If you need to download several images at once, better turn to Bulkr to automate the process. Retrieve from Flickr If you upload your photos to Flickr, you can download them again by logging into your account, clicking on the photo you want to retrieve and then clicking the Download link immediately below the picture (on the far-right of the screen, within the black background). You can also, as we mentioned, quickly and easily drag a copy of each one onto an external drive for an immediate backup. Now, anytime you want to access an image you've shot on your iPhone from the Mac, you can get to it directly without first importing it through iPhoto or Aperture. The Photo Stream link will immediately appear at the bottom of the Favourites section of your Finder window sidebar. Click the Save button at the end of the Search line (where you clicked 'sub' to restrict the search criteria above), give the result a logical name such as 'Photo Stream', and make sure the box beside Add To Sidebar is ticked.
You'll now see a window full of pictures, rather than lots of folders. On the next line down, make sure the first drop-down menu is set to 'Kind' and the second one is set to 'Image'. Storing a link to your iCloud Photo Stream in the OS X Finder sidebar lets you back up its contents more easily