Sugar and Spice - Flickr

Click here for the link to our Flickr slideshow!

Our Flickr assignment was actually really fun. I was a bit skeptical about the project at first since no one in the class really knew each other and we had to go explore out into campus to try to find something interesting to take pictures of. As far as the preparation work that was done, in the class before we had decided on some different ideas. Our first idea that we had involved taking photos of a student waiting for the bus on Third Street. Obviously we all know how this process goes, sometimes getting left behind, sometimes not having anywhere to sit. We decided not to go with this idea because it would be during the time when most people were in class so no one would be there to photo. Our next idea came as a bowling experience in the Union. We had everything planned out to take pictures and of course when we got there, the bowling alley was closed. We then had to think quickly on our feet to come up with a new idea, we figured the bookstore would be a great alternative. We were going to do this somehow by, trying to portray a student buying book and then spending a fortune at the cash register. After taking a few pictures we actually got kicked out because it is a Barnes and Nobles and you cannot take pictures inside their stores. This lead to our final idea of going through the transaction of buying a product at the store, Sugar and Spice. We had someone walk in, ask what was good, contemplate buying a water, standing in line, paying for the product and walking out. Overall the idea worked really well and as you can see from the link above the pictures turned out great.

Flickr was not difficult to use at all. We sat down and literally had our pictures on the Internet in 5 minutes. Which leads to way this technology can be a great citizen-based photojournalism tool. It would be a great tool because as I said, it is extremely easy to use and takes seconds to get your pictures online. The article, How Flickr single-handedly invented collaborative photojournalism, talks about how people took pictures of the French Employment Riots and how high quality and fast they appeared on the internet. This goes to show that no matter the event, the public can post pictures online as soon as they are taken. This means that instead of just 4 or 5 media outlets showing images, they can come from hundreds of people posting their pictures on Flickr with comments about what the picture is. Then others can share their pictures and have the Flickr team use their secret algorithm to put those pictures that have the most “interestingness” up front. No longer will you need these news outlets to piece together the stories for you, Flickr has allowed for ordinary citizens to do it themselves and revolutionize the way photojournalism is used. Obviously our photo story was not about Riots or a Obama rally, but still it shows how effective the tool can be. Maybe someone did not know about the store Sugar and Spice, but decided to search for it on Google. Theoretically our blogs are out there where we have all documented a trip to the store. An ordinary citizen can see the pictures and see what the store looks like without having to even go or try to find information on the IMU website. Same concept applies when pictures are taken of a political rally. Instead of trying to watch the news, just jump on Flickr and check it out.