The elegant flickr exporter from fraser speirs at speirs.org has been updated to, amongst other things, work with iPhoto. (Or I assume so, when I upgraded from iPhoto 4.x to iPhoto 5.x the flickr uploader didn't work and nor did any of the export functions.) This natty little utility allows a direct export from the iPhoto catalogue to flickr, and most significantly, keeps all of the tags that you assigned from Apple's software. It is simple, does its job and buggers off again without a complaint, which is exactly how I like my applications to work.

My fellow flickrer aesop complained that the flickr exporter hijacked the standard export functions of iPhoto and so uses the flickr uploadr instead. (available here). Speir's site shows an image with all the functions still working, but alas on my version at least, this is not the case. I'll write to the man and see what happens.

iPhoto itself is a neat update. The RAW importer renders iPhoto useful to me as a cataloguing tool direct from the CF cards, which is a genuine change in work flow. However, it doesn't export to Photoshop in the RAW format but converts it into a 8-bit JPG and then sends it, which renders the RAW importer a little on the pointless side, as I've got to find the original file in the finder, then open that in Photoshop in order to enjoy the fetishistic image tweaking that titilates photographers so much. It is also a lot slower than PS on general handling. (I measured this in quantifiable metrics known as the 'should-I-boil-the-kettle-and-have-another-cuppa-whilst-waiting' factor.)

Oh well, perhaps there will be a iPhoto 5.5...