Since 2014 I’ve been making “movies” with my flickr photos for the year. I make them with a script which downloads the years photos puts them together into a movie and, use to, add music. The Music bit is broken (https) so I downloaded some manually.

This year pretty much stopped in October, then I got covid in November and have not been out much since.

I also average the photos ( below) and montage them for the featured image. This year I made a version of the script to download wee square images for the montage (average & montage scripts here).

I enjoy both the process and watching my photos flickr by. I like the fact that I can easily tweek bit of the script or run the video creation again quickly to try out different speeds, music etc.

I just paid my annual Flickr pro fee. Very happy to do it. I like taking pictures although I don’t think of myself as a photographer. I am not really interested in the technical aspects. I use photos in the same way as blogging. To think about something, or note it, remember it, share it, or collect it for later. A diary or commonplace if you like.

I was also really pleased to see Flickr’s blog around it’s continuing support for Creative Commons and the announcement of the Flickr Foundation.

We believe the establishment of a non-profit Flickr Foundation will combine with Flickr to properly preserve and care for the Flickr Commons archive, support Commons members to collaborate in a true 21st-century Commons, and plan for the very long-term health and longevity of the entire Flickr collection. We’re also in the early stages of imagining other educational and curatorial initiatives to highlight and share the power of photography for decades to come.

The other thing I love about Flickr is it’s API. I am no more a programmer than I am a photographer. But I have had a lot of fun with the Flickr api.

One of the reasons I’ve managed to play with this API is its consistency. Other APIs I’ve used with have gone away, changed or added authentication too difficult for me to grasp. Given that I use them occasionally I am often flummoxed by changes. I only notice then when something that worked stops working.

What I love about Flickr is then threefold: a solid and consistent service that I pay for, the api(solid & constant too) and Creative Commons I get for free.

Flickr’s future has been in doubt a few times since I started in 2004, Interface changes caused some consternation. Flickr has managed to continue when other services have gone. I hope I’ll be paying for it for a good few more years.

 

Replied to

The sky is grey here today so I took a trip through my flickr. Modified a script to pull down my photos flickr thinks is blue.

There is nothing I could see in the flickr api to filter colours as there is in the search but I noticed the url for the search contains text=&color_codes=7 so I added that in. Sees to have worked.

Not because my photos are in anyway professional, but because of the wonderful things Flickr does. Flickr allows me to store and organise my photos. I can look at pictures by friends, acquaintances and all sorts of groups.

Most importantly Flickr curates and organises creative commons licensed and public domain photos. These are searchable and Flickr give access to them via an API that is useful and usable by non-professionals. I’ve had an amazing amount of fun and use (professionally as a teacher). To me Flickr is an important part of the web, I have a pro account to support that.

If you use Flickr and don’t have a pro account you can get 25% off with the code 25in2019 or use this link.

Replied to Random Access Poetry: The Day Before Writing by dogtrax (dogtrax.edublogs.org)
This month, in connection with April’s random designation as Poetry Month, I want to use images and photography and art as inspiration, and after a call out to some friends on Twitter for some help, as I wondered how I might access a random Creative Commons image from Flickr when I need one, I have settled on a couple of paths forward.

Hi Kevin,

I love the random so love this idea.You mentions a couple of my toys/tools along side some others.

The Random Flickr blendr was originally thought of as a sort of contemplation toy, so I avoided making it easy to grab images. I guess I could make that easier now there seems to be a purpose.  I think FlickrCC Stampr used to have a url parameter to kick off a search I’ll look at adding that back in at times.

Side note, I remember Ben Rimes Poetry for People blog. Now gone but discussed here: Come Write Poetry With Me This April! – The Tech Savvy Educator

Update, 1-April-19 : I’ve made a couple of changes that might be useful:

http://johnjohnston.info/fcc/?s=poem adding ?s=searchword will preload the flickr search

On Random Flickr Blendr I’ve added a pause button and move the links for better screenshotting. I changed the links to flickr shortlinks so they can be read from an image (Not very accessible!)

Big Flickr Announcement: All CC-licensed images will be protected – Creative Commons

I’m happy to share Flickr’s announcement today that all CC-licensed and public domain images on the platform will be protected and exempted from upload limits. This includes images uploaded in the past, as well as those yet to be shared. In effect, this means that CC-licensed images and public domain works will always be free on Flickr for any users to upload and share.

Via @clhendricksbc

This is really great news. From a selfish point of view it means my Flickr Stampr will still make it easy for my class to attribute images in their school work.

From a wider perspective the Creative Commons post above expands on both the benefits and costs of Flickr taking this step. As explained the cost for this huge archive of photos will have to be covered by the pro accounts and Flickr’s income. Personally I am delighted to pay for this. I am not a pro photographer but I get a lot of goodness from Flickr. The least of these is probably the storage of my photos. Access to a goldmine of Creative Commons images and an API that is not to complicated for an amateur to play with are the major benefits for me.

This model of providing a free service is hopefully a much better than the free services that lead to shut down that we see so often.

Featured image a screenshot of Random Flickr Blendr using:
Puy Mary, Cantal, France | Pom’ | Flickr (CC_BY license) and
Vergului | youtu.be/rTnXnib2iEA George Enescu – Romanian Poe… | Flickr (attribution license)