SEEDS OF MY NEIGHBOR'S DISCONTENTPhoto by Steve Took It (Steve Wall)
I used to think Webshots was the best photo site on the Web, but now I am less certain. Webshots is harder to navigate now. Formerly, the home screen would include links to Daily Photos, professional shots organized into catagories and searchable, as well. (Paying) members could download as many photos as desired in high resolution, and there were options to purchase merchandise with the photo on it, as well. Menu choices were clear on an attractive layout.
Now the site has gone through major revision, incorporating blogs and focusing on community members' uploads. The user must delve deeper into the site to find the Top Rated photos, and I still haven't found the Editor's Choice. The entire site seems to have taken a tremendous dive in quality. A typical comment on a photo is "This is beautiful. I love old things." There is absolutely nothing that hooks the imagination, adds to one's understanding of the technique, message, or history of the shot. The emphasis may have switched to the People's Choice, but I haven't even located that.
On Flickr there seems more likely to be an engaging title and miniblog about a shot, though I don't see a marked improvement in the quality of the comments. The photos seem more likely to have tags, and for those who want to search by geography, there are geotags, which when clicked, bring up a Mercator-style projection map with photo colloctions labeled.
A highly useful element is that each photo is earmarked with the level of rights for use. For example, Steve's photo above is shared with some rights reserved, as opposed to all rights reserved or possibly some other designation I didn't happen to find. One clearly knows whether they are committing copyright infringement by using the photo, useful for classroom application.
Now the site has gone through major revision, incorporating blogs and focusing on community members' uploads. The user must delve deeper into the site to find the Top Rated photos, and I still haven't found the Editor's Choice. The entire site seems to have taken a tremendous dive in quality. A typical comment on a photo is "This is beautiful. I love old things." There is absolutely nothing that hooks the imagination, adds to one's understanding of the technique, message, or history of the shot. The emphasis may have switched to the People's Choice, but I haven't even located that.
On Flickr there seems more likely to be an engaging title and miniblog about a shot, though I don't see a marked improvement in the quality of the comments. The photos seem more likely to have tags, and for those who want to search by geography, there are geotags, which when clicked, bring up a Mercator-style projection map with photo colloctions labeled.
A highly useful element is that each photo is earmarked with the level of rights for use. For example, Steve's photo above is shared with some rights reserved, as opposed to all rights reserved or possibly some other designation I didn't happen to find. One clearly knows whether they are committing copyright infringement by using the photo, useful for classroom application.
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