Worth 1000 Words

They say a picture is worth 1000 words.
That, dear followers, is precisely why there have been so very few words here, whilst I have become very active on flickr.
I wasn’t really aware of what flickr had to offer, other than an online place to show off or share one’s photographs.
For me photography was a means to an end. I took pictures of things I was going to paint. I took pictures of paintings “in-progress” and of the final result. And, of course, there were the ‘Kodak moments’ with family and friends. I didn’t imagine, really, there’d be much interest in those.
Photography was (for me) a sort of pipe dream. If you were really going to pursue it, you had to have a real fancy camera. It was the camera that took great pictures, not the photographer. And before the digital age, it also meant needing your own ‘dark room’. I did not have the resources for such a lofty ambition.
Besides that obvious rationale, it was my daughter who was ‘the photographer’. Her pictures were beyond great. They were fabulous. It was no surprise when she bought a real SLR camera. Her favorite pastime was a serious hobby. It was always my opinion that she should go ‘pro’.
That’s really why I went to flickr. I saw really cool stuff there. Like her stuff. I wanted her to go there and show off her stuff. After all, she had won ribbons at the fair for her stuff. Why wait for the fair every year? You could be on flickr every day!
It’s not that she’s a busy soccer mom. She’s a great mom, whose kids are into everything but soccer. Trying to keep up with her and her family is not unlike herding cats. She hardly had time for photography, much less some online extension of it.
Somewhere in the process of researching all this for her, I suddenly discovered some other things about myself. Some of my own pictures were as good as my daughter’s. I offer as an example this bright yellow beach bag and accessories, with the palm tree reflected in the glasses. It went on to become my flickr ‘badge’. Ergo, it is not necessarily essential to have a schnazzy camera to take good pictures. And, one no longer needs a darkroom to develop digital photos. And flickr is not just a photo sharing place. It is, in its own right, as much a social networking place as facebook, or twitter.
Flickr has “groups”. Groups can have almost every imaginable parameter. There are groups for sunsets and sunrises, and like Ecclesiastes, something ‘for every purpose under heaven’. I have seen the exquisite captures of professionals right next to amateur’s cliché. In fact one group I belong to is Cliché Saturday. Another is Worm’s- Eye View Sunday.
I have “met” some really interesting people in these groups. A positive vibe seems to permeate each and every one of these assemblies of picture takers. They leave encouraging comments on my submissions. I return the favor. In less than 1000 words, there is a long conversation. It results in inspiration, challenge, and all manner of ‘chicken soup for the soul’. I have connected my flickr photostream to facebook and provided a link to it here. Just click on the flickr ‘photographr’ badge.