Flickr Top Five

These are the top 5 photographs in my photostream based on Flickr’s “Interestingness” rating.

#5. 6,231 views 82 favorites

#4. 3,127 views  67 favorites

#3. 18,823 views 146 favorites

#2. 14,007 views 110 favorites

#1. 12,679 views 155 favorites

II think it’s fitting that my most interesting photo would be one of my daughter. I’ve been with her every single day for the entirety of her life. These are flickr’s top five, but not my personal top five, not even close. I have more than 11,000 images stored on flickr, and I’d guess that about 1,000 of them are public. If views were worth five bucks each and favorites a dollar I’d be doing okay for folding money.

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Subhumans and an Old Tree

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I’ve used up all of my storage space, so until I can raise enough money to upgrade this blog, I will have to share my photos through flickr. There is just no way I can abandon this blog, it has become a part of me. I appreciate everyone who reads and comments and provides friendship both virtual and real. I love photography. I have to admit I am still trying to figure out how to make money through photography, and I’m full of ideas but low on following through. Suddenly I find myself with a lot of free time on my hands so I hope that will be the spark that ignites the flame.

I’m close to reaching 5,000 followers of this blog. I guess that is small compared to the billions that are hooked into the world wide web, but I’m not giving up yet. Up until this point, I’ve just been randomly shooting and posting those images on various social media outlets across the web. Obsessively. Since I bought my Pentax K-5 in 2012 I have clicked the shutter over 200,000 times. This camera rocks. Once I start making some money maybe I’ll buy a K-3. but I probably won’t need to because these cameras are built like a tank. Time to put up or shut up.

Thanks to all of you for reading and providing your words of encouragement. They keep me going.

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Every day Flickr’s magic elves flick on their “interestingness algorithm” machine and select the 500 most interesting photos to display on their “explore” page. It’s a little like getting an image on the front page of the website, except that you have to share the front page with 500 other people, and let’s face it, most people probably don’t scroll further than the first 50 photos or so. The reward for having an image make the explore page is basically exposure in the form of views and likes. So with tempered enthusiasm I would like to announce that this image was deemed to be the 4th most interesting image in the 24 hour period that was April 7th, 2014. #4 out of 8.6 million is at least worth some shameless self-promotion I think.

“Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute — That’s about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That’s only one image in every 17,000!”

I’m proud of this image because that is my daughter on that swing, a moment that I was able to share with almost 10,000 people. It’s nice to be appreciated by your peers. It feels great to experience these small successes, even if it is only to affirm that you aren’t completely wasting your time following your dreams. It’s nice to know that someone cares enough to look, and every once in awhile throw you a bone in the form of clicks, thumbs ups, gold stars, plus signs, happy faces, etc. Those little virtual high fives that say “Keep up the good work, I see what your doing and I like it.”

I usually stick to haiku because it’s short and sweet, but packs a punch if you use it right. That’s all I usually have time for. Being a full time student and stay-at-home dad means that private time to write and reflect has to be snatched up in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else in the house is in a deep enough slumber to ensure no distractions. By then I’m so tired, I’m just like, 5-7-5, cool picture, and Good Night.

Thank you to all of you who take the time to stop in and check out my blog. I love sharing the experiences that I have and the things that I see with you. Thank you for being a part of this amazing, collective, internet brain that we all share. I travel the globe daily through your blogs. I learn from your successes as well as your mistakes. I value your opinions and your friendship. Most of us will never meet in person, but you will all be a part of the experience that is my life. All you complete strangers cheering me on, rooting for me, sharing your kind words, thank you, it really means so much to me.

You make me a little bit better at everything! Success feels great.

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Denver Street Photography

#39 on Explore, 13,823 views, 132 Favorites, 26 comments.

#293 on Explore, 2,731 views, 51 favorites,8 comments

#422 on Explore, 2,178 views, 46 favorites, 14 comments.

I think I have finally cracked the code on how to share your images successfully on Flickr. That is if you place Flickr notoriety as importance, which not everyone does.

 

I enjoy Flickr and I have personally made connections with some photographers whose work I really respect and admire. When someone that produces amazing images tells me they like my work, it motivates me to keep going, to keep trying to raise the bar and create even better work.

 

This one recently made the Explore page. When you get “Explored” on Flickr, it means that your image was deemed one of the top 500 most interesting images on Flickr in a 7 day period. In the past week since I changed my strategy on Flickr, I have had three images make the cut.

 

I don’t really know what changed. I have been on Flickr for a long time and never got much attention at all. Since 2010 the highest amount of views on any one image would be around 100, with 2 or 3 people who favorited my images. I’ve really been treating Flickr just like a storage dump. I didn’t calculate what images I was going to share, I just made everything public and shared hundreds of images at a time. I didn’t care about views or favorites or any of that. Turns out I was doing it wrong.

 

When I made my entire body of images private and started only sharing the stuff I think has value to my photostream I received instant gratification. My view counts were going up to 700, 800, 1000 views. People began commenting on my work. I joined in on conversations about other people’s photography, and suddenly one of my images started blowing up my iPhone alerts. When it was all said and done that image received over 13,000 views and was favorited 132 times.

It feels good, I feel validated, but I’m left feeling hungry for more. Now any image that does not get more than 13,000 views is like a disappointment to me. I know it’s all mental, but it’s weird how that works. Now that I have achieved something in the tens of thousands, I strive to get something in the millions.

It really isn’t as hard getting your work noticed as you might think. Here is my “stating the obvious” advice that you may have already heard:

• Share only your best work. Keep the rest of it private.

 

• Try sharing only 1 image every 24 hours.

 

• Browse Flickr and curate your favorite photographs, by leaving comments and giving good pictures the credit they deserve by favoriting them.

 

• When you leave a comment on a photograph, try to be a little more in depth. One word comments are cool, but constructive feedback and an explanation of what you find interesting about the image goes a long way towards engaging the community in a conversation.

 

Pretty much common sense, in Tumblr speak it is condensed down to “Follow for Follow.”

The blogging community depends on one another to gain traction and create a following. My success is your success, humans cooperating in order to help each other improve. We hold each other up, we provide encouragement and valuable insight, and we share our experiences. If you are a good person you can become a great blogger. It just takes hard work, dedication, and teamwork. Good photos are also a plus, but not always necessary as you will see if you browse the explore page.