography interesting more than diversity.

[AcadieLibre]

Why I rarely look at flikr photos, I dislike the layout, find so many average or below average photos, and most people I have found just post anything they take photos of. I use flikr to host pics I use to post here outside that I rarely use or ever peruse through the photos too much work to find the few outstanding photos, but thats just me

[Iguanasan]

I haven't noticed anyone post a bunch of boring old photos to groups per se but I have come across people who have uploaded tons of boring old photos. If they were family photos I would kinda understand but they are very poor photos of street corners, buildings, parks, etc. If you check their profile you'll find that it's stuff in their own neighbourhood.

What I've discovered is that those people just haven't taken advantage of a place like Photography.ca! They are trying, they are just not good at it.

As for browsing Flickr. I have spent some time browsing and it's hard to find the gold in the dirt but when you do it's generally worth it.

[kurtdriver]

As for browsing Flickr. I have spent some time browsing and it's hard to find the gold in the dirt but when you do it's generally worth it.

My thoughts exactly.

[crystalb]

Has anyone tried or is currently using Smug Mug? You have to pay, but you can design your own webpage........Any thoughts?

[1putts]

Has anyone tried or is currently using Smug Mug? You have to pay, but you can design your own webpage........Any thoughts?

I can offer some thoughts. I use flickr and smugmug.

Flickr has a pretty poor layout that makes browsing peoples streams almost painful. Smugmug has an incredible layout for presenting your photos. When people ask to see my photos, I send them my smugmug link and then mention flickr.

Not only is the smugmug layout superb, but if you upload an original sized photo, smugmug will offer up to 7 viewing sizes rather than flickrs 2 size solution. This is especially helpful for linking photos to other sites, blogs, emails, whatever. You can basically choose thumbnail all the way up to original. If you only want to offer small sizes, its just a matter of customizing the gallery options. I've set my limit at X2.

Here's my smugmug link so you can see a default layout. I went with the basic account so don't have access to html customization.

1putts' Photos


Flickr reigns supreme for social networking. The groups, favs, comments, and contact system are the main draw for me. Smugmug's social networking is severely lacking.

Featurewise Smugmug is much more robust. For instance, smugmug allows you to hide or password protect entire galleries. So if you have family photos or events that you want to remain private, you can do this easily. Viewers don't even need to sign up for an account. Just email them the gallery link and password and they'll have complete access. When you combine this feature with the ability to sell prints, this is the main reason wedding and other pro photogs choose smugmug.

As far as finding gold. There's plenty on smugmug, but it can be difficult to dig for.

SmugMug Photo & Video Sharing. You look better here.

SmugMug Photo & Video Sharing. You look better here.

SmugMug Photo & Video Sharing. You look better here.

Overall, I find they complement each really well and will probably continue to use both sites. If you don't care about social networking, are mainly concerned with features and presentation, or want to link photos to a blog or other site, I'd go with smugmug. If social networking is your thing, then flickr is definitely the best option.

If you decide to sign up for smugmug, coupon code "flickr" will get you 50% off the 1st year!

[JAS_Photo]

I joined Imagekind. You can sell your photos, socialize, join groups etc. Basically it's flickr artsy fartsy. I don't know how sucessful people are at selling stuff on there but it is free for basic or if you pay you can have your own gallery. You can not link for use on forums and the sizes they show are quite small. But as far as purchasing photos or art they use very good paper, frames and mats. If I give someone a photo, I print it up on Hahnemule so if someone were to buy a photo I would like to see it printed up to it's best advantage as well.

http://www.imagekind.com/

[F8&Bthere]

Michael I think you should consider going back on your meds because Flickr isn't really about artistic standards. The photography is just part of the package. Think of this: if you have friends or family that live far away, anyone who has ever tried sending loads of crappy birthday snapshots to them through email (without drastically compromising resolution) can relate to what a great thing it is to just email a link to them and they can download at (usually) full resolution. They can choose the ones they want to print, frame, or load onto their digital picture frame, etc. And when you shoot that New Year's Eve party or trip to the zoo with the kids you can put it up there without having to decide who to send it to or whatever. Do it once, even better if you have an upload plugin for Lightroom or something, and everyone's taken care of. Flickr can be either the online art gallery (albeit with the aforementioned format imperfections), the photographic special interests chat and share community, and also the online crappy-snapshots-of-special occasions for long distance family and friends photo album, and for some people it is also about the backup or storage of said boring images.

Addendum- and I think if you are wanting to have a professional look and offer images for sale it's mostly agreed that Flickr won't suffice- there's smugmug, zenfolio and others for that purpose. But look at how many noteworthy photographers do have Flickr galleries- like Trey "Stuck in Customs" Ratcliff, Nikon's Image Doctors, Martin Bailey, and many many others. I actually see tons of great work on Flickr