Cocoa Crusty

Sorry, Katt Williams…

Since I have been using my Canon Digital Rebel XTi, I have also been increasing my use of the Flickr web site and services. I have upgraded my account to a pro account and have been uploading some of my photos that I have taken recently to my Flickr page. I have also been creating what Flickr calls “Photo Sets“. Photo Sets are basically ways to organize your photos into groups so all of your photos with similar subjects are in one place for viewing. I have been thoroughly impressed with the Flickr service for some time now and now that I am using extended functionality, they’re not letting me down there either.

This evening I took a look at the tools Flickr has made available for uploading, creating photo titles, descriptions, and photo sets. When moving the photos of the ducks and geese I took for Jeremy to Flickr, I used the Flickr Uploadr tool. This tool is available for Windows XP, 2000, ME, and 98 as well as Mac OS X 10.3 or newer. Obviously, I used the version for the Mac.

This tool allowed me to drag and drop images on to the application for uploading individually or in a batch upload. It also allowed me to add titles and descriptions for each photo before uploading. Basically, everything I would normally do from within a web browser can be done easily via this nifty little application.

There are a number of third-party applications available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux as well and can be accessed from the same location, via external links to other sites. The next tool I plan on trying is an iPhoto plugin for Apple’s, you guessed it, iPhoto software. The plugin was created by a Flickr member, fspeirs, and is available for download at http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport/. When I take some more photos in need of uploading I will use this plugin from within iPhoto and post about my experiences with it here on the blog.

I also used the “Order Prints” functionality from my Flickr page today to get the prints ordered for Jeremy. I did it in a matter of minutes and picked the prints up at Target an hour later. I had 6 8×10s printed and with tax it ran me $19.42 with tax. I don’t know how much other photo labs charge for 8×10 prints but to me, $19.42 was worth it considering I didn’t have to burn a CD, take it to the store, go through the rigmarole of choosing the sizes there at a kiosk, waiting, etc. I did everything from my Mac, took a nap, and an hour later went and picked them up and they were ready… and looked extremely good, too!

So, if you’re into photography, need a place to host or share your photos and images from, or anything in between, I highly recommend you give Flickr a try. You can use it for free with limited upload bandwidth and I don’t believe you will be disappointed.

Until next time…

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