Day 9 - As a website, Flickr may have seen better days. The once premier photosharing site became much less relevant during Yahoo's 13-year reign. I have been hanging on long enough to remember the days before its purchase when the datacenter was based in Vancouver, Canada. Hopefully, the new owners, SmugMug, will breathe some life into the once-dominate photographic community.
If I am any indication, they may just have a good chance for a go of it. I reluctantly renewed my expired subscription from the free option, after being threatened by the new owners. However, I am willing to pay for yearly use, now that I see there's a renewed commitment to modernize and reinvigorate the site.
Being on a winter vacation is helping to build my zest for photography. During our retirement winters in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Luxor, Egypt; and Penang, Malaysia my photographs have become cherished and prized souvenirs of our memories. Our present time in Bali and upcoming Kuala Lumpur will prompt me to reexamine the social aspects of Flickr. I've always used it for serving images to my blogger.com account.
However, I had neglected following other photographers for almost ten years. Many users flocked to Instragram and other apps. I tried but nothing stuck. Today, I deleted hundreds of apparently dead Flickr accounts I used to follow. I took a look around and added a hundred or so active users and I'm absolutely amazed by the photographs I see.
It is fun to see one's pictures viewed frequently by people from all around the world. For years I've been happy enough just keeping my blog active. Suddenly, my new devotion to Flickr is a catalyst for me to shoot more often. I want to allow others see some of the things I see.
So this post contains a bit of my Bali, Indonesia today.