Relocators repeatedly ask questions about Raleigh, Cary, and Apex neighborhoods, housing options, and general geography that are best answered by the opportunity to pore over photos. They want to see what the homes, streets, neighborhoods, and vistas are like, in the everyday sense they will live amongst, as opposed to Chamber of Commerce/National Geographic photos that gloss over the mundane everyday experience.
When I realized that Real Estate-oriented photos were not the focus or intended use of Localism Photos, it forced me to re-think photo hosting, and how to present visual information to people who are thinking of relocating to Wake County, NC.
I had a Yahoo! Photos account, but didn't want to use it. Glad I decided not to, as Yahoo! is closing Yahoo! Photo since buying Flickr.
After looking at free Flickr, I thought that 200 photos was somewhat limiting, since I have as many as 48 photos up of one neighborhood. Then I saw the "Flickr Pro" option.
The $24.95 annual fee for Flickr Pro gets me a robust hosting service with some really nice bells and whistles:
I can:
1. Upload unlimited photos. 6 at a time, with tags, titles, and descriptions. I have 1027 current photos on Flickr (counting 33 of the Permanently For Sale Classic Mercedes.)
2. Offer larger photo views.
3. Organize photo slide shows. Really cool for an event or a neighborhood.
4. Use the photos in a blog.
5. See how many times a set, or the entire account has been viewed. 3496 views to date.(Includes 603 of the Permanently For Sale Classic Mercedes.)
6. Some other stuff that is beyond my ken...
This lets me email a link to a client or prospective client with photos of a neighborhood and local amenities, without sending a ton of attached photos. I can even do requests when I have time, like the Preserve at Long Branch Farm, which I took for an inquiring lady from out of town.
I like the emails I get from people who are glad to see photos of local homes and neighborhoods.
vs. 
I will continue to post a photo on Localism and for the AR crowd from time to time, when I find a subject I like. One of my favorites is actually not in North Carolina, but in Northeast Pennsylvania. It is a shot of the Susquehanna River in Tunkhannock, PA, where I spent some quality childhood time. Another favorite is a photo of the old mill and mill pond at Wake County, NC's Historic Yates Mill County Park. But I can flesh out these subjects with unlimited additional photos on Flickr, and offer more insight to their surroundings with a great photo hosting tool.
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Links;)
Tags (Tag Cloud);)
Archives
Very nice Mike.
I suffered a significant loss when a few hundred of my Localism photos were unceremoniously dumped. So, I put up a web page and loaded them online where I can pull the images for Localism articles, send them to consumers with questions about homes in an area and anything I wish.
SEE: ATLANTIC LIGHTS
I have a tad over 600 photos online so far. When Localism dumped a lot of my photos, that was the only place they existed because I was transitioning from a camera that stored on floppy diskette to a new camera. So, I not only lost about 10,000 points, I also lost all the photos that were dumped. But, I have taken many more and will continue to do so. The problem I've had with Atlantic Lights is finding a good search program. I tried the Google search, didn't work. I purchased a search program and installed it at a cost of about $300. That doesn't work either. Oh well.
These photos are a wonderful resource. I looked at your photos on flikr and they are beautiful. I'm a Northern Carolina native and it's always fun to see the changes since I was a child, 150 years ago. Apex was a tiny little town where my grandparents had a farm. I was born in Fuquqy Springs before it was Fuquay Varina.
Thanks for the treat.