How many of you use(d) Flickr for photo sharing?

[mollyc]

I am becoming increasingly disenchanted with Instagram, for a lot of reasons. I loved it when it was first born and was just about sharing images of your day in real time. As it grew, I appreciated seeing images from fellow photographers in one location. But as with most things, as soon as it sold to Facebook, it started going downhill, and it gets worse every day.

I never understood the point of Flickr, other than as a photo host. But in its original days, it was also a photo sharing platform, and I know a lot of connections were made, but I guess other than hosting portfolios or private galleries, I never really understood how it worked. I see people saying with more regularity now, "maybe we should go back to Flickr" and I wonder if that will gain some momentum.

But I don't know how to use it that way. Suggestions? 🙂

(I already host through SmugMug and don't need to pay for Flickr Pro for hosting, but if it gave me a viable alternative to IG, I'd seriously consider it.)

 

[Slartibart]

500px is quite a nice place.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I agree with you 100 percent about IG going downhill. It's still the #1 image-oriented social media platform, but photography has gotten crowded out by vertical videos a la Snapchat, memes, people posting screengrabs of text from newspaper and other websites, etc.

Several months ago I signed up for a photo sharing site called Glass, which has the feel of pre-Facebook IG, but there's still not enough of a critical mass of contributors to make me come back over and over during the day. It's subscription -based, which means it self-selects a group of people who aren't going to trash the place up with memes and so on.

PetaPixel did a piece on Glass about a year ago.

 

[mollyc]

Oh I do have a Glass subscription! It's due for renewal this month. I already pulled it out of my auto renewal subscriptions in iTunes, but I think I will add it back. I do follow some people but I find it difficult to find new people unless I click on categories.

I mostly decided not to renew because I honestly forgot about it, but I'm trying to make an effort to check in and upload more often.

I should go fix my subscription now while I am thinking about it.

One thing I do like about IG is hubs and how they repost photos, making you more aware of people you don't follow. Glass doesn't have anything like that; which is probably the point, but hubs are one of the sole redeeming factors to current IG, IMO.

 

[mollyc]

500px always has too many naked (or half naked) women for my tastes. I know those are popular among a lot of photographers, both taking and viewing....and I don't care that they are out there, I don't want them banned or anything....just not my style.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I am becoming increasingly disenchanted with Instagram, for a lot of reasons. I loved it when it was first born and was just about sharing images of your day in real time. As it grew, I appreciated seeing images from fellow photographers in one location. But as with most things, as soon as it sold to Facebook, it started going downhill, and it gets worse every day.

I never understood the point of Flickr, other than as a photo host. But in its original days, it was also a photo sharing platform, and I know a lot of connections were made, but I guess other than hosting portfolios or private galleries, I never really understood how it worked. I see people saying with more regularity now, "maybe we should go back to Flickr" and I wonder if that will gain some momentum.

But I don't know how to use it that way. Suggestions? 🙂

(I already host through SmugMug and don't need to pay for Flickr Pro for hosting, but if it gave me a viable alternative to IG, I'd seriously consider it.)

I used to but let it slide. After they started charging, the free version stopped working as it was supposed to.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I left 500PX years ago. For a while it was fun, but then they started making changes related to their ability to license and monetize images, plus there was that hack of all user accounts in 2018 and lots of other issues I consider sketchy. They're certainly not much worse than Facebook, IG and other sites, of course. But at a certain point I just wasn't getting out of my presence there any more. Like FB now.

 

[Steven-iphone]

Glass Photo looks interesting. I emailed support to ask about their PC web platform. I received a response from Tom Watson stating that they will be offering subscription outside of Apple's ecosystem soon.

Glass Anywhere — Coming this August — Glass

The wait is almost over.

glass.photo

 

[MajorFubar]

I never left Flickr, though I rarely post or visit. I run a couple of Olympus OM (film) groups on there, but shamefully I haven't visited for well over a year. It was only this post that made me remember they exist.
Didn't join Instagram and never will. Nor Twitter. Nor TicTok. I really don't see the fascination with all these different SM platforms which basically all do the same thing, especially when they end up getting bought-out by a competitor. Though if I was a professional wanting to spread my name, I'd be singing a different tune.

 

[stillcrazyman]

I haven’t used Flickr in several years, but I did recently look at going back to it for hosting my photos. The communities are still around although I noticed they weren’t too active. That was the core of Flickr. Communities.

Others have written of similar experiences. Flickr just seems to be lingering on. Even after being bought by SmugMug.

 

[kenoh]

I still use it but I am not trying to build a brand or visibility.

There is the aspect of the naked shots appearing, mainly in the groups. However it is not as prolific as in some of the other platforms.

The free accounts have been cut back recently in terms of what they allow. For example the explicit images can only be posted by paid accounts now which is good as it will stop some of the image hoarders on there.

I am set in my ways when it comes to my usage of it and I have a publishing manager setup in LR to do the uploads for me so it is convenient.

Short answer is I do use it, I am getting more and more frustrated with Instagram and the "no you cannot do that" stuff like cannot post more than 6 posts without being stopped for a few days - that kind of stuff.

 

[Ray2]

I think maybe focus on “I appreciated seeing images from fellow photographers in one location”. Are you sharing with those you know or are you a “fellow photographer”? The former don’t need anything but your shared album(s). The latter needs a 500px/Flickr type site.

I'm a fellow photographer Flickr user. But I never share via Flickr. For that, either Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Spark or Apple shared albums. If your a CC subscriber, there are some really good free tools available from Adobe that don’t get much recognition.

 

[mollyc]

I think maybe focus on “I appreciated seeing images from fellow photographers in one location”. Are you sharing with those you know or are you a “fellow photographer”? The former don’t need anything but your shared album(s). The latter needs a 500px/Flickr type site.

I'm a fellow photographer Flickr user. But I never share via Flickr. For that, either Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Spark or Apple shared albums. If your a CC subscriber, there are some really good free tools available from Adobe that don’t get much recognition.

I like the camaraderie and friendships I've made through IG. I don't get that having just a website or gallery on a random website. Flickr had (has) groups, that I think are a little similar to what I get from IG (or used to get).

 

[orionquest]

I think you'll find Flickr to be very antiquated. Both in content and usage. They have not updated the platform in years, it's like it's been stuck in the early 2000's. Basically stuff like search and tags don't work well. Ever since they introduced subs and crippled free accounts a lot of users fled to IG or other places. So you will find a lot of stale content or limited activity. I would say Flickr is on life support. As much as I get what you are saying about IG and the platform being smothered with large volumes of different kinds of users, they have the content, and for the most part it works well.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I tried Flickr for a time, but when they changed TOS and reduced the free account allowances, I closed my account. I tried IG for a time when it was more about photos, but I ditched that too.

I just do online forums, though even that falls victim to buyouts and changes. MU-43.com was bought by VScope, and they have promptly changed TOS, and support from an actual admin is atrocious. I moved to Cameraderie, which has some good folks and received a good number of VS refugees from MU43 and Fuji-X. I can’t keep up with it on my busier days! It’s privately owned, and Kevin the owner plans to keep it that way and doesn’t see it as a chore.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I still use it but I am not trying to build a brand or visibility.

There is the aspect of the naked shots appearing, mainly in the groups. However it is not as prolific as in some of the other platforms.

The free accounts have been cut back recently in terms of what they allow. For example the explicit images can only be posted by paid accounts now which is good as it will stop some of the image hoarders on there.

I am set in my ways when it comes to my usage of it and I have a publishing manager setup in LR to do the uploads for me so it is convenient.

Short answer is I do use it, I am getting more and more frustrated with Instagram and the "no you cannot do that" stuff like cannot post more than 6 posts without being stopped for a few days - that kind of stuff.

I wish you’d stop posting the naked selfies on Flickr. How can one man have so much body hair? 🤮

 

[mollyc]

fun discussion (leaving aside ken's personal issues)....clearly i'm not missing anything by not joining flickr again right now.....maybe sometime in the future. 🙂

 

[lcubed]

I wish you’d stop posting the naked selfies on Flickr. How can one man have so much body hair? 🤮

you're kidding, right?

kenoH, nice pics of the alhambra!

 

[mollyc]

Funny that this article was posted today...all the exact reasons i currently hate ig.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/instagram-ceo-defends-shift-to-video-content-says-photo-support-will-continue.2352631/

 

[Apple fanboy]

you're kidding, right?

kenoH, nice pics of the alhambra!

Always!

 

[Clix Pix]

Funny that this article was posted today...all the exact reasons i currently hate ig.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/instagram-ceo-defends-shift-to-video-content-says-photo-support-will-continue.2352631/

Haven't read the article yet, but the reference to video catches my eye. I have an Instagram account but don't put my own images up on there, just mainly am there because of keeping up with a few friends' accounts and such..... Lately I've noticed this trend towards sharing videos (not just those annoying little "stories" which disappear after 24 hours and are easy to miss) but something else....I think they're called "reels"?

I remember Instagram's start, and it was all about photos and the fun one could have with filters and such with one's iPhone and sharing the results.....then it shifted to a bit more serious approach and that was fine, too, with photographers sharing their work that they'd shot with "real" cameras, and some of them eventually shifting to using the site as a sort of marketing tool, or as Molly suggests, a way of connecting with other [stills] photographers, but now, this moving towards video seems as though Instagram is trying to attract the Tik-Tok crowd. Whatever.....

As for Flickr, I tried it out years ago as a free thingy but didn't care for it and never got involved in the "community" aspect of it nor did I pay to use it. I have used pBase, Smugmug and Zenfolio for galleries of my images and I'm happy with sticking with Zenfolio at the present time. As far as the community aspect, I'm fine with sharing my images on forums such as MR, NikonCafe, Cameraderie, etc. plus a couple more.....

 

[Steven-iphone]

If IG is shifting to video reels, perhaps they can create a dedicated platform to photos - IGPhotogram

 

[USAntigoon]

I have a Flickr Pro account and love it..
Recently, I have been digitizing 1000 plus slides and now they are all in different albums for my family and friends to view and enjoy..
Next to these albums I also have several albums covering different topics..The upload, editing, grouping, viewing privacy, etc... are very easy to manage and their "Organizr" feature is a very handy tool....

 

[MacNut]

500px always has too many naked (or half naked) women for my tastes. I know those are popular among a lot of photographers, both taking and viewing....and I don't care that they are out there, I don't want them banned or anything....just not my style.

I thought that is what Instagram turned into.

 

[mollyc]

I thought that is what Instagram turned into.

I follow women photographers who mostly shoot nature, family, maternity, and weddings. And I don't follow boudoir accounts.

So no.