It still maintained that genuine community feel, tucked away in a quiet little corner of the Internet.

But so much of it lacks sincerity and authenticity.Įven though I haven’t posted anything to Flickr in years, I’d still occasionally visit the platform to look at images created with certain cameras, lenses, and photographers. Instagram has the potential to be a user-friendly community where people can discuss photography, travel, and inspiration. I’m sick of the “algorithm rules” to get my photos seen. I recently cleaned out half of my followers who were all comprised of such accounts. It’s important to have a presence on there, but it’s saturated with narcissists, bots, and fake accounts. It’s no secret that I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. Some photographers are still hanging on, but it lacks the character we seek in a photography community. Now Facebook doesn’t want to show those posts at all in order to promote a more “organic, friend-centric experience” on Facebook. Then business pages had to pay for those “bought” followers to see their posts. First, business pages had to pay to advertise to new followers. But it’s officially dead, and there’s nothing else to say on the subject.įacebook…ugh.

The images looked great and there were some fun groups. Google Plus was a fun forum for photographers. Those of us who abandoned Flickr for Facebook, Instagram, and Google Plus – at least to build a community – might be second-guessing ourselves now. Flickr was it for many users, while other photographers thrived on the platform. There was just too much else to keep up with and something had to give. I, like many others, had a Flickr account that just slowly went by the wayside. Now that it’s owned by an actual photography company run by real photographers, is it time for us to embrace Flickr again? SmugMug recently acquired Flickr after some mismanagement by both Yahoo! and Verizon.

Flickr for photographers