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# Hacking Photo Booth
- URL: https://www.chrismessina.me/blog/hacking-photo-booth/
- Published: 2006-01-25T19:55:53.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-25T03:34:11.000Z
- Author: Chris Messina
- Tags: Life online, Technology

**Update:** [Tristan O'Tierney](http://www.otierney.net/?ref=chrismessina.me) discovered this lazyweb requested and created a PhotoBooth add-on called [FlickrBooth](http://www.otierney.net/flickrbooth?ref=chrismessina.me)! It's free and works like a charm! Check it out![](http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/91256607/?ref=chrismessina.me)I suck at coding, so I'm just going to seed this idea and hope someone does the hardwork for me and releases the results. I stopped by the [Palo Alto Apple Store](http://laughingsquid.com/2005/12/30/palo-alto-apple-store/?ref=chrismessina.me) today on my way back from lunch and had my first [Photo Booth](http://www.apple.com/imacg5/isight.html?ref=chrismessina.me) experience. Wow. What a cool piece of software...! Talkin' to [Matt](http://photomatt.net/?ref=chrismessina.me), I had an idea: create an Applescript to upload the shots it takes to either a WordPress blog or to the Flickr [group](http://flickr.com/groups/applephotobooth/?ref=chrismessina.me) tagged with "[applephotobooth](http://flickr.com/photos/tags/applephotobooth/interesting/?ref=chrismessina.me)" automagically. This should be fairly easy, since each photo is stored in */\~Pictures/Photo Booth/Photo \[#\].jpg*. You could simply hook up the [Flickr Uploadr](http://www.flickr.com/tools/?ref=chrismessina.me) or [1001](http://1001.kung-foo.tv/?ref=chrismessina.me) as the upload tool... and maybe toss in a little [Automator action](http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/?ref=chrismessina.me) to make it all happen in the background. Then you could aggregate the results (hmm, with [Suprglu](http://suprglu.com/?ref=chrismessina.me) or [Drupal](http://drupal.org/?ref=chrismessina.me)?) and presto! A literally global Photo Booth! Of course, the real hack here is getting this script on to iMac G5s at Apple Stores around the world... hook it up to Riya and boom, now you can search for your friends getting kissy-kissy @ Apple Stores!

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### 💬 Comments from the original post

**heat** · 2006-01-25 22:17:41

brilliant idea, and id be more than happy to put it in motion at my local apple store (soho, NYC)... of course, given instructions.

**[CyBeRHQ.nl » World-Wide Photobooth](http://www.cyberhq.nl/2006/01/27/world-wide-photobooth.html?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2006-01-26 14:13:14

\[...\] 2:33 by Marco World-Wide Photobooth I just wanted to give this idea some exposure: a World-Wide Photobooth, because I think it is brilliant and I should have come up with \[...\]

**Wy** · 2006-01-27 01:56:51

I actually worked for apple over the holidays and did this with my idisk. It works great, the thing that you need to be careful about is if you publish them, there is a rights issue. Somebody might get all lame about you publising the shots works like a charm tho, and you get some really good photos ;)

**[Gary Allen](http://www.ifoapplestore.com/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2006-02-01 17:44:49

Great idea....but, the computers at Apple retail stores are completely restored from an Xserve every morning using Netboot. That's why Apple can so successfully allow complete access to the computers when the stores are open, and yet be confident that they'll turn on and operate the next day. So, even if you were able to install some scripts, etc., they'd be gone the next day. On the other hand, sounds like a great idea for Apple to implement!

**[Ask and yee shall receive: FlickrBooth at FactoryCity](http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/12/13/ask-and-yee-shall-receive-flickrbooth/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2007-01-23 17:31:44

\[...\] a year ago, I asked for someone to hack Photo Booth so that I could upload photos directly to Flickr. This would be useful at BarCamps, parties and, \[...\]

**[digital photo printing](http://digitalphotoprinting.org/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2007-02-08 19:37:17

thanks for the idea

**fashionlover** · 2007-03-26 23:45:36

hey where can i find a hack for photo booth so i can download it on my imac g4 and my ibook...

**[Chris Messina](http://factorycity.net/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2007-03-28 11:36:58

@fashionlover: not sure -- I tried to get PhotoBooth to work on my Mac Mini and couldn't figure it out. When it comes out, give [Skitch](http://plasq.com/skitch?ref=chrismessina.me) a try!

**[Christoph Burgdorfer](http://emcons.net/blog?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2007-06-09 02:14:06

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Photo Booth has no interface to AppleScript and therefore cannot be programmed in Automator. Too bad, I like your Idea though.

**[Chris Messina](http://factorycity.net/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2007-06-09 07:52:32

@Chrisoph: my request has actually been answered with [FlickrBooth](http://www.otierney.net/flickrbooth?ref=chrismessina.me)! Check it out!

**[Setting up your own BarCamp Photobooth « ‘Round the Bar Campfire](http://barcamp.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/setting-up-your-own-barcamp-photobooth/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2007-08-21 13:55:49

\[...\] setup for us. I used an app called Flickrbooth (written by Tristan O’Tierney in response to a lazyweb request I had put out in January of 2006) to upload the photos directly to the BarCamp Flickr \[...\]

**[charm](http://youtube-argentina.biz.ua/?ref=chrismessina.me)** · 2008-02-08 11:24:02

**charm...**I think you have a valid point here?....