It turns out that Flickr users can prevent their photos from appearing in public areas by activating a setting in their Flickr preferences. This means that their photos will no longer appear in the public time-line or under the various ways of browsing people’s photos (by tag, by date, by location). However, plenty of photographers are looking to make money from their photos and as such would not get the desired exposure if their photos were hidden from public view. It seems that such photographers are keen that their photos are available on the Flickr public areas but not via third-party websites. There is no setting within Flickr to accommodate this requirement.

I put a lot of photos on Flickr myself. But I’m not a professional photographer. I have no intention of selling my pics and can’t imagine anybody would actually want to buy them anyway. I’ve had a few requests here and there from various organisations who want to use my photos (Southampton Football Club and Buckingham Floods being two recent examples). I happily let them use the pictures with the usual “as long as you give me credit” caveat. But I don’t make a living from photography. I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps Flickr isn’t the right place for pros to set up shop. But what are the alternatives?

On our return to Buckingham we embarked upon a mammoth ten-pub session starting at the Wheatsheaf in Maids Morten and terminating at the rowdy White Hart eight hours later. We were joined by Mike Hoddy in the Kings head and whilst Stephen departed for the promies of ladies in Banbury, we convinced Mike to join us for the rest of the crawl. Needless to say we consumed an unhealthy amount of alcohol – mostly beer with the odd shot for good measure. I took photos and videos. I try and get around to putting some clips up on youtube but for now you can see the pictures on Flickr.

Our root, should you choose to follow it, was this: 1. The Wheatsheaf, 2. The Buckingham Arms, 3. The Grand Junction, 4. The Kings Head, 5. The Whale Inn, 6. The Swan and Castle, 7. The Woolpack (where we also ate our dinner), 8. The New Inn, 9. The Three Cups, 10. The White Hart.

Elija Wood?: This picture of Matt “The OX” Saunders reminds me of Elija Wood. Is it just me? More photos from this weekend.

Ralf 0.000002 seconds before he hit me: We’re hoping to go Skiing next winter and to see just how out of practise we were we spent two hours on the Southampton dry slope this saturday. Amazingly skiing is much like riding a bike and we were all challenging the pros soon enough!

Dogs playing pool, the complete piece: Met up with a bunch of old pals from about ten years ago in Southampton on Saturday. These are the photos.

An empty Friends Provident stadium after an exciting game against the MK Dons.

On Saturday, Shay and I ventured down to Southampton to see Southampton play the Milton Keynes Dons in the FA Cup third round. It was a great match laden with goals followed by a drinking session in Southampton that began in the Queen Alexandra and ended in the Dorchester. Here’s the photographic evidence.

Mum in Namibia.

Mum spent Christmas in Namibia with her sister Veronica and took a load of stunning photos. They’re all uploaded to her Flickr account. Take a look!