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

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.

My Most Interesting and Viewed Photo on Flickr

Converge (my faith community) went out to Rosen Lake for a weekend retreat.  I left early morning Sat. and stopped to take some shots of mist rising in the foothills of southern Alberta .  Was happy with the results so made a mental note to get up early on Sunday and take pictures of Rosen Lake.

While shooting the lake, noticed Rob out for an early morning fishing expedition in his canoe, and took some shots of him.  Liked the results, even mentioned to Rob and Stacy (our hosts) that there might be something there worth doing a print of.

Posted three shots of Rob in the canoe to flickr Tuesday night.  Got a couple of responses from my contacts, which were appreciated and went to bed.

Woke up Wed morning to find that the shot Rob's Return was now my most viewed photo in my nine years of posting to flickr.  The previous #1 Under Goat Creek has 9,762 views.  Most of that 9700 was thanks to weeks of it bouncing around on various tumbler blogs.    I was thinking I should blog it when it passed the 10k mark as it would be my first picture to do so.

In less than 48 hours Rob's Return now has over 31k views.  It reached 28 on flickr's leader board of the top 500 pictures of the day.  Seeing the quality of the other pictures in the list is quite humbling.

Rob's Return was also my most interesting picture of all time, when I checked the stats last night. However 2008's Sky Canola is back on top this morning.  Flickr's interestingness algorithm is a strange beast.

I don't know what all this means, but I enjoy it more than I like to admit.

- Peace

One of My Best Shots of 2013

Calgary Folk Music Festival 2014 is this week; so I thought I'd see what was left of my shots from the CFMF 2013. Posted this one of Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine & Richard Flohil who is a Canadian Music Industry guru.

The photo has taken off, in just two days it's my 7th most viewed photo of all time.

It would have made my top 12 list for 2013 if I had posted before I had done the list.  Thought it deserved a post.

- Peace

First Explored Photo of 2014

Millrise Inukshuk is the first of my 2014 photos to make Flickr's explore, if only briefly.

It's also the 6th photo to be added to the Most Interesting of 2014 set.  That means I have enough photos to start using the set to display in the right hand side of the blog.

- Peace

My 12 Most Interesting Photos from 2013 (so far)

My most interesting shots from 2013, of the 2013 shots that I've posted so far.  Still have many 2013 shots in the pipeline.  Waiting till I'm done would mean this list would come out in April.  So it is what it is.

Can't help but notice two trends: 6/12 of my top 2013 shots come from the week I spent in San Francisco,  4/6 of my non San Francisco shots were done while biking.

	#1 Giant Head, The Bow: shot downtown back in April. A shot of Jaume Plensa's Wonderland at The Bow.
	#2 To Rule the Deep: from our visit to the San Francisco Aquarium at the end of October.
	#3 Urban Gulls: Also from our trip to San Francisco Kim get's credit for spotting the gulls on the expensive sports car.  I decided to ignore the car and frame the gulls with the urban back drop of Fisherman's Wharf.  Ironic that this would make my top 12 as a local has loudly made fun of my taking pictures of gulls earlier that day.
	#4 Jackrabbit Snow: was shot right out side our house last January
	#5 From Treasure Island: A wide angle night shot of San Francisco from Treasure Island.  Our night bus tour stopped there for a a very brief time.  Just had tip to get the gorilla pod set up and get this shot before the bus was leaving.
	#6 Alcatraz: Didn't get to visit the famous prison island. Next time.
	#7 By the River @ 2600km: My second to last 100km pic from 2013 taken from the river pathway.
	#8 Colours Spinning: a wind ornement from a shop in San Francisco
	#9 Calgary Pre Parade: on 9th Ave just before the Stampede Parade.  I was on my way to work.
	#10 Rocks Near the Surface: Shots of rocks under Goat Creek tend to be popular. My most viewed shot ever is Under Goat Creek
	#11 Single Track: from the not quite Goat Creek ride in October. Goat Creek had been flooded out in June, and wan't ridable by October. So we rode the Rundle River Side Trail.
	#12 Urban San Francisco: A shot of the city as seen from Frisherman's Wharf.

One Million Views on Flickr

Hit the one million views mark on my flickr account yesterday.  Don't know what it means.

I remember 10cent passing that mark years ago.

D'Arcy Norman hit the 2m mark before giving up flickr, and then coming back.

Don't know what view put me over, but my most viewed picture for the day was Question Mark, racking up 17 views for the day.

So I hit the million views with a big question mark.  That fits :)

- Peace
Dave

Photos on Display at the House in Kensington

Three of my photos are on display at the House Coffee Sanctuary in Kensington for the month of Aug.  They are 36" x 24" canvas prints.  So if you were looking for something unique to decorate your place with, this is your chance.

Meredith Lorfing & Jason Ho are also showing pieces.  So stop in, have a coffee and enjoy some local art.

 - Peace

Venice Top 4 Shots + 1

We had four nights in Venice. I took 2978 shots, published 110 of them to flickr.  Of those 10 made it to my Most Interesting of 2012 set.  Here are the top 4 shots and 1 that I loved that flickr didn't.

	Side Canal An iconic Venetian moment caught as we passed this side canal on a water bus.  Even caught a bit of Venetian litter in the lower left corner. I'm guessing it's the strong lines that drew people into this picture.
	Glass Fire The island of Murano is famous for it's glass-work.  This is a peice of public art on the island that I shot with my Lensbaby. I think the Lensbaby blur suggests the movement of fire. Lucked out with the clouds making such a great background.
	Reflecting Canal Did as late night walk about to see what I could find.  This is my top night shot.  I think it looks very industrial, so I'm a bit surprised that this did as well as it did.
	Smoking in the Shadow I have mixed feelings about this, cause I'm not trying to make smoking look cool.  We were stuck by how much smoking there is in Europe and so I wanted to reflect that reality.
	Flowing Just happened to come across a fashion shoot on the island of Burano.  I loved how the wind caught her dress.  Was surprised that this didn't get more attention.  One of the other shots from the shoot did make the Most Interesting of 2012 set. The people running the shoot didn't chase us tourist photographers off, and were very friendly to us.  It made my day.

I took over 11,000 photos in Europe last summer. I am currently publishing photos from our time in Rome. You can see my most interesting shots from London and Paris.