FLICKR … End of the Road? … as Verizon buys parent YAHOO for $4.8 Billion

Captain Rick: Having loved photography my entire life, an awarded Webshots photographer in the early 2000s, I became a Flickr PRO member shortly after its acquisition by Yahoo in 2005.

Flickr grew to become the one of the largest and best quality photo sites on the internet with over 12 billion photos and 100 million dedicated users.

The telecommunications giant Verizon announced that it will spend $4.8 billion to acquire Yahoo’s operating business, including popular online content such as Yahoo, Flickr and Tumblr.

Verizon hopes that by pairing Yahoo with AOL, which Verizon bought in May 2015 for $4.4 billion, that the result will be a digital media unit that could compete with Google and Facebook. Having followed so many of these wild internet company purchases during the past decade or so, I have serious doubts that Verizon will be able to make that happen.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, a former Google exec, was hired in 2012 to turn things around at financially struggling Yahoo. Flickr’s core users were hopeful that it might get the attention it deserved. She allowed Yahoo to loose focus on Flickr, allowing the top site for photographers to slip in quality and innovation. Yahoo was desperately trying to appeal to the Instagram generation, and in doing so started to alienate Flickr’s core users, many of whom were professional photographers. As a Flickr Pro member, I often gave feedback … but it felt like no one was listening. Things would break and it would take eight to 10 months before someone would respond. We were members paying money for a service that wasn’t working. It was insulting to me and other photographers who had been using Flickr so actively for so many years. We were clearly not the target audience any more.

Marissa Mayer generated controversy in 2013 for saying “there’s really no such thing as professional photographers anymore,” when explaining why Flickr was phasing out its Pro membership at the time. As a Flickr Pro member for a decade, I protested loudly as did millions of other Pro members. She quickly apologized for the statement. Us Flickr Pro members saw it as extreme ignorance on her part. Flickr drew more flack the following year by putting 50 million Creative Commons licensed photos by users up for sale through its new Wall Art service. Although it was within its rights to do based on the licensing, the move left a bad taste in photographers’ mouths, and Flickr pulled the plug on the arrangement the next month.

Amid dwindling share of only 1.3% of a growing $187 billion global digital market, the best she was able to do is put Yahoo up for sale. Mayer will help in the transition, but it is not known if she will remain as a Verizon employee. I think that in view of her high salary and lack-luster performance of Yahoo and neglect of Flickr, it would be in Verizon’s best interest to let her go.

Yahoo, Flickr and Tumblr are set to officially become Verizon properties when the deal closes in early 2017, assuming anticipated government approvals occur.

My fear is that Verizon, being a giant in the mobile phone market, cares little about quality photography and photographers. I think Verizon will sell Flickr or perhaps just let it die as an expense it can write off. As a Flickr Pro member who has invested many hundreds of hours into building and supporting my Flickr Photostream and several high quality photo groups, I am deeply saddened by that thought. On the other hand, it is my hope that Verizon will realize the great photographic jewel that it will possess in Flickr and find a way to breathe new life back into it. If executed with excellence, Flickr will remain the top site for quality among serious photographers … like me.

Captain Rick’s ‘Arizona White Bougainvillea Brilliance’ goes viral on Flickr … 2517 views of photostream on July 11, 2014

Captain Rick: As a Flick pioneer (2007), I was honored by my most recent photo:  ‘Arizona White Bougainvillea Brilliance’ being selected for presentation on Flickr’s Explore. It produced over 1500 views of the photo shown below and over 1000 views of other photos in my photostream…now approaching 300,000 views.

Click photo for high definition viewing options via my Flickr Photostream

Arizona White Bougainvillea Brilliance

This white bougainvillea glistens in the sun at my Oasis in Gilbert Arizona.

Bougainvillea grow vines with thorns. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts in bright colors, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, peach, salmon or yellow. Bougainvillea are sometimes referred to as a "paper flower" because the bracts are thin and papery.

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Captain Rick’s Photostream on Flickr (Click the Play button [>] at the right of the Photostream menu bar for a zooming-panning full-screen HDTV slideshow … MAX your screen)

Photography by Captain Rick

About Captain Rick including how he got his nickname and passion for photography and journalism

Photography

Joan Crawford in her 1932 Cadillac … an ‘Atridim WIDESCREEN Restoration’ Image

Captain Rick: Joan Crawford stands on the running board of her 1932 Cadillac Fleetwood in an image I restored with new sharpness and detail for full-screen viewing on an HDTV.

Click the above image to view it in high definition via my Flickr Photostream. Captain Rick’s Flickr Friends can download it in 1920 x 1080 resolution for viewing on an HDTV or widescreen computer monitor

Joan Crawford (March 23, 1904 – May 10, 1977) was an American dancer and stage chorine, who later became a noted, Oscar-winning film and television actress.

Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting as a chorine (a chorus girl) on Broadway, Crawford signed a motion picture contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. During the 1930s Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood’s most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s she was labeled "Box Office Poison". But her career gradually improved in the early 1940s, and she made a major comeback in 1945 by starring in Mildred Pierce, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Joan Crawford was voted the tenth greatest female star in the history of American cinema by the American Film Institute.

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Classic Stars & Cars

Photography by Captain Rick 

Photography

Clark Gable and his 1932 Packard … an ‘Atridim WIDESCREEN Restoration’ Image

Captain Rick: Clark Gable confidently stands in a suit with one foot on the running board and an arm resting on the window sill of his 1932 Packard in an image I restored with new sharpness and detail for full-screen viewing on an HDTV.

Click the above image to view it in high definition via my Flickr Photostream. Captain Rick’s Flickr Friends can download it in 1920 x 1080 resolution for viewing on an HDTV or widescreen computer monitor

William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often regarded as The King of Hollywood or just simply as The King. Gable began his career as a stage actor and appeared as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1926, and progressed to supporting roles with a few films for MGM in 1931. The next year he landed his first leading Hollywood role and became a leading man in more than 60 motion pictures over the next three decades.

Gable was arguably best known for his role as Rhett Butler in the epic Gone with the Wind (1939), for which he received his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was also nominated for leading roles in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and he won for It Happened One Night (1934).

Gable appeared opposite some of the most popular actresses of the time. Joan Crawford, who was his favorite actress to work with, was partnered with Gable in eight films; Myrna Loy worked with him seven times, and he was paired with Jean Harlow in six productions. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer and Ava Gardner in three each. Gable’s final film, The Misfits (1961), united him with Marilyn Monroe (also in her last screen appearance). He was named the seventh greatest male actor of all time by the American Film Institute.

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Photography by Captain Rick

Photography

Classic Stars & Cars

Superstition Mountain looms beyond the Mining Camp in Apache Junction, Arizona

Captain Rick: The Mining Camp in Apache Junction, Arizona is world famous for its restaurant, museum and spectacular view of Superstition Mountain.

Click the above image to view it in high definition via my Flickr Photostream.

The world famous Mining Camp Restaurant is part restaurant, part historical museum and opened its doors to the public in 1961. The complex is located at the base of the beautiful and mysterious Superstition Mountains and along the romantic Apache Trail in Apache Junction, Arizona.

The restaurant’s unique exterior is made up of roughly sawn ponderosa pine hauled from brought down from the Mogollon Rim.

Today, the restaurant still follows the theme of the early mining camp cook shanty. The decor is authentically styled shanty town with mining equipment strewn here and there.

Visitors can learn about the colorful history of the area, as newspaper and magazine clippings adorn the walls and provide a historic glimpse into the legend and lore of this area. These articles include rare tellings of the stories of treasure hunters, Spanish gold, murder, mystery and intrigue.

The legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine centers around the Superstition Mountains. According to the legend, a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz (some sources offer other spellings of his last name, such as "Walz") discovered a mother lode in the Superstition Wilderness and revealed its location on his deathbed in 1891 to a woman who had taken care of him for many years. Several mines have been claimed to be the actual mine that Waltz discovered, but none of those claims have been verified.

Since the mid-1800s, well over 100 people have died among the craggy peaks. Some of those deaths were murders associated with the fabled Lost Dutchman Mine; but many were due to falls from its breathtaking – and dangerously steep – precipices. The high death toll prompted state officials in 1983 to outlaw any serious mining efforts in the Superstition range.

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Photography by Captain Rick

Photography

Milestone: 1/4 million views of Captain Rick’s Flickr Photostream + the most viewed photo: Captain Rick’s 1982 Honda 750 Motorcycle

Captain Rick: I am honored by the 1/4 million honest views of photos in my photostream since becoming a Flickr pioneer way back in 2007. I post only one or two photos each month. All meet my high photographic standards and adorn the ‘atridim WIDESCREEN’ logo…signifying that they are viewable full screen in 1080 x 1920 high definition on an HDTV or HD widescreen monitor.  I am appreciative of my Flickr followers and searchers of my photos for the achievement of this viewing milestone. 

In September of 2008, I posted a photo of my 1982 Honda CB750 Custom Motorcycle. Within days it became my most viewed photo and has held the number one position ever since. With 5700 views, it is my most viewed photo.

Click the photo to view the original in my Flickr Photostream

It is by far the finest of many motorcycles I have owned. It is all original, still is in pristine condition, with only 12,600 original miles. It is possibly the finest original 1982 Honda CB750 Custom remaining on planet Earth. I welcome comments from people who love or have loved the Honda 750, one of the finest motorcycles ever produced.

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Captain Rick’s Photostream on Flickr

Photography by Captain Rick

Photography

Captain Rick celebrates 200,000 Flickr views as hot air balloon sails over his Arizona oasis

Captain Rick: As a Flickr pioneer, member since 2007, I am honored and humbled by the 200,000 views that people around the world have bestowed upon my photos.

I have chosen this photo of a hot air balloon that I captured sailing over my Arizona oasis to celebrate my sincere appreciation by saying ‘thank you’.

I was fortunate to capture the flame as the giant balloon drifted closely over my Arizona Oasis with a perfect sun angle. I have been photographing the balloons overhead for over a decade. This photo, ‘shot with my Canon’, is perhaps my finest balloon capture to date.

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Captain Rick’s Photostream on Flickr

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Photography by Captain Rick

Photography

Captain Rick’s ‘SMILE’ … Flickr taught me how to greet people in every language

Captain Rick: Each day when I am on Flickr tending to my photos and photo groups, I am greeted by the Flickr team in a different language, when my mouse hoovers over my icon. Over the past many months I think I have received a greeting in every language spoken in every country on earth. It has been very educational.

Today I received a new greeting in a language I readily recognized. It is spoken by many of my friends that I meet on my daily morning walks. I congratulate the Flickr team for the huge smile that emerged upon my face when they greeted me with this today…

As a Flickr pioneer (paying member since January 2007), I appreciate the Flickr team for their great support and refinement over the years, especially the recent, totally new, awesome look and feel of Flickr. Your diligent efforts have propelled Flickr to become the most respected, quality home for photographic sharing.

I welcome your comments, likes, shares and following of my blog! (If not visible, click the red title above)

Captain Rick’s Flickr Photostream

Captain Rick’s Flickr Photo Group: ‘16×9 Widescreen HDTV Photos of Excellence’

Captain Rick’s Flickr Photo Group: ‘A Virtual Journey: HD Photos of Excellence-Level 1’

Captain Rick’s Flickr Photo Group: ‘A Virtual Journey: HD Photos of Excellence-Level 2’

Captain Rick: how I got my nickname and passion for photography & journalism

Captain Rick: I share how my passion for photography and journalism began and how my nickname ‘Captain Rick’ was born 40 years ago on the waters of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.

I have revamped my ANJ ‘About’ page to expound on me and the history of my passion for photography and journalism … and how my nickname ‘Captain Rick’ originated.

I am a mechanical design engineer, with 8 United States Patents accredited for inventions used in surface cleaning & maintenance vehicles and lawn & garden equipment. My engineering career spanned 4 decades, working for manufacturing companies in Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina and Arizona.

I am retired in Arizona’s Valley of the Sun in a town called Gilbert, where I have loved to call home since 1997 and hope to for the rest of time. Retirement has allowed me to pursue the things in life that I enjoy the best…

PHOTOGRAPHY … a life long hobby of snapping well over 20,000 photos.

It originated when my father gave me his old Mercury 35 mm half frame camera in the early 1960s. It was totally mechanical. I had to load a 35 mm roll, feeding the film across and wrapping it around the take-up spool. I had to wind the film ahead after each photo. If I forgot, it would result in a double exposure, of which some turned out ’pretty cool’. I went on to own several 35 mm SLRs.

The advent of digital photography allowed me to explore the world of shooting and editing digital photos. I was a Webshots member in the early 2000′s. My photos received over 1 million views. Webshots listed me as the number one photographer shooting in the ‘Arizona’ category. In 2007, as a pioneer, I established a photostream on a tiny, new web firm called Flickr. It has since grown to become the world’s grandest photo site with over 6 billion photos. My current photo view stats are well over 100,000.

When HDTV’s and widescreen computer monitors became popular, I began formatting all of my new photos for viewing full screen on an HDTV in Blu-ray quality. I present my 5 most recent Flickr photos in the left column of my blog. I created several photo groups on Flickr, including ’A Virtual Journey’, with views from over 8,000 people from 96 countries. My group ’16×9 Widescreen’ is Flickr’s top group for HDTV quality photos.

JOURNALISM … a newly discovered talent that was a lifetime in the making.

I took typing class in high school back in the early 1960′s. There were not many boys in the class. It was mostly a girls skill needed to become a secretary working for a future male boss. I saw it differently. To me it looked like a way to more efficiently put my thoughts on paper. I started keeping a journal when I was very young. I still have some of the early hard copies, which contain some very awesome reading. I hope to share them one day.

I purchased my first typewriter in the late 60′s. It was one of those big ugly black mechanical things called an Underwood. In the early 70′s I bought a Smith Corona electric. I was like typing in ‘dreamland’. The 80′s gave way to the electronic typewriters. The 90′s introduced the computer keyboard. My fingers were typing away during the entire spectrum. Today, I can type up a storm. I owe it all to that ‘girls’ typing class back in the 60′s.

I have always had a great interest in news, economy, government and much more. I have insight of these subjects and zeal to share my thoughts with the world. For several years I published news letters via email. In 2010 I discovered WordPress and established this blog. It remained dormant for over a year due to a lack of ‘guts’ to project my words to the world. It took my friend Bill, who was facing stage 4 cancer and undergoing multiple rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, to give me the courage to energize this blog. I convinced Bill to tell his story on a blog I created for him. He agreed and told his story with excellence. You can read Bills testimony and click a link to his blog in the comments on my ‘About’ page. Seeing the wonderful effect his writing had on his audience, I knew I had to begin writing and sharing my thoughts with the world via this blog.  Since then, I have ‘let loose’ … saying it like I feel in my heart, with hope that the world is listening and benefiting from my journalistic words.

CAPTAIN RICK … how did my nickname originate? 

As a child, I enjoyed boating/fishing trips with my father. We often caught some excellent walleye, northern and bass in Lake Michigan and the lakes near my hometown in Wisconsin. I loved the water and I loved boats.

During the early 70′s in Minnesota, I seized my dream of building my own boat. I bought plans for a 17 foot ocean racing boat … a design that had won many ocean races in New Zealand. It took several years and over 1000 hours of construction, using lots of oak and mahogany wood and the installation of a Chevy Corvette 4-barrel engine with a Muncie I/O drive. I also designed and constructed its steel trailer. After launching, it became a dominating presence on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, especially when the water was rough and most other boats headed for safe waters. At 40 knots (46 mph) in rough water, it’s heavy wood, 20 degree deep-V hull split the big waves and sprayed them far to the sides. It was a sight to behold. It road the waves with power and excitement like no other boat I have experienced. It was one of my greatest prides and joy.

My friends called me ‘Captain Rick’. The nickname stuck and has lived on ever since. I hope one day to tell the rest of this amazing story, complete with photos, of the construction and enjoyment of that great boat.

Read this and more on my totally revised About Captain Rick … Atridim page.

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Captain Rick

Yahoo unveils awesome new look for Flickr, world’s top photo site with 6 billion photos

Captain Rick: Flickr, the world’s top photo site with 6 billion photos and 50 million members, has an awesome new look.

A glimpse of my Flickr Photostream with the awesome new look appears below. I present all of my photos in HDTV Widescreen format. They are are available for viewing in Blu-ray quality for my Flickr Friends.

Yahoo purchased Flickr in 2005, when Webshots was the king of photography on the internet. I was a Webshots member in those days with views of my photos surpassing 1 million. Webshots ranked me as the top photographer in the ‘Arizona category.’ My photography also achieved a top 10 spot in the categories of Oregon, Washington, Montana and Utah.

In 2006 I began to see lots of problems surfacing with Webshots and brought it to the attention of their management with no avail. I launched intensive research to find a new site to post my photography. I discovered Flickr when it was ‘still in diapers’…before most of the world had even heard of it. I liked what I saw. My thought was that one day Flickr will become the new world leader in photography. I joined Flickr in early 2007. A week later, I was so impressed that I became a paying ‘PRO’ member and have been ever since. To me, no other photo site on planet earth comes close to the excellence projected by Flickr. This enhancement helps ensure continued success for years to come. I made a wise choice back in 2007 and remain a proud Flickr PRO member today.

Webshots continued its decline and ultimately executed its remaining membership by deleting all member photos unless they signed up for what they called ‘Smile’. I called it ‘dead on arrival’, as did most of the other members.  All of my photos were deleted. Lots of hard work to end in such a death. I convinced many of my Webshots friends to ‘come on over’ to the ‘brighter side’ and post their photos on Flickr.

I created several Flickr photo groups, all of which are very unique in that I personally scan every photo of a members photostream in search of ‘photos of excellence,’ which I then invite to be added to the groups photo pool.

Captain Rick’s Flickr Photostream and Photo Groups:

Captain Rick’s Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atridim/

A Virtual Journey: http://www.flickr.com/groups/virtualjourney/

16×9 Widescreen (Flickr’s Top Group for HDTV quality photos): http://www.flickr.com/groups/16x9widescreen/

A Virtual Journey – Level 2 (photos receiving sufficient awards from members): http://www.flickr.com/groups/virtualjourney2/

“Open Wide” by Les of U.K. achieves highest photo honor from Flickr’s “ A Virtual Journey”

Captain Rick: A photo’s journey to the Virtual Journey GALAXY of STARS is long and difficult. Photo qualifications are astronomical. Only the very best photos ascend to this elite destination.

“Open Wide” by Les of the United Kingdom

Appreciation from Les

Thanks to fellow members of VJ for awarding my shot of the lilies. This is my first one to reach the Galaxy of Stars so I am really honoured.
Thanks to Captain Rick for this awesome group of photographers and the way that he dedicates his time to keeping all levels of the groups in in good form.

Regards, Les.

About Les and his photo

• ‘A Virtual Journey’ member since December 4, 2010
• 47 invited photos contributed to ‘A Virtual Journey’
• Recipient of 17 ‘AVJ Participation Awards’ for group participation excellence
• Recipient of 1 ‘AVJ Feature Award’ of one of his photos featured on the AVJ homepage during the month of December 2011
• ‘AVJ Level 2’ member since July 7, 2011
• AVJ1 members awarded 11 of his photos to ascend to ‘AVJ Level 2’
• The photo presented above is his first photo to be chosen by AVJ2 members to ascend ‘AVJ2’s GALAXY of STARS’. It is one of only 15 photos to achieve “Virtual Journey’s” highest honor.

History of ‘A Virtual Journey’ photo group on Flickr 

Captain Rick, a life-long photographer, achieved well over 1 million views of his photos on Webshots, the worlds first global photo website in the early 2000’s. Envisioning the future of photography on the web, he became a Flickr Pro member in early 2008, a couple years after its Flickr’s founding. Since then Flickr has grown to become the worlds largest database of photos with well over 6 billion photos, 50 million members  and 80 million unique visitors.

In August of 2008, Captain Rick created the Flickr group called ‘A Virtual Journey’. It was Flickr’s first group to have members photos screened to meet extremely high photographic standards. Only the highest quality of those were personally invited by Captain Rick to be added the the ‘A Virtual Journey’ photo pool. Today that pool contains over 2500 of Flickr’s highest quality photos.

In June of 2011, Captain Rick created ‘A Virtual Journey: Exploration for HD Excellence: Level 2’ to offer its members incentive to climb to a higher level of photographic excellence.

In November of 2011, Captain Rick created ‘GALAXY of STARS’, an extension of Level 2. It is reserved for members who receive sufficient awards from fellow AVJ level 2 members. Only 15 photos to date have been qualified by AVJ2 members to ascend to the ‘GALAXY of STARS’. The above photo from Les of the United Kingdom is one of them.

View all of the photos that have ascended to the ‘AVJ2 GALAXY of STARS’

Click:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/virtualjourney2/discuss/72157627202886893/

View the worlds greatest High Definition Full Screen slide show … …AVJ Level 2 photos:

Click: http://www.flickr.com/groups/virtualjourney2/discuss/72157627566032962/

Photographers! Want to join ‘A Virtual Journey’?

A Virtual Journey stands out on Flickr as one of its top groups for photographic excellence and quality. If your photography has what it takes to become an AVJ member, Captain Rick will welcome you!

Please read our stringent rules: http://www.flickr.com/groups/virtualjourney/rules/

Apply for membership by clicking ‘Join this group’: http://www.flickr.com/groups/virtualjourney/

Captain Rick’s ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL Viewed around the world

Captain Rick: I began regular posts to my WordPress blog ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL about 4 months ago. I am honored to view the stats of people around the world who have viewed my blog during the past 90 days, as shown in the WordPress stat image below. WordPress stat data capabilities boggle my mind. I know some of you from photography friendships molded during the early days on Webshots and later on Flickr. I sincerely appreciate your friendship and look forward building more friendships among those I do not yet know from the countries shown below.

Our world is a huge place, but thanks to the internet and great social networks like WordPress, Flickr and Facebook, our friends on the other side of the globe are all just a very short distance away.