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RECREATIONAL fisherfolk who come across great waterway scenes or who land superb catches against stunning backgrounds can now make money from doing what they probably would anyway – taking a few photos on their mobile phones.
An Australian-designed and developed photography app, PicTrax, has been engineered to create a unique Australia-wide catalogue of great mobile phone shots. Postcard-style waterway locations are expected to be a major section of the PicTrax app given the widespread appeal trophy fish photographed in impressive waterways inherently have. The person taking the photo has the choice to remain anonymous.
The free PicTrax app, which is available on Android and Apple platforms, also geographically pins the photo to the event’s location and interfaces with directions on how to travel to it. Each amateur or professional mobile phone snapper who uploads the photo to the app then earns money in direct proportion to the photo’s popularity.
The popularity is determined by the number of votes it receives from people who view it. Once the photo reaches a minimum threshold, the credits earned can be taken by the photographer in cash.
The app also holds the photo as a personal travel and events diary for the person who took the photos. It can be shared with family and friends. Even if the phone is lost, the photographs and their pinned locations remain intact on PixTrax.
The app was conceived and created by Brisbane-based Obelia McCormack who self-funded its development. “The app brings an unrivalled level of individuality to the photos, allowing the mobile phone photographer to use it for one-off events, to create a major social following, or any level in between,” Obelia said.
“PicTrax also has a 19-point, easy-to-read chart comparing its features with those of Instagram, Google Maps, Pinterest, Tripadvisor, Facebook and YouTube. The nearest of them has only 10 of PicTrax’s 19 dynamic features and the rest, while perhaps great for other purposes, are not even close to the design direction of PicTrax. We’re always using are smartphones to snap the places and events we want to remember.
“PicTrax is primarily about the impressive views, outlooks and landscapes as well as the events held there. It’s not about a photo of a meal or a 21st birthday.”
That’s a keen difference between PicTrax and other apps – it’s scenery and happenings, rather than people pulling funny faces.
“We’re actually already building our own, unique, photographic libraries,” Obelia said. “PixTrax provides a platform to share those libraries as a source of information for others as well as ourselves, and for the smartphone photographers to be financially rewarded for doing so. The app’s website pictrax.com also includes tutorials to show how it’s done, but a key objective was to make the technology incredibly user-friendly and simple. We’ve been able to achieve that. As well as being designed for the amateur snapper, PicTrax also provides opportunities for budding professional photographers to publish a portfolio URL and create an avenue for image sales.”
PicTrax users are required to agree to the PicTrax Terms of Service, which among other things, requires users to declare they have the legal rights to take, upload and display their photos.
The app and further details can be accessed at pictrax.com
