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I’m a big fan of Flickr.com. I like to share my photos that way and i love it when my family and friends share that way as well. This why I was happy to see flickr friends.

The steps are simple. First, you export your contacts as a .cvs file (Outlook) or a .vcf file (Apple Address Book). Then, you upload that file (or any file with a list of email addresses) to flickr friends. The site will scan that file and then use the flickr api to see if any of your contacts have flickr accounts. If they do have an account, it will give you a link to their photos and profile.

This is all a fast process and it does it all on the same page using Ajax and Javascript.

The one problem I found is that your list of addresses can be no larger than 1MB. To get around this, I split my address book into four groups and then exported a card for each group. Then, I just did them one at a time.

Just as I expected, very few of my contacts used flickr. I think it’s natural for people to want to see photo’s from other people but forget to share their own. However, I did find a few contacts on there and was glad to see their photos.

You can give this all a try here. (yes, it’s free)

Flickr has posted a page titled “Camera Finder” that shows themost popular cameras used on Flickr. I was happy to see the Canon Digital Rebel XT with a large margin of victory. (That is the camera I use andrecommend.)

They offer additional graphs showing the most popular “Point and Shoot” cameras and the most popular cameraphones. As you click thru on the different brands and models, it will show you the images that were taken with that camera and also give you pricing on the camera. If you’re looking to get a camera for Christmas, this is a great site to do some research.

Link: Flickr’s Camera Finder

A FMP reader sent in a link to a great set on Flickr. Flickr user michael_hughes’ has travelled to different tourist locations around the world. But, rather than posting direct shots of the attractions, he purchases souveniers and places them directly in the place of the real attraction. For instance, above you see a toy Eiffel Tower exactly displacing the real one.

What a great idea! Now it has me thinking of what type of photo I should take on my trips to I have a consistent collection like this one.

The whole set is wonderful, you can see it here.

This morning on TUAW, they posted about a great new Safari Plugin called Piclens. With this plugin installed, visiting sites like Flickr and Facebook are way more enjoyable.

To install, just download the package and run the installer. You’ll have to restart Safari to activate the plugin. Once installed, anytime you mouseover thumbnails on a page there will be a little icon that pops up. (pictured above) Clicking on that icon will create a slideshow of all the pictures on that page. It’s much like a iPhoto slideshow, but pulling pictures from the internet. When you’re done, just hit “esc” or click on the x in the corner.

The plugin is for Safari only and it’s in beta right now. But I used it for 15 minutes on different sites and had no problems. Fun!

Today on FreeMacWare, I posted about a great new tool for uploading your photos to Flickr.com. That tool will make it even easier to share your photos.

Below are five Mac OS X freeware Flickr apps that you should know about:

1. Gleam - Gleam is the best way I’ve found to upload images to Flickr. The interface is just perfect.

2. FlickrGet - When you find a Flickr set you like, paste the URL in this app to download the hole thing at once.

3. Sniper - It’s like iPhoto for your flickr account. Cruise your photos with this app instead of the cliick after click of navigating Flickr.

4. Tickr - You can choose any keyword or user and have their images scroll along the side of your Mac screen.

5. Flickr Backup - With all the work you’ve put into your Flickr account, be sure to get a nice backup of it all.

If you have another one you like, feel free to leave it in the comments. We’re always looking for new freeware to check out.

(Please digg this post)

Recently on FreeMacBlog, I wrote about a friend of mine who had his house broken into. The theif took both his Macs, his backup drives and other electronics. (Thank goodness they didn’t find his new Canon D30.)

The post is called How To Prepare For A Stolen Mac. If you take the time to read the post, you’ll read that he lost all of his digital photos. He had about 30,000. He backed them up to his external drive, but that was stolen too.

My friend’s one photography saving grace was that he would often share his images with family and friends. He enjoys sharing his work (and we enjoy seeing them.) Because of this, he has been able to email friends and family, asking them to send back any pictures that he may have sent them in the past. Obviously he won’t be able to retreive all of his images this way, but he will be able to save some.

I hope you take the time to share your photos. If you take family shots, be sure to send them out to your family. Most of my best shots are on my Flickr.com account. It feels good know that if my machine was ever stolen or ruined, I’d always be able to pull down my best shots from my account. The inexpensive amount I spend yearly on Flickr is a very cheap way to back up your favorite images…and it lets others enjoy your work.

One of my favorite Flickr groups is the Technique Group. There are so many talented people there that offer up their tips.

One of the great discussions is one called “Tutorial: Make Your Colors Pop.” The flickr user macaddict offers a great tutorial on bringing out the colors of your photo. It basically consists of changing the mode to “Lab Color”, making some changes for the a, b, and Lightness channels, then switching the mode back to RGB. It sounds simple, but there are some great results. To see the tutorial and see some examples, head to the Flickr Discussion.

After playing with it for a while, I finally determined just the right settings for my photos. I then created a Photoshop Action for me to use in the future. Just in case some of you would like to give it a try, I’ll make it available for you too. Just download it and install the action from your Actions pallette in Photoshop. You can download it here.

Here is one example. First is original, second is “popped”.

I love San Francisco. I lived there for a couple years and now that I’m in Vegas, I still visit every couple months. I keep a running list of “New Things To See and Do In San Francisco.” I just added something to that list today.

At 1337 Mission St (yes, the address is 1337) there is a place called Shine Dance Lounge. In that joint, they have a photo booth that is hooked up to the web. It uploads the shots automatically to Flickr.com.

I remember reading about this a few months ago, but it was when they just barely got it installed. But, now they have a Flickr account with thousands of pictures uploaded. It’s kind of fun to browse thru them.

If you’ve ever been to this place, or have pictures of the booth, I’d love to know what it looks like.

What a great shot. Any tips on how you got the hair so soft?

(If you’d like your photo to be featured on FreeMacPhoto, just submit it to the FreeMacPhoto Flickr Group)

In one of the Flickr groups that I follow, a kind fellow wrote a script to fake the LOMO look in Photoshop. If you haven’t heard of Lomography, it was essentially digital photography before digital photography. Fun, every-day, oversaturated pictures. This type of photo has quite a following. In fact, it has it’s own international society.

I had a little fun with the free Photoshop script. If you’d like to try it out, grab it in this Flickr group discussion.