One tangible reward with writing software is to see your hard work put to practical use.  A great place to see Shotwell put to work by “average” users is at the “I use Shotwell as a photo manager” Flickr photostream.  I put quotes around “average” because these photos were not produced by average users in any way — whether or not they’re sophisticated computer users, they certainly have an above-average command of light and lens.  The next time someone says open-source software hasn’t produced anything useful for the “average” user, send them to this Flickr group’s page.

Browse the entire collection when you get a chance, there are some great ones.  I’ve embedded below a few that caught my eye, but there’s plenty more to admire in the almost 400 photos (and counting) in the pool. I can’t say with any certainty how involved Shotwell was in the process of producing these fantastic images, but I like to believe it was more than a little…