Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

flickr, flash, fade

Flickr has become my new obsession.

Flickr is an online service that’s part Fotolog, part Friendster. People can create accounts (for free!) to upload and share their personal photos with friends, family and/or the world at large — who can then bookmark (“favorite”) and leave comments on those photos. Tracking how many people have viewed, commented on or bookmarked my photos has become a new addiction for me; I’m turning into a feedback junkie.

It’s sort of a “give love to get love” kinda thing, though. To get people to look at and feedback your photos, you have to do the same to theirs. Not that I mind, really. There are a number of photo pros (and astoundingly good amateurs) who post their photos to the site, and it’s inspiring (and sometimes educational) to click through their work.

Like Orkut, Flickr also allows its members to join “groups” centered around various subjects (e.g. “Leaves,” “Washington, D.C.” or “Virginia Flickrazzi”). It’s a great way to both share your own photos and check out related work by other photographers. The various groups also have their own messageboards, in which members exchange tips, issue challenges (with snow in the forecast recently, D.C. photographers recently challenged each other to take interesting snow-in-the-city photos) or just chatter.

Another cool feature, which I’ve yet to take advantage of, is the ability to e-mail photos (ostensibly from a cameraphone) directly to your Flickr account, where they’ll be posted immediately.

Spiffy stuff. I’ve been posting a few of my better photos a day to the site since I started my account recently. It’s not going to replace my existing photo site, but it’ll be another venue to share my work and explore what other shutterbugs are doing.

One such cool venture: One Flickr member has uploaded a series of slides that his father took during his two tours of service in the Vietnam War.