The Flickr phenomenon

This morning’s Observer column

Virtually every Tom, Dick and Harry has a digital camera. And if he doesn’t, there’s probably one in his mobile phone. Which raises an interesting question: what are people doing with all these cameras? The answer: snapping everything that moves, and much that doesn’t.

But then what? At this point, options begin to narrow. You can take the storage card into Jessops, push it into a slot and pay to have your photos printed. You can upload them to your computer and view them on screen in tasteful little slideshows, perhaps to the accompaniment of a track from your music library.

You can buy an inkjet printer, pay through the nose for paper and ink cartridges, and print them out. Or you can upload them to a printing service like Ofoto or Fotango, have them deduct money from your credit card and send back nice prints on proper photographic paper.

Alternatively you can put them on Flickr (www.flickr.com). If you don’t know about Flickr, it’s time you did…