A few months ago I added something new to my Flickr account, a set of random photographs that changes every day. This isn’t a Flickr feature, it’s just one of many things you can do using a third-party tool, dopiaza’s Set Manager.
I didn’t really think much of this when I set it up. I just like random rotating content, and thought it might be a good way to bring a little attention to some of my older photographs.
Well, I don’t know if anyone else ever looks at it, but I really love it. Even though I know it’s just random, I study the set each day as if there were some significance in the selection. There do seem to be some patterns — almost every day, it seems that the set includes at least one picture of each of the following: my dog Nina, a diner, a library, China, a neon sign. Almost every set has one photograph that I have altered with Picnik, fd’s Flickr tools, dumpr, or some other easy online tool — I have a weakness for those novelties. And it seems that there is always one old favorite, one I rather dislike, and one I don’t really remember taking.
David Wilkinson, aka dopiaza, the author of Flickr Mashups, created the Flickr Set Manager using the Flickr API. The random images set is about the simplest thing this tool can do — you can set criteria for inclusion based on tags or text, and add filters for date ranges and specify various sort orders. I particularly like the geographic options — among other options, you can draw a box or circle on a Google map to limit to photographs taken within that region.
dopiaza’ Flickr Set Manager — The best way to learn about this powerful tool is to give it a try
Set Manager Group — A Flickr group for support and discussion about the Set Manager
5 Questions for David Wilkinson — An interview on the code.flickr blog
