Venting or a blog on how to ruin 10 years of photography

***Warning*** My blog below is not to be taken as an attacking on a person/persons/compagny. I am simply expressing my feelings and experiences.

Well, here it goes, my confession of how I ruined 10 years of photography. As many of you know, I am an amateur photographer and have been for the past 10 years. I would post my photos on Flickr, a photo sharing website for those of you who don't know, to showcase my work. I recently made the mistake of posting a few videos, which of course, had copyrighted materiel in it, because of course they had too! Well, after having some unrelated issues with a particular feature of the site, I woke up one morning and decided to check my Flickr account, and low and behold, I could no longer log into it. I verify the typical reasons for log in issues and nothing fixed it, that's when I check my yahoo email associated with the account and that is when I see the dreaded message: "your pro account has been deleted, but you still have a free account." I knew right then and there that those blasted vids got me in "trouble." Why is that a big deal you ask, can't you just create a new account and load your photos there? Well yes, that would be a plausible solution, if I had the brains to back up my photos! So after 10 years and well over 130 thousand (yes, thousand) is gone, in one easy move, and with Yahoo staff not answering my emails, I have no way to recover my photos.

<b>Lesson 1</b>: Back up my photos from now on, duh! I will definitely be looking into a good external hard-drive to store my material.

<b>Lesson 2</b>: Never mind video, of any kind because the second you have music, even in the background, here comes copyright laws. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against copyright laws, as a photographer, I've had to use them since a couple of people tried to use my photos without my knowledge/permission, so I know how important copyright is for everyone.

<b>Lesson 3</b>: Flickr has no chat/1-800 number, so for those of you reading this who have Flickr account as well, be mindfull if you get trouble, you may not be able to speak "live" with a Yahoo employee, or should I say Verizon since it bought Flickr some time ago.  This is surprising since most major companies, although forgoing 1-800 numbers, have at least a chat options so that clients could contact staff in some way to resolve their issues.

This whole situation obviously means two things for me:

1. My Flickr links posted in previous blogs will no longer work;

2. I will be looking to share my photos in a different manner. Although Flickr is still the best option despite my recent experience, I believe that I will need to present my work in a different manner. I most likely will start blogging more either through Steemit or other blogging sites, but I am still working out on how. 

If you have any thoughts/comments, please feel free to do so below and allow me this moment to vent...

Yours, someone in need of a good long day of photo taking...