I heart Flickr! #blog12daysxmas Day 8

Now that it is 2016, I can start to use #blog12daysxmas as an opportunity to check out how I have performed over the year in the tasks that I set myself at the beginning of 2015.  That should have been easy.  But last week when I went back to my blogs to review my last #blog12daysxmas, I realized that not only did I not finish the task, but I also didn't set myself any tasks for the coming year.  Well, I didn't blog about them at any rate. I certainly had tasks that I involved myself in.

And my involvement with Flickr was certainly one of those.  I first learned about Flickr and joined up many years ago in 2007 when I did 23 Things. I am an inveterate snapper, rather than a careful photographer, and all those snaps land on Dropbox and Flickr, get edited and stay there if I think they are any good.  Since I have had an iphone, my camera has gathered dust and I take my photos on the phone. Often I take them through the Instagram app and share them onto Flickr and Tumblr and Twitter and increasingly on Facebook too so have other communities there, of course. All my devices are linked up to Dropbox and Flickr and Instagram and Tumblr and Facebook and Twitter for ease of sharing.

Although during #blog12daysxmas last year I didn't set myself any challenges, I actually did set myself some as the year commenced on Flickr. So did I meet these challenges? I did!  And I am very happy with myself for meeting them. I completed my 365 photos for PAD2015, iPhone 365 and Project365: my 365th photo for the year heads this post. I also completed Challenge Friday for all weeks of 2015 for myself and, with the assistance of some other members, for the Collingwood Historical Society. In 2015, I administered the 2015PAD group, the Victorian Hotels group and the Victorian Public Library Buildings groups and I contributed to quite a few other groups.  Notable among these was the Trove group which provides a fabulous way for Australians to get their photos onto Trove.

During 2014 I also set up another group jointly with the Collingwood Historical Society, the Abbotsford, Clifton Hill and Collingwood group for photos taken in the area covered by the former municipality of Collingwood and I continued to administer that in 2015.  If you take any photos in that area, please add them to the group. It is so important that we document today which is tomorrow's history. We are building up a good collection of photos in the group, where it is lovely to skim through and view them.  It is also a good place to get discussion going about the places and their history.

So what's my Flickr challenge for 2016? It's much of the same really.  I continue with Challenge Friday (cf16) for both me and the Collingwood Historical Society. This year as part of an experiment we are going to be doing Challenge Friday on Facebook as well as Flickr. By that, I mean that it will be operating on both: some people will be doing just Flickr, some people just Facebook, and others will do both.  It remains to be seen how it goes. It is a way of tapping into people who don't want to join Flickr, as well as people who don't want to be on Facebook.

I am doing my Photo A Day (PAD) for 2016, for 2016PAD, iPhone 365 and Project365.  I continue to administer that group along with my UK colleague, Julia Chandler, as well as administering my hotels, Victorian public library buildings and the "Collingwood" group.  And I will try to organize another Melbourne Flickrup soon, and hopefully we'll have one in England when I visit towards the middle of the year.

Everyone is welcome to join any of these groups! In particular today is the day the 2016 Photo A Day Challenge starts. You can join up here if you want to.

#blog12daysxmas Day 11 My Flickr obsession

Well, I am not really sure whether it would technically be defined as an obsession but Flickr is something I certainly peruse and interact with at least once a day. I first learned about Flickr and joined up many years ago when I did 23 Things.  So I guess I have Helene Blowers to blame for my obsession but really I want to offer thanks again as 23 Things was a life-changing thing for me. And what's a little obsession or two or three or 23?

I am an inveterate snapper, rather than a careful photographer, and all those snaps land on Flickr, get edited and stay there if I think they are any good.  Or, I will admit, sometimes if they are not particularly good but I really want the photo as a memory.  Since I have had an iphone 5, my camera has been gathering dust and I mostly take my photos on the phone. Often I take them through the Instagram app and share them onto Flickr and I have another community there, of course.

But the Flickr community is an important one to me.  We had an inaugural Flickrup dinner at the Fox in Melbourne last year when we gathered together local participants in the 2014PAD and cf14 groups.  It was great fun.  And when I was in England and Wales last year I had two smaller Flickrups in London and Cardiff with people I have met through these same groups.  It is always so good to meet these online friends IRL and talk and talk.

During #blog12daysxmas last year, Flickr certainly featured in the challenges I set myself for 2014. So did I meet these challenges? I did!  I completed my 365 photos for PAD2014 and Project365, and I completed the Challenge Friday for all weeks of 2014 for myself and with the assistance of some other members for the Collingwood Historical Society. In 2014, I administered the 2014PAD group, the Victorian Hotels group and the Victorian Public Library Buildings groups and I contributed to quite a few other groups.  Notable among these was the Trove group which provides a fabulous way for Australians to get their photos onto Trove. During 2014 I also set up another group jointly with the Collingwood Historical Society, the Abbotsford, Clifton Hill and Collingwood group for photos taken in the area covered by the former municipality of Collingwood.  If you take any photos there, please add them to the group. It is so important that we document today which is tomorrow's history.  And there is lots to document in Collingwood today.

So what's my Flickr challenge for 2015? It's much of the same really.  I continue with Challenge Friday (cf15) for both me and the Collingwood Historical Society. I am doing my PAD for 2015, both for 2015PAD and Project365.  Thanks to my UK co-admin Julia, we managed to get the 2015PAD group up while I was suffering from lack of Telstra connectivity. I continue to administer my hotels, Victorian public library buildings and the "Collingwood" group.  And I will organize another Melbourne Flickrup soon!

Everyone is welcome to join any of these groups!  So why don't you come on over to Flickr and check them out?

#blog12daysxmas Post 2 Flickrup?

Boxing Day afternoon tea H365/360 #happy365

On the second day of Christmas my Flickr groups featured strongly again. Of course, I took photos and did everything I did with photos on the first day of Christmas.  But on the second day of Christmas there was more. @emerald_j (emeraldjoy on Flickr) cooked up the idea that we have a face to face gathering for Melbourne peeps to celebrate the completion of the Flickr 2013 PAD challenge.  What a great idea!

The 2013 PAD was a follow on from groups in previous years which my friend @sarahgb in Wales organized and it is true to say that originally there were only one and then two of us from the Antipodes in the first few groups. So how wonderful is it to be able in 2013 to have a face to face gathering of Melbourne members of 2013PAD! We won't be a big group but once upon a time we wouldn't have been a group at all.

After discussion today, we decided to extend the gathering to the #fp13 group as well as there is overlap and it was also an opportunity to meet some other Melbourne Flickr people with, let's face it, a bit of a library background.

So if you are a member of either of these groups and will be in Melbourne on the evening of 2 January, please come along and catch up with other members.  It doesn't matter if you will have completed 365 PAD photos or 156 fp13 photos, or if you have just dipped in and out during the year.  It would be great to see you.

The details of where and when we are meeting have been posted in the discussion pages of both groups on Flickr.  So check up there, or contact me by commenting below.  I am looking forward to catching up, whilst reflecting that I don't know what the Flickr equivalent to a tweetup is. 

Flickr Victorian Hotels Group #blogjune Day 9

Have I mentioned before that I really heart Flickr?  I think you all may have got the message.   One of the groups that I coordinate on Flickr is the Victorian Hotels group.  The focus of this is hotels in the State of Victoria - not hotels with Victorian (as in the Queen) architecture or history.  So if you are ever passing by a hotel in Victoria or inside one, why not take a shot and head over to Flickr to add it to the Victorian Hotels group?

If you have the Flickr app on your iPhone you can take the photo using the app, edit it and upload it  to the group.  Unfortunately last I heard you couldn't do that with the android app.  Hopefully Flickr will be mending that.   You can, of course, add the group later within Flickr itself or one of the third party Flickr apps that allow editing.