The UnifyPhotos app is in the process of migrating my Flickr photos – 92 sets worth – to Facebook. I’ve been a Flickr Pro member since September 2004, but it’s time to move on.

There are a variety of reasons, but ultimately it’s the cost. It’s not that I can’t afford $25 a year, it’s that I’m not comfortable committing to $25 every year, indefinitely, just to see what I’ve uploaded. Which is what their recent pricing change – which limited access for non-pro users to your last 200 photos – means.

To be clear, it’s Flickr’s right to charge what they will: they’re not obligated to provide me with free photo hosting, indefinitely. But with a variety of free alternatives available, it’s difficult for me to justify the cost, particularly given I’m more likely to use a cameraphone these days than my Nikon.

And while I exported my Flickr photos to Picasa Web Albums a few months back, I prefer Facebook because for me it’s not about the photos.

The professional and semi-professional photographers I know all more or less universally advantage higher end photo hosts like Smugmug, which is a logical destination for higher end pictures. I long ago accepted the fact that I’m not likely to produce many of those, however. Pictures for me instead are useful in context; milemarkers on the road of life. Literally, actually: Facebook’s mapping UI is particularly well executed. By themselves, my shots are don’t quite make the amateur grade. As one component of Facebook’s Timeline, they’re compelling, at least to me.

For now then, it’s sayonara Flickr and hello Facebook.