Photography

Flickr Goodies

December 13, 2019April 18, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

Back when it was formally announced that Flickr was being bought by Yahoo!, they mentioned that those of us who’d already paid for Pro accounts would be getting super mega bonuses as a reward. Word finally came out today on just what those bonuses are…

Everyone who already purchased a Pro account at the old price ($41.77) prior to the switchover today, will receive the following upgrades:

If you have a 1 year pro account it will be extended to 2 years (if you bought a 2 year Pro account it will be extended to 4 years)

2 invites for 1 year Pro accounts to be given to anybody you want to give them to (that is, anybody except people who’ve already got a paid Flickr account, and/or yourself).

[…] Also, Pro accounts now get 2 GB a month in uploads, up from a mere 1 GB previously. This of course applies to existing Pro accounts too.

Pretty good deal!

Now I just need to figure out who to give those two freebie Pro accounts to…

“Minas Tirith” by del Maestro, Ben/Shore, Howard from the album Lord of the Rings, The: The Return of the King (2003, 3:37).

It’s illegal to photograph Seattle bus stations?

December 13, 2019April 11, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

Looks like another Seattle-area shutterbug has run into more bogus “no photography” harassment from heavy-handed officials. This time, Alex Williams had his digital film card confiscated after taking pictures at the Pioneer Square bus station.

On Saturday, 4/9/2005, a friend and I were photographing inside Pioneer Square Bus Station when we were stopped by a King County Sheriff’s Deputy and Transit Authority Police Officer and told what we were doing was illegal, and that the area was considered restricted.

I asked the officers explicitly if we were breaking the law. To which the Transit Authority Officer responded, “There’s no law, It’s just sort of an unwritten rule.” The Deputy rebuked my friend and me for not using common sense and repeatedly mentioned the word “terrorism”. The Deputy then confiscated my digital film and informed me that the compact flash cards would be sent to a lab to see what was on them. I offered to format the cards while he watched but he refused.

I did not receive a ticket or citation or receipt for my belongings. On parting, the officer asked if I had any questions, and I politely suggested that they may want to put signs up letting people know that it was illegal to photograph here. To which, he responded, they weren’t “going to waste time posting signs for something that’s common knowledge.”

I found out about this because as Alex researched similar instances after his encounter, he found and linked to my post about Ian Spears problems photographing the Ballard Locks last summer, which then popped up in my referer logs.

One bright side to Alex’ experience, though — after contacting a few people, his story will be on tonight’s 5:30pm KOMO 4 news broadcast.

UPDATE! (4/11/2005)
I emailed KOMO 4 news early this morning and got a prompt photocall from Molly Shen, reporter. The news crew arrived this morning and interviewed me for a story scheduled to air at 5:30pm today.

Molly had already done an impressive amout of work by the time she arrived. She talked with King County Sheriff’s officials and found out that it was, in fact, inappropriate for the Officer to confiscate my equipment. She was told that my equipment would be returned as soon as possible. Thanks, Molly!

I won’t be able to watch the broadcast, but I’ll keep an eye on the KOMO site and see if they post it online this evening.

Update: KOMO has posted their story online.

My most popular Flickr photos

December 13, 2019April 9, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

My most popular photos on Flickr:

Top ten by # of views	Top ten by # of favorites	Top ten by # of comments
5516 views 864 views 821 views 622 views 614 views 601 views 554 views 535 views 467 views 454 views	9 favorites 5 favorites 3 favorites 3 favorites 2 favorites 2 favorites 2 favorites 2 favorites 1 favorite 1 favorite	9 comments 5 comments 4 comments 4 comments 4 comments 3 comments 3 comments 3 comments 3 comments 3 comments

Top ten by # of views

Top ten by # of favorites

Top ten by # of comments

Steve Jobs is Willy Wonka. Or something.

5516 views

864 views

821 views

622 views

614 views

601 views

554 views

535 views

467 views

454 views

Satellite view of the line to view Pope John Paul II laying in state.

9 favorites

5 favorites

3 favorites

2 favorites

1 favorite

9 comments

5 comments

4 comments

3 comments

Photo Flood Finished

December 13, 2019March 24, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

I’ve finished uploading older photographs into my Flickr account for now. I’ve been concentrating on bigger “event” things to put into sets, rather than everyday stuff.

New sets since the previous update: The Jensonia Hotel fire, Kevin and Emily’s wedding, Bumbershoot ’03, Pride Day ’03, Bumbershoot ’02, Bumbershoot ’01, and Pride Day ’01.

And right at the end of the Pride Day ’01 set, just for Kirsten:

Punk Love

December 13, 2019March 23, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

Punk Love I — Innocence:

Photo Flood

December 13, 2019March 23, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

Yesterday I realized that while my Flickr Pro account allows me up to 1Gb of uploads each month, I haven’t been using anywhere near that much — so I decided to fix that. :) I’ve started digging into my iPhoto archives and adding photosets from past events, working my way backwards.

Last night I managed to get ~~three~~ four sets up, all from 2004: Bumbershoot, the Gay Pride Parade, the Fremont Solstice Festival, and the Folklife Festival.

“Baseball Dub (Cheeky All Stars)” by Faithless from the album Irreverence (1997, 2:42).

It’s official: Flickr now part of Yahoo!

December 13, 2019March 20, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

The rumors were true, as it turns out, and the official announcement was made today on the FlickrBlog: Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr.

Holy smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!! Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks!

While I’m sure this is good news for both Yahoo! and Flickr, I have to admit that in some ways, I’m a little less than thrilled that Yahoo! is the winning buyer. While the Flickr post assures us that “nothing will change”, that’s the mantra we get every time there’s a merger of this sort, and I just hope it’s true.

My main concern is simply that I’ve never been overly impressed with Yahoo’s Mac support. The main offenders are Yahoo! Messenger — admittedly, a downloadable program and not a web-based offering — and Yahoo! Chat. The Mac version of Yahoo! Messenger has perpetually lagged years behind the PC version in terms of what features it offers, and I’ve never been able to get Yahoo! Chat to work reliably under Mac OS X.

Flickr, on the other hand, has worked flawlessly for me from day one, I quite happily paid to upgrade to a Pro account some time back, and was just recommending them to my brother last night when he and I were talking about how horrendously slow the family photo gallery hosted on my server can be (I can only afford so much bandwidth, after all).

Still, I’m not about to entirely write them off — as I’ve said, Flickr’s ben great so far, and I’m hoping that the acquisition by Yahoo! will be primarily a case of Yahoo! getting to add an incredible set of services to their system, and not one of Flickr being forced to dumb things down to coddle the lowest common denominator of Yahoo! subscribers.

Besides, I’m very curious about this section of the post aimed at those of us who have already paid for Pro accounts:

I liked Flickr BEFORE you even heard of it!

You shall be recognized for your discerning taste in web sites!! I bet you also liked the Flaming Lips before they appeared on Beverly Hills 90210, and for that we salute you. Pro account holders will get super mega bonuses, to be announced soon.

Super mega bonuses, huh? Gotta like the sound of that!

(via Jonas)

Update: Yahoo!’s Jeremy Zawodny has some encouraging things to say about the merger:

The first time I used Flickr, I knew it was something different and something important. It took me a while to figure out and try to articulate exactly what that was, but I took my first swipe back in September when I called it a Next Generation Web Service.

[…]

Since then a lot has happened and I’ve had the chance to meet the Flickr team a few times. That has only convinced me even more that they have what it takes to really change things. Combining their mix of tagging, communities, syndication, open APIs, and interactive UI with Yahoo’s services and millions of users will lead to even more great stuff.

As Caterina wrote, this isn’t about just throwing millions of users at Flickr or bolting Flickr onto Yahoo! Photos. Think more deeply about it. There are many parts of Yahoo that will be Flickrized in the coming months. And with more resources available, Flickr itself will be able to grow like never before.

Sounds like the concerns I’ve brought up are rather well-known in the Yahoo!/Flickr camps, which is encouraging. Time to just sit back and see where things go from here.

(via Stewart in FlickrCentral)

“Medusa Bitch (cry.on.my.console)” by Prodigy, The from the album Always Outsiders Never Outdone (2004, 2:37).

Cards, anyone?

December 13, 2019March 15, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

I got a nice compliment from mom on one of my recent photos earlier today:

You sure have some beautiful photos. You could open a side business (in your spare time) selling them for cards.

Thanks mom!

This makes me curious, though….

Might this be a viable idea? While I’m still not sure I’d call myself a “photographer” — I generally tend to prefer “some guy with a camera” — I do think that I do occasionally manage to get some pretty decent shots. If I could find a good way to produce cards or prints, anyone think there might be an interest?

And if so…any ideas where to look as far as vendors go? I know CafePress is one option — I’m using them now (if you can call the five or six sales I’ve made so far “using”) for my I’m Just Here to Get Laid, I’m Too Sexy for My Blog and I’m Too Sexy for Your Blog t-shirts, but the profit margin is so miniscule there that I’m not really sure I see using it for anything more than the occasional hobbyist cute idea (like the aforementioned t-shirts). Of course, if anyone is using CafePress more seriously than I am and finds it worthwhile, feel free to let me know. Any options other than CafePress?

I’m not entirely sure how seriously I’m thinking about this just now, but it’s at least worth poking around at a bit to see what I can find out.

“Attached” by Orbital from the album Snivilisation (1994, 12:25).

Two brief bits…

December 13, 2019March 14, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

…mostly because I hate letting a day go by without tossing something up here (even though that happens fairly often).

Prairie and I went to the Seattle Aboretum on Sunday along with her sister Hope and Hope’s puppy, Loodie. Pictures of flowers, trees, cherry blossoms, and various and sundry other people enjoying this last weekend’s gorgeous weather have been added to my Seattle Arboretum photoset, starting here.
I really, really, really want a copy of Native Instruments‘ Traktor DJ Studio 2. I’ve been feeling the DJ itch lately, most recently at a party this weekend, and this is the first time I’ve seen a software package that looks like it can do a good job of replicating (and expanding on) the functionality offered by my old CD DJ deck. The downloadable demo is very impressive, but as it’s a demo, it’s limited in what it can do (no saving of files, 30-minute run time limit, etc.). The only downside is that it’s $220 that I don’t have expendable at the moment — but since my birthday is coming up on May 3rd, perhaps someone out there will feel generous? ;)

“Haloes” by Christian Death from the album Gothik (1993, 3:37).

Marriage Equality rally

December 13, 2019March 6, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

(Click through for the full Flickr photoset.)

Update: Seattle P-I: Seattle marchers back gay marriage

Hundreds of gay-marriage supporters took to the streets yesterday, marching from Capitol Hill to downtown Seattle in a show of solidarity two days before the state Supreme Court hears arguments on whether same-sex couples should be able to marry.

[…]

Last spring, eight couples sued King County after they were turned down in trying to get marriage licenses. Eleven more couples sued the state in Thurston County, also seeking to wed.
The gay and lesbian couples prevailed in both counties. Tomorrow, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether to uphold the rulings in their favor.
The key question is whether the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, passed by the Legislature in 1998 over Gov. Gary Locke’s veto, is unconstitutional. The law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“Master and Servant” by Depeche Mode from the album Master and Servant (1984, 3:48).