This is the very first self-portrait of Maddy and I. It was taken on the road in December of 2005 and who knew there would be so many more self-puppy portraits and road trips after that? If someone would have told me then about the amazing and long-lasting friendships I would develop by publishing ordinary photos like this on Flickr, I never would have believed them.

I am in the process of uploading 415 photos from the last couple of years on Flickr into a book publishing platform.

I am in the process of saying farewell to the creative photography forum that introduced me to many of you. The platform that helped me learn about myself.

I have been a member of Flickr since June 2005 (6 years!), but wiped my photostream clean when I got back from Nevis. Thousands of photos and thousands of comments and hundreds of thousands of views were wiped clean in a millisecond. I felt too busy for Flickr. It really is a community and I knew I wasn’t holding up my end of the friendship.

Eventually I started missing the community and the creativity. But I realized I still didn’t really have the time, so I decided to try to commit to uploading a-photo-a-day starting shortly after our wedding in August of 2009. The last two years have been full of ups and downs, twists and turns. And my Flickr photostream certainly reflects that.

I would like to keep those memories, but feel I have moved past the community and creativity connection I used to thrive on with my Flickr friends and family. Anyone that knows me from years past, knows that two of my favourite photography subjects were Maddy and self-portraits. In fact, the very first Flickr account I opened was under Maddy’s name as I experimented with transferring film photos to digital versions. Later, I splurged on a modest point-and-shoot digital camera and started aiming the thing at myself: in the mirror, on a timer, on a tripod, wherever. I felt like I was able to discover things about myself by seeing myself through this different eye. This critical eye. This international eye that I could share with potential friends across the country and around the world. Turning this spotlight on myself felt scary, but I had also never been so aware of my flaws. And my awesomeness.

In many ways, I grew up on Flickr. And found a ton of amazing friends in the process. Some of those friend are so close now, I forget that we first met on a website designed for sharing photography. Some of those friends are so close, I forget that we have never met in person.

When I say farewell to Flickr, I know I will take those friends with me.

While we’re discussing simplifying of social media networking sites in my life, I might as well address Facebook here too. My Facebook Friends list is shrinking dramatically on an almost daily basis. I have mentioned before that Facebook is — rather ironically — one of the most private places I have on the internet to share thoughts and photos with friends and family. As our baby grows into a boy and then into a teenager, I know I will want to keep more of his photos private. I also want to be able to discuss a few minor or mundane things about work without fearing repercussions making waves through the internet like a pebble in a pond.

And so, I have been condensing my Facebook Friends list. The criteria to “make the cut” is sort of arbitrary and sort of personal. But since the last thing I want to do is offend anyone that finds we are no longer “friends”, I wanted to share a few reasons that somehow make sense in some little corner of my mind:

1) If we primarily (or only) communicate or keep in touch via a social media network other than Facebook, then I will probably delete you. Many people (myself included) cross-post stuff from Tumblr or Flickr or Twitter to their Facebook page. If we have primarily communicated via Twitter for our entire online friendship, then I will probably delete you from Facebook.

2) If you don’t post anything on your Facebook page, I will probably delete you. This is just because lurkers sort of scare me. On the other hand, if you post hundreds of things to your wall and have literally thousands of friends, I will probably also delete you. Thousands of friends are a lot of ripples for that pebble in the pond and even though I have my security settings as high as they can go, I can’t control who sees what through your stream of “likes” and comments.

3) The one thing that doesn’t matter is if we’re related or if we have met in person. I’ve deleted some relatives and kept some friends that live halfway around the world.

If you feel I have deleted you in error, please let me know. And if you feel I’m being too snobby to be your friend or my incessant baby photos are boring you to death, please feel free to delete me.

In the end, I’m not a different person than the girl that liked to point the camera at herself. On the inside, I’m the same. On the outside… well, I guess you just don’t get to see the outside as much anymore.

————
*No farewell to Flickr would be complete without thanking my Aunt Jean for her generous gifts of pro subscriptions over the years. I don’t know much about my dad’s siblings, but I have had the pleasure of watching her kids and granddaughter grow up over the years on Flickr. Thank you, Auntie Jean.