I realize I am a bit late to the flickr party but recently I have been going through my personal photo archives and uploading all of the keepers to Flickr. This was prompted when I realized how badly I need to put a portfolio together. So one day while I was going through them I started thinking how strange it is that I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours taking all of these pictures and for what? So I can keep them hidden away on hard drives in my office? Well this is what I have done so far and it just seems absolutely crazy.

So I made the decision to go the exact opposite direction and put the whole thing up on Flickr for everyone to enjoy. One of the main reasons I did not do this earlier is due to the fear of people stealing the images. As a professional photographer my images are how I make a living so giving them away seems like the wrong direction to go at least that is what has been beaten into my head over the years. The flip side of this seems to be keeping the images locked up in my office are not doing me or my career any good either. Following through on the thought process I finally decided that I am okay with taking the chance of some of them being stolen for the reward of knowing people are actually seeing and enjoying them, after all this is why I got into photography to begin with. From a professional stand point having the images out there also allows for my name to get out there which could lead to more work opportunities which in the end is the most important thing.

If you would like to see the archive and watch it grow you can see all of it at www.flickr.com/don_parkinson