Flickr: Services

There are quite a few that I though was pretty awesome. The majority of these 3rd party tools would be a nice way to kill time since there are some great photos that turn up when you randomly play with some of these services.

I really liked the idea of "Mappr" by Stamen Design since I travel a lot and so I tend to end up with pictures where I'm not sure where it was taken. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to open and explore it further.

I also like how the "Flickr Color Picker" by JBum has images that reflect the colour chosen really well. It would be handy when looking for inspiration with colour, or if you're just looking for an image with certain colours. I spent more time than I probably should've playing around with the colour picker, the textures and everything and looking at the images that turn up.

But I think the thing that I personally though would be really useful for things outside of Flickr is "fd's Flickr Toys." John Watson didn't just limit these 'toys' to just Flickr. Instead the stuff you can find on there can be used just for fun, or on a design/school work/presentation based area. On the site, I especially though that the "Palette Generator" and the "Photo Wall." I though the Palette Generator would be helpful when designing because it picks out the major colours and gives you the hex colour code too. The "Photo Wall" just left me sitting there staring at the ever changing wall of pictures until my screen saver came on. I wish the wall could be my screen saver instead. All the rest, with the frames, the layouts and everything makes it easier and faster to make say a magazine cover than on Photoshop (of course this is debatable). But in the end, these tools are fun to play with and are great for killing time.