A little update on the picture in the last post. "Mennonite Boys Watching Dirt-Track Racing" was picked for Flickr's "Explore" feature, and now has 16,824 18,449 views and has been picked as a "Favorite" by 427 456 viewers. Since Flickr counts popularity by number of Favorites, that means it's my most popular picture on Flickr.
Pretty nice. Weird, though, that it doesn't really do my Flickr Photostream or the blog any good. If someone clicks on my image from Explore, and then clicks right or left, what they see is what's next to my picture on the Explore page, not more of my pictures. Also, despite a new link in the image description (I got explicit permission from Flickr, in order to avoid the potential for difficulties), I haven't seen any additional traffic to TOP.
No biggie. But I thought it was interesting. Pool day today! More anon.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
I find it so very interesting as an example of what an individual photographer goes looking for. I might well have taken the shot had I seen it but I probably wouldn't have because it is not what I look for. Rather than link any here, my Instagram is full of what I do look for, some better than others. Trees. Barns. Pink flamingos... ;)
https://www.instagram.com/wlewisiii/
My taste in landscapes is not the same as yours, to put it mildly. That's not a bad thing in my book. I love seeing your work. I have one of your prints on my wall next to me as I type this and I dearly love it. But I could not have caught that image either. In the meantime, though, I'll keep taking mine and sharing them on Insta & hoping that the few who see them perhaps enjoy them even half as much as I enjoy seeing those two lads watching the dirt track racers.
Posted by: William Lewis | Monday, 03 July 2023 at 10:02 AM
My impression is that while there are people on Flickr who would be interested in TOP, they are not the people looking at the most recent Explore photos. Also, people in general are very conservative about following links. I send out a newsletter to 900 people. 300 might read it on a good day. 10 might click on a link I ask them to check out. And this is a newsletter to a sympathetic, interested audience.
Posted by: John Krumm | Monday, 03 July 2023 at 10:57 AM
Social media is just another name for data mining. Flickr isn't helpful to me so I never view. Doesn't seem to be very helpful to you either đ
Posted by: c.d.embrey | Monday, 03 July 2023 at 01:03 PM
Very Nice
Posted by: Hasnain Sami | Tuesday, 04 July 2023 at 03:10 AM
When I find a picture I like on the Explore page, I right click the photographers name to open their Photostream in a new tab before clicking the Return to Explore link. By the time I get to the bottom of the Explore page I usually have half a dozen Photostreams to review.
Posted by: Jim Arthur | Tuesday, 04 July 2023 at 10:16 AM
Congratulations, but also depressing, as someone who has uploaded hundreds of photos to Flickr over 10 years and never gotten Explore or anywhere near those view totals. I conclude therefore that I stink as a photographer.
[We have a saying in my 12-step program: "Never compare. Relate." It never helps to compare yourself to other people. If you're doing what you do, that's what you should relate to. People thought Thelonious Monk stunk as a piano player. People thought Dylan stunk as a singer. People thought Jackson Pollock stunk as a painter. --Mike]
Posted by: Patrick | Tuesday, 04 July 2023 at 01:11 PM
I still think Dylan isn't much of a singer. But he's been quite successful at it, so he can afford to laugh at me all the way to the bank. And he's a spectacular songwriter (which I'm sure helped his singing career a lot too!).
And I don't like Jackson Pollock's work muchâbut even I can see that the most trivializing commentary on it is flat-out incorrect. Those splashes are not at random. (I've read many articles from people who tried to do that themselves and got very different results, too.) I don't see the point of them, but again, his heirs at least, or whoever owns his works, can laugh all the way to the bank at my lack of understanding.
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Tuesday, 04 July 2023 at 04:01 PM
Re: Patrickâs comment about âI stink as a photographerâŚâ, we photographers have to satisfy ourselves with the photos we take of the things, people, landscapes, etc. that we like and we see. Then, we can only conclude that the people who donât like our work simply donât understand it or what we saw and felt when we made the photograph. Just because people donât like our work doesnât mean our vision or taste are wrong! Photography isnât a case where the voters decide whether an artist is any good; they just determine whoâs popular.
Posted by: Craig Beyers | Saturday, 08 July 2023 at 11:29 AM