Is flickr invading your privacy?

Firstly, I should point out that the following is in no way trying to represent itself as fact.
I've made these observations based upon my own experience and this post should only be treated as opinion.

The new flickr iPhone app was released a few weeks ago and it is vast improvement on the old version.
However, there is one part of the app which really disturbs me.
The new app, by default, will notify you if one of the people listed in your phone contacts joins flickr.
On the face of it that seems like quite a novel feature, it allows you to connect to people you know and view their photos all from the comfort of your flickr home page.
But how is this achieved?
Does the app scan a list of flickr accounts created since it was last run every time you start it up, comparing them with your phone contacts to see if they match? I sincerely doubt it.
I don't know what the enrolment rate for flickr is, but I cannot believe for one minute that the app and phone are capable of processing such a comparison of what would most likely be a vast dataset.
No, the more efficient method would be for the flickr app to regularly hoover up all the contacts on your phone and upload them to flickr central. Then when flickr processes a new enrolment, if one of the details matches one of your contacts, you would be sent a push notification to let you know a friend has joined the flickr collective, just like you would when someone comments on your photos.

This, as far as I'm concerned, would be a massive invasion of not only my privacy, but the privacy of those in my contact list, they haven't given flickr permission to collect their name, phone number, email address, D.O.B. or whatever data flickr are using to match new enrolments to their contact entry.

I can at least switch this option off, though as I mentioned before, it's ON by default, so as soon as you fire up the app for the first time this interaction will, i assume take place.
Being able to turn it off after the damage has already been done is of little comfort.

Chicago - Lensbaby

I was recently lucky enough to find myself in Chicago
Having been to a few US cities I kinda knew what to expect, however I still found myself surprised by 2 things.

1. Chicago is a great city, just the sort of place I could see myself living. It has everything and all within walking distance or a short ride on public transport. There is no real need to drive or take a cab. 

2. My US colleagues seemed overly worried about our safety.There is a distinct air of fear stateside, we were constantly told about how Chicago is the murder capital of the US and how crime is a real problem etc. etc. but to be quite honest, other than a couple of people sleeping rough we saw nothing that was remotely off putting about the place. The people were friendly, we walked to and from the office every day and didn't experience so much as a honked horn.



Whilst in the office I was able to get up to a reasonably high vantage point and although this was nowhere near as high as the Willis (Sears) tower, it was high enough to allow me to try out my lensbaby composer. 

I sold something.

Well it wasn't actually me who sold it, it was Getty Images.
I have a few images with Getty, ones which were selected by a Getty researcher, and so far I haven't made enough money to be paid.
There are two reasons for this.


1.  I don't have very many images with them ( the current count is 9 ).
2.  Getty take the lions share of the fee. It's an 80/20 split in their favour.


My last sale was to a singer/songwriter named Jennifer Armour. The image itself is of a vinyl record on a record deck ( remember those ). So far it hasn't appeared on her site but I am hopeful. Who knows, it may even be a potential album cover.

onOne PhotoTools

I came across a tweet/blog posting recently which mentioned the image editing tools by onOne.
Having never heard of them before i ventured over to their site where I found they do some free versions of their software. Not being one for passing up a useful freebie I decided to have a look.

First impressions are good, I've not played with the tools a great deal but the below image is one taken back in July and reworked using onOne ACR presets and PhotoTools.
Head on over to www.onone.com and make up your own mind.

Autumn acer

Autumn is my favourite time of year. The light is warm without being too harsh and the colours of the trees are amazing. I have a Japanese Maple in my garden which is always stunning at this time of year. I love the multitude of gold and red shades as the leaves turn and always look forward to seeing them.
 Unfortunately the colours are usually short lived. The cold winter winds whip the leaves from the branches before too long and the briefly splendid tree conforms to the naked dormancy of its neighbours.

My first sale.

This month saw my first sale through Getty Images. I was quite pleased, though less so when I realised that Getty do things back to front.
Normally the agent takes 20% of the artists fee, but in Gettys case, the artist takes 20% of Gettys fee.
It doesn't quite seem right to me.
Still, a sale is a sale even if I only get $34 of the $170.

A technological first (for me)

I've just found this app at the AppStore which allows me to update my blog from my phone. I've been looking for something like this for ages, but being the sort of person who prefers to use apps developed by the company providing the service and not a 3rd party, I had to wait until google churned this out.
This may even make me post more , but I wouldn't hold your breath.