The hardest part of making a positive change…
…is having to make sacrifices. In my last post, I outlined my new plan for Corkscrew’d moving forward through 2019. Because of changes in the services I use to share and backup my photos, I’m now planning to consolidate everything I do on this website and utilize a few select social media services. Unfortunately, this also meant cutting services I’ve used for years; Flickr being one of them.
As of this writing my Flickr account has around 10,000 photos dating back to 2016, when I first started borrowing a camera from work to pursue photography as a hobby. In a way, my Flickr albums work like a sort of time capsule where I could instantly travel back to when the photo was taken, and what my life was like then. It’s frankly amazing how far I’ve come in just two years! Alas, things change and I simply need more from my social media.
Why Flickr?
Back in 2016 when I started my Flickr account, I needed a cheap and easy storage solution for backing up photos. This was a hard lesson to learn, as the catalyst for me looking for this solution was the death of a massive three terabyte hard drive filled with a few hundred photos, including ones I took at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion V in 2015. After getting another hard drive and rebuilding my lost files from random portable storage drives, I began looking for an online solution that doubled as a way to showcase my photos.
At the time, Flickr was owned by Yahoo, and by creating a Yahoo account you would be able to get one terabyte(!) of free storage. Combined with Flickr’s powerful photo organization tools and sharing options, it was a no-brainer. I began uploading photos after my latest excursion to Laguna Seca for the 2016 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
9,199 photos later, and my Flickr account had become an impressive repository of images of automotive culture in the Bay Area. Not only that; you can see my evolution from a hobbyist photographer borrowing a camera on the weekends, to a professional with an obsession for capturing panning shots. Additionally, Flickr made it very easy to share photos from my Flickr account to other social media sites like Instagram. Flickr essentially became the storage solution for my needs, without breaking the bank.
Why leave now?
As I said in my last post, Flickr was acquired Smugmug and is now limiting its free accounts to 1000 photos. In order to keep my current collection of photos, I would need to cough up an extra $50 a year for the Pro account and get unlimited storage. Honestly, it seems like a good deal for what Flickr Pro can offer, but I think cutting that cost and refocusing on my blog is a better use for the cash. This is especially true since that money could go toward upgrading my WordPress account to a Business plan and creating my own “in-house” print store, which was also something I was toying with in my last post. Also, My Instagram is far more effective at bringing new readers to my blog, as I’ve set it up to cross post to Facebook, and I have plans to integrate it with more social media accounts. And since Instagram also works as image storage, Flickr is more or less redundant for me.
Should I leave Flickr too?
Here’s the thing: if I were using only Flickr, I think that $50 a year is actually a very good deal for what’s offered. With the Pro account, you get Unlimited Storage, Analytics, Ad-free browsing, and discounts for other services like Smugmug. You could even advertise your business on Flickr and link directly to a shopping cart for your own online store. Lastly, Flickr has the advantage of having an established community of longtime users, so your uploaded work could potentially get some exposure.
In the end, I think the decision to leave Flickr or to keep using it is purely based on what your budget is and what you’ll primarily use it for. Since I’m only using it for image storage and basic sharing, I find it hard to justify the new costs. However, if you’re looking for a way to get started into photography and join an already established community, $4 a month isn’t that bad.
So, farewell Flickr. It’s been enlightening.
UPDATE: My Flickr has officially closed down on Jan. 4th 2019. If you want to see my photos, check out my Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/corkscrewd, or just check out my Portfolio!
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