Hull flickr meeting and a simple flickr guide
flickr is a superb website for sharing and learning about photography. It really is huge, and it is quite easy to get lost… but do persevere and have a look around. I thought I would outline a few of the things that I have learnt about it over the past couple of years, so you can dive right in.
Pro Account
This is essential in my books – only $25, so less than £13 with the rather good exchange rate at the moment (BTW, if you need a good currency convert, there is only one – easy to use and fast!). The pro account gives you all the things below. £13 for 12 months, I think this is a bargain!
Uploading Photos
There are a number of ways you can upload your photos. You can do it from flickr itself, but this is not the recommended route. If you using Macs (we salute you!), there are a couple of much better options. Firstly, a plugin for iPhotos which you can find here. Or, try flickr uploadr, which is the one I am using the most now having switched from iPhoto to Lightroom.
Tagging
For each photo you upload to your account, you can “tag” it with appropriate words. This allows you to find it again quickly, but more importantly, lets others find it as well. Some users go potty when tagging and one photo can have about 30 tags. I would suggest using a maximum of 10 and a minimum of 2. It can be descriptive, location, colour, person etc etc. The sky is the limit!
Groups
As well as tagging, you can also send pictures you have uploaded to different groups, having first joined those groups. This is the wonderful community aspect of flickr – you can join groups that interest you, and believe me, there are some diverse groups out there, so you will be spoilt for choice! Within groups there are people, dicussions (like a forum) and the photos themselves.
Explore
If you have a spare 5 minutes, just click here, right now! Explore showcases the photos that are most interesting - the ones that people are favouriting, or commenting on. The standard of photography is just superb and you can click away and have a look at all the latest shots.
Contacts
As well as groups, there are also contacts – the people who post the photos. You can add these people to be contacts, or friends, depending on whether you really know them or not. You can then see when they post new photos (very handy) and also send them messages. Again, this really adds to the sense of community and you can get to know people, stay in touch and interact.
Meeting people
Groups, as I mentioned earlier, can be based on pretty much anything. However, one of the best things is that places – towns, cities, regions, often have groups and they sometimes organise meets where people get together, talk photography (and other stuff) and take some photos!
Hull is no exception and I had the pleasure of attending a meet last week, which was excellent and met some great people.
So, tagging, groups, exploring, contacts and meeting up with fellow flickr folks gives you a huge amount of scope! It really is a a great site with many features. Please feel free to point out some more good stuff in the comments and I will amend this to reflect the items I have missed (and there are many of them!).
Technorati Tags: flickr, hull, photography
Spaceship in Hessle
My good friend David Innes kindly rang me with the news that there was a F40 outside his work. After asking him what the registration number was, he confirmed that it was indeed an Enzo, and not the F40.
5 minutes later, I was there and managed to get some snaps. What a car! It looked rather out of place!
Engadget posts the new iMac keyboard?
Blimey – bit of a scoop here if this is true. Engadget have just posted pics of the new iMac keyboard, well, supposed to be anyway. Looks pretty swish.
I am a big fan of the current keyboard – works very well and I have one of the iSkin protectors on it too. These really help and can be easily washed – well worth it if you’re a clean freak like me! 
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MacLiveExpo – free tickets for first 5000 people to register
As it says on the tin, get registering now for free tickets – link here.
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OpenCoffee Hull
Events for anyone who like the web!
OpenCoffee is a group of events, for entrepeneurs, web folk, designers and also investors, which have spread around the world in locations from Leeds to New York. Well now, it’s time for Hull! I am certain there are people in the surrounding area who are just as passionate about using the web as myself, whether for their personal use, or in business, maybe their own business! These events are great for
- meeting people with common interests
- networking
- hearing about what other people are doing
- demoing some latest web technologies
- chance to relax and talk about some fun stuff
So, if you live near Hull, it means that this monthly event could be for you! I have posted the details here on upcoming, so do have a look and indicate whether you are attending or just watching at the moment. if we can get a few regulars coming, I will try and organise some short presentations from people on a variety of topics, or if people fancy talking themselves, then let me know.
Hull is not exactly rivaling Silicon Valley or London in terms of start up Web 2.0 companies, but it would be great to build a community of like-minded people, so please, do come along!
Technorati Tags: opencoffee, opencoffeehull
Best shot for a long while
I am rather chuffed with this shot – shame about the blue cane…. We went for a walk last night and I just snapped this as we walked down the road – 5D, 70-200mm F2.8LIS.
It almost looks like an HDR image, but all I’ve done is added a little more colour and sharpened it. Very pleased !
