I know, I know, my blog is barely breathing. I’ve been wanting to post something totally cool AND relevant, but I haven’t found anything new lately that I felt would be worthy of posting. I was browsing through news on the latest on New Social Media and technology, but nothing was really getting me interested. So instead I went on my daily routine of checking on my favorite NSM sites, when it hit me–I already had something I could write about way before I even started this comm blog. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Flickr,anyone?
I can bet my money that most of us NSM regulars out there have at least heard of Flickr. But for those who haven’t, it’s an online photo-hosting and sharing platform, an NSM niche that is home to many aspiring as well as professional photographers the world over. Users of Flickr can upload, store, and organize their digital pictures as well as comment and edit descriptions on other users’ images. It also has an open-access sensibility, which means that users are encouraged to think up of new tools or design new services for the site. Moreover, photos can be submitted to different groups within the site, which allows each picture to be seen by a lot more people beyond the uploader’s network. It also prevents photos from going stale–wherein activities on a picture loses steam after a certain period of time–unlike other photo-hosting services.
This online community has been in existence since late 2004, and has been growing ever since. Flickr now hosts about 4 billion images uploaded by its users. But in case you’re wondering, no, this blog is not solely to proclaim to the world how awesome Flickr is. You can see that for yourself through exploring the site here. I’m also going to share a story of a romance between two amazing photographers; one that I was able to witness-online.
Boy Meets Girl – Online
Yes, the heading seems familiar. What with social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster, meeting someone new online and then offline was the emergent trend since the year 2000. But for Aaron Nace and Rosie Hardy, it was their love for photography, and Flickr, that brought them together. Aaron, 24, is a professional photographer from North Carolina. Rosie, 19, just recently graduated from college in Buxton, England. In April 2008, Aaron just so happened to come across a photo in Flickr that ridiculously looked a lot like one of his. Browsing though more pictures in the set, he found several others that had similar styles and themes with some of his own. Completely thrilled to find someone who rode the same wavelength as him, he sent the uploader a message to pick her brain. Rosie, as it turned out, had a friend who already told her about a guy with photos which looked a lot like hers. When she read Aaron’s comment, she replied as well, and thus marked the start of their Flickr love story.
Boy photoshops girl
As months passed their friendship blossomed and soon the two talented photographers were talking about being together and visiting each other. They also started an album on each of their own Flickr accounts, called compilation Sundays, wherein Rosie would take a picture of herself and send it to Aaron, who would composite his picture along with hers. Flickr users who were fans of the two instantly took notice of the romance and cheered them on. Then merely three months after they first “met”, Aaron announced that he was throwing all caution to the wind and was to visit Rosie in England. And the pictures on Flickr seemed enough to depict what went on in their first offline meeting.
A pr0duct of Compilation Sundays
Aaron and Rosie together for real
(pictures are by Aaron Nace and were taken from his aknacer Flickr account)
Girl lives with boy, and together start a business
It’s been approximately a year and a half since they met online, and about a year since I started following their romance. I still check up on the two’s Flickr accounts from time to time, and I just smiled in disbelief on what I saw today. Rosie is now living with Aaron in North Carolina, and together they have started ARF (Aaron and Rosie Fotography) which retouches photographs, sells their works, holds photography lessons, and handles clients. To date, Aaron’s Compilation Sundays album set has been viewed more than 259,000 times. There is also an ARF group in the photo-hosting site dedicated to their romance which developed before the very eyes of all their Flickr fans. The group has gained quite a following, and fan art is being created everyday by everyone who believes in online romance, and the power of love.
The moral of the story
What is perhaps most amazing about this story is that it is about two ordinary, relatively unknown individuals; yet was witnessed by thousands upon thousands of people from different countries and walks of life. Add to that the fact that these people can just as easily comment on the progressing romance of the two via the photo-hosting site. Thanks to Aaron and Rosie, we can now add “Creates boundless love connections” and “Inspires people” to the wonders of New Social Media.
Now I bet that’s something you don’t hear about everyday.
(To view Aaron’s work click here. To view Rosie’s, click here. To view their ARF website, click here.
