Flickr Shock

Got home from work today and opened up my Inbox, to find it deluged with activity on one of my Flickr shots. Now, I don't post that many on Flickr, my account only has 83 photos, mainly due to the fact that I don't have much spare time for my photography.

It turns out the shot got 'explored' and has just short of 10,000 views so far with over 250 fav's. I'm not sure why this has happened as it isn't one of my 'best' or 'favourite' shots. What makes an image 'explored' and why this particular one for me link?

Regards
David

Sounds like an army of twitchers have tweeted..et voila..the power of social media.

It's a great shot though David..I can see why so many people like it.

Karlo

It's a lovely shot.

Its a beautiful image David, not surprised they have selected it for Explore.

A lovely shot, David but odd that one of your (in my opinion) superior landscapes hasn't been selected. I don't really get bird photography, I mean I like to see birds and take a general passing interest when out walking, for example, I was transfixed by the first flock of this winter's redwings last Sunday, but really, how many shots of robins, goldfinches or even kingfishers do we need particularly when it's all been done so much better before? There's a sense of "seen one; seen them all". (That'll upset some ornithologists, I bet!)

I use Flickr as a kind of cloud storage, so have several thousand images available... all of which are studiously ignored by fellow uses of the site!

David

There are many algorithms for getting explored.

There are many out there that make this their lifes goal to get as many explored and to have the highest position of the day explored...sad.

There are many things you can do....

Here are the things that I have discovered...

* Post only one photo a day (do more so at night because thats when america is looking)
* comment on as many peoples photos as possible
* use only 5-8 tags
* only share to five groups max
* share your photo on social media
* add tags, metadata to where its taken etc.


Unfortunately there is a lot of sh*t on explore too - for some reason the page is obsessed with dolls and police cars.

What gives?

Be careful going down the explored path - it can mess you up

I have noticed that if you mention any part of the female anatomy or "wife" in the tags you get more hits, no matter what the quality of the image. Wonder why?

And of course by highlighting it here has produced a few more hits!!

Seriously; it is a fabulous shot. Composition is just right and its tack sharp with a good saturation as well!

Congratulations David its a fine picture of a bird but like Andrew I think you have many far better images among your landscapes.
David

PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout

Thanks for the information Alistair, I never set out to get anything 'explored', I just post a few pictures and hope someone likes to look at them. I'm not a prolific photographer, I have no desire to earn any living from it, but I do try to aim for quality.

I suppose some people on Flickr set out to gain as many views, favourites and comments as possible whereas others just use it as a storage medium. I use it for neither, I just like to put a few of my better shots on there.

Regards
David