One of YCombinator's "Startup ideas we'd like to fund" was "9. Photo/video sharing services." So there's somebody else out there that doesn't think Flickr/Photobucket/FaceBook is the last word in photo-sharing.
"...but how I want it" are powerful words. If existing products don't do what you want, and you can find a way to make them do what you want without a huge team and lots of $$, why not?
Like i said, if his app brings something different to the table like Fotonauts, bring it on (read my first post: I said change the game plan only if it offers nothing different over the existing services. I didn't say forget about the idea).
It's just that I've seen too many startups doing photo-sharing sites (admit it. You've seen your fair share of them) promising something different but in the end, they offer nothing compelling over the current services.
It's like someone saying they want to build a craigslist killer because of all sort of cool features that they can't do with craigslist. And when they launch it, yeah they're right. There are some cool features that they can't do with craigslist like advanced filtering but these are not compelling enough to differentiate themselves.
"...but how I want it" are powerful words. If existing products don't do what you want, and you can find a way to make them do what you want without a huge team and lots of $$, why not?