10 years, 2M views on Flickr

My photos on flickr racked up their 2 millionth view yesterday.  I don't know what picture got the magic 2 millionth view; I can say Fire was the mosted viewed image that day.

I've been on flickr since June of 2005, so that's just over 10 years now.  I hit 1 million views back in 2013 and I feel about the same with 2 million views.  Still 10 years with flickr deserves something  so here are my top photos in Explore by year going back to 2005. Explore is flickr's top 500 photos for the day the photo was uploaded.

Seattle Great Wheel : 2015 (so far) #205 in Explore. Only shot on the list taken with my new Pentax K3ii
Rob's Return: 2014, #41 I've previously blogged about Rob's Return, no surprise that it's on this list.
Giant Head, the Bow: 2013 #101 One of Calgary's most iconic public art installations in front of one of our most iconic building. With a ranking of 101 this tied with Jackrabbit Snow for 2014's highest rank in Explore.  I went with Giant Head as it as more than double the views.
London Eye Pod, 2012 #14 Taken from the top of the London Eye, on our trip to Europe to celebrate our 20th Anniversary. Flickr currently ranks this as my most interesting picture.
Green Points: 2011 #350 Taken on our trip up BC's Sunset Coast.  The only photo on this list taken with a Lensbaby. The second shot from BC to make this list.
Calgary Tower in Fog: 2010 #51 We don't get much fog in Calgary but when we do it can lead to some cool photos.
Action in Lane 20: 2009 #50 The Calgary Flickr Meet Up Group rented a bowling alley and I got this cool shot of the bright ball and pins falling. The only indoor shot to make the list.
Sky Canola: 2008 #350 Taken with my point and shoot while biking.  I didn't even stop to take this shot, just pointed the camera at the field and kept going. Flickr ranks this as my second most interesting shot of all time.
First Macro Experiment: 2007 #82 Flowers in the Quebec City Farmer's market.  I had just gotten my first SRL (Pentax's K10d).  I had gone to the market the day before, but went back with a macro lens to see if I could get better results - looks like I did :)
Queen of the Ducks: 2006 #107 Another Flickr Meetup group shot.  Fellow flickerite Lisataime brought seed to attract the ducks and I got in on the actions.
Street Humor: 2005 #97 On 17th ave.  I had to pay him to get this shot. Again taken while out the the Calgary Flickr Meet Up Group.  I do miss that group.  They had a huge impact on my photography.

This post made possible by Flickr Scout.

- Peace

300 km, 400 km, Group Rides and many Daves on Bikes

Hit the 300 km mark at the end of a ~700m climb up to the top of the Highwood pass.  Wow do I suck at climbing.  ~3 hours to go 17km.  Did the trip back down in ~45 minutes.

Thanks to the other Dave K. for organizing.




Hit the 400 km mark wile riding Goat Creek with David M. and 16 other riders + me for a total of 18.  I think that's a record number of riders for the Goat Creek ride.

100, 200 and the goal for 2015

Hit the first 100km of the 2015 riding season while doing a couple of loops around Vancouver's Stanley Park on the May Long weekend.  We had gone out to Vancouver to visit Sarah.

Started the day at about the 89km mark, and finished around the 154km mark.  It's was a good day.


Hit the 200km  today on the way back from Converge in Kensington.  Was stopped on the 7th St. Cycle track next to this cute dog in the bike basket.

So what's the 2015 goal?  Well last year I made it to 2100km.  I'll add 500 to that and aim for 2600km in 2015.

- Peace

Beauty - a Lenten poem

He had no form or comeliness That we should look at him, And no beauty that we should desire him. — Isaiah 53:2 

A whiff. A beagle for beauty I sniffed Monet’s haystacks, van Gogh’s sunflowers, 
Devoutly meditated Marilyn’s breasts, 
Watched kingfishers—lost the scent. 

Kiss the leper’s wound: taste honey. 
Touch the blind eye: learn Braille. 
Keep vigil at the cradle: change diapers.
Drink tears from the chalice: live eucharist. 

Happened on found things, found in gutters 
Found on a cross, found under a stone, 
Heard in the rustling grass, heard in 
A tongue stammering sabachthani. 
Found when I wasn’t looking, heard 
When I wasn’t listening. 
Found beauty.

- Beauty by Eugene Peterson

So far my favorite poem from Holy Luck by Eugene Person. Resonated with my understanding of Lent.  The giving up of what we normally seek so that beauty can find us.

- Peace

First Three Interesting Photos of 2015

I have a simple Groovy script that reads the flickr search api and tells me when photos break into my Top 500 in terms of interestingness.   (They really should update that page, there is no way it's a new feature.)

At the start of each year, I have this fear that I won't shoot anything interesting this year.  So it was relief when I ran the script today and three pictures from 2015 had made the top 500.

Spray Lakes by Moonlight Drove up to the spray lakes to take a shot of the Lights of Canmore, while there I spun around and took a shot of the north end of the Spray Lakes Reservoir.  It was a full moon or close to it, but the moon was behind the misty clouds that acted like a big diffuser.  This was an 8 second tripod exposure at 200 ISO. Had been warm that day, but temperature had dropped to -15 or so and the ice was cracking loudly.  Freaky.
Lights of Canmore The reason we had driven up the Spray Lakes was for this view.  Had shot something similar, free hand with my point & shoot as a 100km shot post Goat Creek in 2013. Knew it would be better with the K5-IIs and a tripod. Didn't know how the fact that it was snowing in Canmore would affect the shot, would we be able to see the town at all?  Still you don't know if you don't try.  Glad we did, the snow above the town created a wonderful glow.
Mixed Space A shot of the underside of Macleod Trail where it crosses Fish Creek Park. Used a couple of different filters to contract the natural and the concrete in the space.

Hand Writing Over 10,000 Views

Noticed that Hand Writing, a popular shot from 2009 had passed the 10,000 view mark.  I hadn't had a shot with over 10,000 views until Rob's Return did over 30k in a few days.

- Peace

Little Red Riding Hood Basket vs. Axe

Did a coplay concept shoot back in April while in Portland for a Wedding.  Connected with PiggyNukka/Fungila via ModelMayhem.

Said I would love to do something unique to Portland and she suggested shooting in one of parks Portland's rainforest parks.  I had had a concept of doing a Little Red Riding Hood shoot comparing the traditional LRRH with LRRH as the one with the axe.  The concept matched her location idea so that's what we did.

Posted the first ten shots to LRRH on flickr, I think they work.  More to come.

Backgrounds in the pics done with Topaz Impression software.

- Peace

Top Twelve Photos from 2014

My annual roundup of the top twelve shots from the previous year, as ranked by Flickr Interestingness

	Rob's Return: Currently ranked #3 shot of all time.  London Eye Pod is #1, Sky Canola  is #2. Shot at Rosen Lake in Aug. Only shot from the top 12 to get it's own blog post.
	Taken just mintures after Rob's Return, Water Radish ranks #6 on my all time list. The only other picture from 2014 to break the top 10 of my +7000 pictures on flickr
	On Lake Minnewanka: Taken in March in Banff. My top 3 shots are all lake shots. Hmmm
	Shale @ 1500km:  as the title suggests, taken at the 1500km mark for biking this year. Was coming down a logging road near lake Rosen. Same weekend as #1 & #2. It was a good weekend.
	Tram Into Rainbow Mist:  Jasper Sky Tram  shot during an inversion.  Clear sky above us, clouds below created the rainbow effect.
	Heading Down at 700km: taken while descending from the Highwood Pass just before it opened for traffic in May.  My top #6 were all taken in mountain regions.   Flickr also seems to like clouds, mountains and roads.
	Rosen Lake Morning (Ultra Wide): Taken in the same batch as #1 & #2, and the same weekend as #4.  Like I said good weekend.  Also, mountains, lake & clouds.
	Sea of Clouds: Clouds looking like a large lake.  Mountains in the distance.  How could it not be on the list? Shot in Jasper during the same inversion as Tram into Rainbow Mist.
	Stand Out: Siwash Rock taken while biking  the Stanley Park Seawall in Vancouver.  Reminds me of the Hopewell Flower Pots in NB. Clouds, mountains, path: check!
	Millrise Inukshuk: a neighbour created this Inukshuk from the compacted ice that he scraped off his sidewalk. Given it was taken in Calgary, it breaks the mountain region streak.  Still in tone it fits with many of the images to make the list. The ice/water/water vapour (clouds) theme holds. My only Calgary shot to make the list this year.
	Waiting to Cross: a grizzly bear  waiting to cross the Icefields Parkway.  Technically a horrible shot.  I was getting dark and the settings were from an hour or so ago.  Looked black on the camera, but it's amazing what software can do. Tonally it breaks the 2014 theme, but it has a grizzly!  It was taken in the mountains. so that holds.
	Maligne Lake & Mt Charlton:  from our visit to Jasper.  Also a good weekend.  As it produced four of the top twelve shots. Clearly a return to the lake & mountains theme.