Ten years of Flickr today

The day after I set up a Blogger account, I set up a Flickr account too. That was ten years ago today.

At the very beginning, the blog posts got the most attention, but in 2012 the Flickr viewings took off. I suppose that a critical number had been posted by then, enough to bring my collection of pictures to the notice of viewers in general. Here are the key Flickr stats:

Photos uploaded in ten years: 25,904
Viewings in ten years: 2,545,419

Naturally, I'm rather proud of getting so many viewings, especially as nearly all my shots are of my day-to-day doings, enlivened now and then with my holiday snaps. I do very few 'arty' photos. There's an awful lot of church and cathedral interiors and other limited-appeal subjects. There's also quite a lot of shots of myself in various locations, or just myself; and rightly or wrongly pictures of me are easily the most popular kind of picture. This is weird, and possibly disturbing, but if that's what a lot of people want to see, then I will continue to oblige.

But as with the blog, I'm not deliberately aiming for high viewing totals, and indeed, compared to some, my viewing total is minute.

I have always had a 'Pro' account with Flickr, wanting (a) the extra cloud space, and (b) the statistics that are a Pro account exclusive. Flickr is my showcase for the kind of shot that can safely be shown to the general public. I never upload shots of friends and family that might compromise their personal security in any way, and I usually don't name them in the captions. The exceptions are friends who themselves have a Flickr account, and where first-name identification won't matter.

I've rarely had any objections made to any shot uploaded, but last year one lady with an award for past film and TV work, whom I ran into at a North Devon art centre, asked me to take down a particular picture that didn't flatter her. I complied. There's no point in standing on principles here, even though copyright in the shot was mine, she hadn't minded my taking it at the time, and I was entitled to refuse. But if she really didn't like the picture, then I didn't want to have it on display. Mind you, getting rid of it was a big task. Google had got hold of it, and I had to go through a complicated procedure to get Google to expunge it from their own collection of shots of this lady. So I'm now very careful not to publish pictures of anybody if that might lead to a later demand that they be removed. Life's too short for the trouble of getting it done.

Lately Flickr has gained a new owner, SmugMug, and this has inevitably led to certain changes. I can't blame SmugMug wanting to make a profit from their acquisiton. As an existing (and long-time) Pro member, I have enjoyed some privileges, and these will continue. But my annual subscription will be going up this year, to nearly £40. That's still less than £4 a month, and for me - to have such a showcase - it's well worth it.

But a lot of people who haven't got a Pro subscription are now going to find their total possible uploads capped at 1,000 shots. Well, I say let those shots be the very best, and if uploading new shots can only be achieved by replacing older ones, then so be it. There's a lot to be said for having a small but very good collection, one that includes only the very best of a person's photography. And that's what SmugMug want to have on Flickr - just very good photos, and no dross. That can only enhance Flickr as a source of well-composed, technically excellent, pictures of a huge variety of subjects.

SmugMug have also said that maintaining free cloud storage for zillions of mediocre pictures makes no commercial sense. I'd heartily agree. Did I mention dross just now? There's an awful lot of it lurking in many non-Pro Flickr accounts. Not all accounts, but a lot of them. And it would be good for the quality of the platform if all mediocrity were weeded out. But anybody who makes the choice, and pays for a Pro account, can upload as much stuff as they wish, whatever its quality or intrinsic interest.

Nevertheless, there must be quite a number of impecunious non-Pro members who are, at this very moment, frantically trying to find another free platform, or having to make very difficult choices about which 1,000 favourite shots to leave on display. Very awkward for them.