Establishing A Flickr Website

Flickr has about 80 million users. Many non-users see Flickr as a site filled with visual junk. There is some truth to this, but I also know many long time Flickr users are serious about their photography and selective about what they post. Flickr is a sophisticated enough system that it quite easy to limit viewing to exclusively what one is interested in with a minimum of effort.

Creating a basic Flickr account is free. With a free account it is important to keep files small and selective. If more space or larger files are desired consider a paid account which is $25 a year.

1 To create a basic Flickr account go to the website

http://www.flickr.com

on a cell phone, mobile device or computer.

2 Click on the box "Sign up now". The "Sign in to Yahoo" window opens automatically.
3 With a previously created Yahoo email account, enter the complete email address in the "Yahoo! ID" box and the Yahoo password in the "Password" box. To create a new Yahoo email account click on "Create New Account" at the bottom of the window and fill out the form that appears in the next window. It is not necessary to create a Yahoo email account to have access to Flickr. Also in this window is the option to sign in using an existing Facebook or Google account.
4 Once an account has been created, it becomes possible to upload photographs. Each photograph that is uploaded can be uploaded as either a private or public photograph. These permissions can be changed as often as desired once the photograph is uploaded. Photographs can be uploaded by email or from the upload link on the website. For a full range of upload options see

http://www.flickr.com/tools/

5 Flickr will automatically build you a very basic website as you upload photographs. The index page/home page appears on the first page of the site in the bar above the page. An example of this would be

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/

Sizing photographs is very important with a free account. A size that works well is 5"x7"x72dpi. Photographs are easily sized in most image editing programs.

© 2011 Paul Light all rights reserved

Beyond Digital Point-And-Shoot

Point-And-Shoot cameras are wonderful. They are fast, accurate and capable of delivering 13"x19" prints. But then there is the problem what do you do if you want to make long time exposures, sweep panoramas or just simply be able to have full control of motion as well as what's in focus and what's out of focus. Micro Four Thirds cameras offer a partial answer and so do full sensor Single Lens Reflex cameras but neither offer a full solution. The Olympus PE series Panasonic GF series and Sony NEX series cameras are Micro Four Thirds cameras. Each line of cameras offer different features. The Panasonic camera probably offers the most for the money with it's ability to do 60 second exposures, having the most lenses available and being a smaller body. But the Sony camera with it's ability to only do 30 second exposures, having less lenses available and larger body may look like a lesser camera. I like this camera the best of the 3 for it's one unique feature - sweep panorama.

The fact that these cameras don't have a mirror making it impossible to have thru the lens viewing - a standard in SLRs and having no B exposure option making it difficult to use for night photography are both serious deficits making it difficult to use these as primary cameras with similar priced SLRs getting lighter and smaller with each new model. The third generation of these cameras are a good choice for anyone who's primary need is a small, light camera.

© 2011 Paul Light all rights reserved