September 28th, 2011 by Allison Gibson Posted in Blog, News
Flickr has just announced a new interactive feature called Photo Session, which allows users to share their Flickr photostreams and sets in real time with friends—kind of the way Dad used to pull out the slide projector and show the neighbors summer vacation pictures, only digitally. In Photo Session, groups can browse photos and chat together in real-time, on the computer, iPhone, or iPad. They can even interact with the images in cute ways, like doodling on them (see video below). Check out the Flickr Photo Session page for information on how to start a session of your own.
This Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Though the horrific attacks were carried out in New York City; at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and aboard United Airlines Flight 93, the event rocked the entire nation as well as the rest of the world. We all remember where we were on that day, and remain in awe of those brave people who so selflessly gave their time—and in many cases, their lives—to save victims at the World Trade Center and elsewhere. The images of grief, struggle and rebuilding are forever locked in our minds.
Over the years since the attacks, photographers around the nation and across the globe have taken up their cameras to capture images that respectfully reflect on that day in September 2001, including scenes of the rebuilding at Ground Zero, photos of memorials for fallen first responders, or hopeful photographs of a community and a world pulling together despite our differences.
On this tenth anniversary, we ask that any photographers who would like to share their photographs that reflect on the 9/11 attacks, and the ways in which they changed our lives and our world, please upload them to the Digital Photographer Flickr Group so that they can be shared with the Digital Photographer community. These photos need not have been taken in New York City, or even on American soil. We will post as many of these images as we can on our website in the Reader Photos section in the coming days and weeks. Please only upload respectful images, and as always with our reader photos, only upload images that were taken by you.
August 30th, 2011 by Allison Gibson Posted in Blog, News, Tips
Flickr has just announced a new privacy feature for geotagged photos, called Geofences. Over 300 million photos and videos have been geotagged by Flickr members so far, and the engineers wanted to make managing privacy of these geotagged shots easier for the community. Instances in which you might want to conceal your photo’s location include: shots taken at home or at the private residence of someone else whose exact location you don’t feel comfortable broadcasting to the world at large. According to one Flickr engineer, who helped develop the new feature, “Geofences are special locations that deserve their own geo privacy settings. Simply draw a circle on a map, choose a geo privacy setting for that area, and you’re done. Existing photos in that location are updated with your new setting, and any time you geotag a photo in that area, it gets that setting too.” This saves the photographer the hassle of tweaking default geo settings every time she uploads media taken in a location she has deemed private.
Read all about Geofences, from the inception of the idea to the technical details on the Code: Flickr Developer Blog.
Have you seen these maps on Flickr, made by Eric Fischer, which show the density of tourist-taken photos in given cities as compared to those shot by locals? Pretty amazing. Blue pictures are by locals, red are by tourists and yellow might be either. The map above is of New York, but he’s done Los Angeles, London, Tokyo and many more. Go see them all.
Because we are being barraged with mages of Haiti I was not going to add to it here. But I have to. On Flickr I found Billtacular’s image of Haiti from last summer, assembled into a collage. And he is using this in a unique way to raise money for relief efforts. See his offer below and challenge below.
“Please check out my Haiti photos: www.flickr.com/photos/billysbirds/sets/72157606614861223/ For every 10 Flickr comments in that set (either on an individual photo or on the set itself) I will donate $1 to relief efforts (up to $20).
“We visited Haiti last summer and the people there are truly suffering. It was an eye-opening and culturally shocking experience. The recent earthquake only puts more pressure on this country and it’s people to survive.
“I know $20 isn’t going to rebuild schools and hospitals, but if enough people donate a small amount, it will add up. I know that’s cliche, but it’s true and I don’t think a clever spin needs to be put on it.
“If you have photos or anything else from Haiti, I would suggest using a similar idea to help raise money and awareness (or come up with your own ideas)!
Thanks everyone for reading and commenting.”
The Red Cross has raised over a million dollars through a text message campaign. What could Flickr and other photo sites contribute?
Pentax has announced the K-01 mirrorless ICL camera designed by Marc Newson: http://t.co/2iFWqWuu (Compatible with Pentax K-mount lenses!) 'all'2012/02/02
