Calpurnius

Missing in Action: Lost Photographers on Flickr

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:09:15 -0600

In order to avoid to real writing or photography today, I am playing with my flickr account, my contact list in particular. I like to weed out inactive accounts from my contact list on occasion. As I’m looking at it today, I’m wondering what happens to photographers who have been prolific posters only to have suddenly disappeared. Let’s look at just a few…

StudioBaker posted thousands of lovely urban details and geometric textures, but has now been missing for 9 months.

Neuski was what I think of as a personal photographer, a sort of photo-diarist. He’s been missing for 7 months.

ClayEnos has been gone 6 months. I discovered Clay via a web video on a photography site. The video showed Clay’s street portrait project. I was fascinated by the simple things he did with a roll of paper and the courage to ask folks if he could take their pictures. As I’m looking at his flickr profile now, I followed him back to his website and his Twitter feed. It looks like he has gone Google+, like a lot photogs have, and which I am considering myself.

But the one I miss most is KarenMarleneLarsen. Karen’s been gone for nearly a year and half now. I became acquainted with her through her Boston winter cemetery pictures. Oh the old cemetery shots in snow she used to post! I also liked her street shots from the Boston area and her trips to New York. Then, one day, she stopped posting. I noticed it after awhile. I looked at her profile to see if she’d left any message behind. There was a note about her curtailing her flickr activities, but not stopping completely. I wrote one of our mutual contacts to see what had happened to her. She was doing okay; she’d just moved away from doing flickr.

How to Post Photos to Google+

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:43:11 -0600

How to post your photography on Google+.

First, decide how you want to share your photo on Google+. A post is a post and an album is an album. Posts are immediate and interactive. Albums are for storing.

A post shares photos on Google+ with text.

Share a post from the Stream screen. Clicking on the Google+ icon or the Home icon will take you to your Stream, where you’ll see this:

Creating the photo post from the Stream lets you add text to your photo.

Why add text to a photo post? Adding text to a photo post allows you to include hashtags which can reference the photo to other groups, themes, or subjects. These hashtags are like the hashtag system in Twitter in that they’re included in the body of the post. Hashtags broaden your post’s exposure from your stream and your circles into the entire Google+ zeitgeist.

Hashtags are only available in posts. I’ve tried including them in a description in an album post or a photo-only post, but the system doesn’t seem to accept them. If someone has discovered a work around, please let me know.

Adding text also lets you tell the photo’s story. Your photo is as much how you took it and what you experienced taking it as it is your photo itself. People want to know your story.

An album is a folder or portfolio for themes or groups of photos.

If you want to share photos of a particular subject or a particular event, then an album is what you want.

Create or add to a Google+ album wherever you see this icon:

Albums emphasize images, but restrict interaction or description.

When you’re creating or adding to albums, you’ll see that the Google+ system has options for a description and for tagging people in photos. That’s it. As far as I have experimented, you cannot add hashtags or create links or do any of the other kind of writing you can do in posts. For me this is quite limiting.

While I see albums in streams on Google+ I really don’t notice them until I’m looking at someone’s profile. Albums act as a portfolio for your photos. As I’m deciding to add a photographer to my circles, I often look at their albums to see what we share as photographers or what I find unique in their work.

Imprisoned Robot (Detail) on Flickr.I have to tell you that I...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:16:47 -0600

Imprisoned Robot (Detail) on Flickr.

I have to tell you that I was just shooting the window. I have a thing for industrial windows and doors, okay.

As I was working this window in post, I noticed that someone was watching me.

A robot.

As I look at its one eye I sometimes see its longing for escape. I sometimes see its fear. And occasionally I see its menace.

1/21/2012

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:36:30 -0600

This mild winter needs to be milder on the days I want to shoot, or I need to adapt a sterner demeanor and get my butt out there shooting. I do think it’s more a matter of the latter, not the former.

Liquid Sky on Flickr.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:18:06 -0600

Liquid Sky on Flickr.

Twilight Street on Flickr.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:06:05 -0600

Twilight Street on Flickr.

Street on Flickr.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:01:06 -0600

Street on Flickr.

414 on Flickr.

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:00:06 -0600

414 on Flickr.

Six Soulless Windows on Flickr.

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:00:06 -0600

Six Soulless Windows on Flickr.

Watching on Flickr.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:06:05 -0600

Watching on Flickr.

Vined on Flickr.

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:11:06 -0600

Vined on Flickr.

Eighteen Panes and Tendrils on Flickr.

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:15:05 -0600

Eighteen Panes and Tendrils on Flickr.

Fog Walk on Flickr.

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:15:06 -0600

Fog Walk on Flickr.

Stairs II on Flickr.

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:16:05 -0600

Stairs II on Flickr.

Three Windows and a Pussy on Flickr.You may need to look closely...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:11:06 -0600

Three Windows and a Pussy on Flickr.

You may need to look closely for the pussy, but she’s there.

(Below the leftmost window’s right lower corner.)

Cup on Flickr.

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:11:06 -0600

Cup on Flickr.

Chaos V on Flickr.

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:21:06 -0600

Chaos V on Flickr.

Chaos IV on Flickr.

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:00:06 -0600

Chaos IV on Flickr.

Chaos II on Flickr.

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:00:06 -0600

Chaos II on Flickr.

Happy Birthday

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:06:26 -0600

Happy Birthday, Lisa. Off to find you something blue.