Proof of Your Privilege – Explored

Proof of Your Privilege
Proof of Your Privilege

An alley I’ve photographed before methinks, but not with about six inches of snow covering.

Hipstamatic snapshot, using the Florence Lens, and BlacKeys Extra Fine Film

Currently #323 in Flickr Explore for December 12th, 2013.

My Favorite Uploads to Flickr in April 2013

 I thought last month’s total was light, but I only worked on 51 images in April, probably my least productive month in a long, long time. Although, two of these made Flickr Explore…

Flickr: Archive of your uploads to Flickr in April 2013.

I was fighting off a few illnesses1, plus my birthday, plus general slackitude. C’est la vie.

Without additional blah-blah, here are my personal favorites processed in April, 2013.

Constitution of the United States
Constitution of the United States

Hail To The Thief Redux
Hail To The Thief Redux

Byrrh
Byrrh
I have only had this once, at the bar at Arami while waiting for my table. I’m going to find a bottle of my own eventually.

Drink to the Men Who Protect You and I
Drink to the Men Who Protect You and I

While Your Traces Disappear
While Your Traces Disappear
I’ve mentioned this photo before. I made myself a 16″ x 20″ print mounted on bamboo from The Darkroom. Turned out nice.

Peel Back the Sky
Peel Back the Sky

Your Arms Were Shaking
Your Arms Were Shaking
I wonder how many photos of the West Loop at sunset I’ve taken? A lot, I’m sure.

My first ever Vesper
My first ever Vesper
James Bond doesn’t have the best taste in cocktails. Martinis should really be shaken, not stirred, so he got that right, but vodka and martini are two words that should never be joined in the same sentence.

Each Has His Burden
Each Has His Burden
Lovely white birch in front of the lovely Bahá’í Temple in Wilmette.

We Have Never Been Very Pure
We Have Never Been Very Pure
Manhattan Beach, LA. I’ve mentioned this photo before. I should make a print of it too.

Feel of rain in the face
Feel of rain in the face
Manhattan Beach, LA.

Birthday Pie
Birthday Pie
I wasn’t kidding, I did have a birthday this month. Cherry pie, of course.

Pinhole Self Portrait Circa 1994
Pinhole Self Portrait Circa 1994 I scanned this recently, unfortunately, the print is fairly damaged. Some friend of a friend who was a grad student at the ARTIC back in the mid-90s built the pinhole out of a coffee can, and brought a flash. I just posed.

Trust In Your Calling
Trust In Your Calling

Science Won't Change You
Science Won’t Change You

Take A Walk Through The Land of Shadows
Take A Walk Through The Land of Shadows

An Approximation of the Anticipation
An Approximation of the Anticipation

A Harmony Not Rarefied
A Harmony Not Rarefied

Footnotes:
  1. yes, plural []

While Your Traces Disappear – Explored

While Your Traces Disappear
While Your Traces Disappear

Cool! Another photo has made it into Flickr Explore, and with even more favorites than the last photo got.  I take and process photos every day, or attempt to, and I always do the best I can to transform the images into art. But prior to these two photos making Explore, I hadn’t been selected since April 2012. I realize the Explore algorithm is mostly computerized, and that there is an element of chance in making the cut – but still. Odd. And nice. 

Funny, as I only sort of randomly selected this photo of the CTA tracks near Graceland Cemetery as a means to test new perspective tools in the Lightroom 5 Beta, and then tweaked the image a bit using the Google Silver Efex Pro plugin. The subject is a bit of cliché to tell the truth – high contrast black and white image of shadow perspectives, yadda yadda. I’ve taken many similar photos that didn’t get so much appreciation from Flickreenos. Still, I am happy with how this one turned out…

Click here for an embiggened version. 

Or here to purchase a print for your own wall.

We Have Never Been Very Pure

We Have Never Been Very Pure
We Have Never Been Very Pure

Click here to view larger on black.

Venice Beach, last February.

Hasn’t happened in a while, but this photo made it into Flickr Explore April 9th1, reaching into the lower 200s. Funny, I spent less than ten minutes processing it in Photoshop (tweaking the contrast, cropping, then converting into black and white), and yet it became a hit. Go figure. There isn’t a prize or anything, just satisfaction in knowing that this photo is popular with the masses, and humbling, when you look at all the other great photos also contained in that day’s batch. I would not say each of those photos are my favorites as well, but a great number are super images.

I do like my own photo, don’t get me wrong. And in fact, I like it better viewed at a larger size.

Shameless hucksterism, prints are available for purchase.

I don’t have a clever story as to the photo’s title: probably a willful mishearing of a song lyric or something. Titles are a challenge, as we’ve discussed before.

Footnotes:
  1. top 500 photos uploaded to Flickr on a particular day []

Favorite uploads to Flickr in April 2012

Continuing a tradition: these are my 24 (!) personal favorites, all developed in my digital darkroom last month. In no particular order…

/ Posted in / 2012 / April (122 items)

(click here to see more Flickr: Archive of your uploads to Flickr in April 2012.)

And yeah, I have too many favorites this month. A good problem, but a problem nonetheless.

Where Did All The Blue Skies Go
Where Did All The Blue Skies Go

Waiting for the Seed To Sprout
Waiting for the Seed To Sprout

Golden Plowshares
Golden Plowshares

Waiting for A Friend
Waiting for A Friend

The former USPS building, still not being developed.

River City and Van Buren Street Bridge
River City and Van Buren Street Bridge

Washing the Trump
Washing the Trump

Don't Reveal a Thing You've Learned
Don’t Reveal a Thing You’ve Learned

April 18th Blues
April 18th Blues

Franklin Street Bridge at Night
Franklin Street Bridge at Night
This one made it to Flickr Explore. Taken from the Holiday Inn at Wolf Point – my folks were in town for the night on their way to Italy for three weeks.

Wounded In The Line of Duty
Wounded In The Line of Duty

Little Tramp
Little Tramp

London.

Eyeing John Marshall Law School
Eyeing John Marshall Law School

Word Gets Around Eventually
Word Gets Around Eventually

World Weary - Copper Blue
World Weary – Copper Blue

World Weary - Red Bleach
World Weary – Red Bleach

World Weary - Duotoned
World Weary – Duotoned

London Towers
London Towers

Someone To Tell Your Troubles To
Someone To Tell Your Troubles To

Suspicions
Suspicions

Painted Trees Overlooking LSD
Painted Trees Overlooking LSD

Wherever I Lay My Head
Wherever I Lay My Head

Mysterious Language of Lines and Circles
Mysterious Language of Lines and Circles

Coach Has Arrived
Coach Has Arrived

Waiting For Air Traffic Control
Waiting For Air Traffic Control

Slide show version here

(Last month’s edition)

Favorite February 2012 Photos

Without preamble (if you want explanation, check December’s children), here are my favorite twelve photos from February. There were 133 to choose from.

Via Flickr: Archive of your uploads to Flickr in February 2012.)

Help Me Make It Through The Night
Help Me Make It Through The Night

Tell Me Why You Hurry So?
Tell Me Why You Hurry So?

And I Still Do Not Know What It Was That I've Done Wrong

And I Still Do Not Know What It Was That I’ve Done Wrong

Secret Meanings

Secret Meanings

The Wind is Still
The Wind is Still

Good morning West Loop
Good morning West Loop

Waiting For My Connection Back To You
Waiting For My Connection Back To You

Midwest Generation Fisk Station
Midwest Generation Fisk Station

I Know What You Are Remembering
I Know What You Are Remembering

Into A Single Thought
Into A Single Thought

And If You Cross Your Fingers
And If You Cross Your Fingers

Sugar Maple
Sugar Maple

Honorable mention goes to:

Had to Leave in a Hurry

When You Wake Up

Campfire Abstraction Number 9870

And The Clouds Are Going Down

Ducks Lined Up

On Your Way to Happiness

A Few Light Years Ago

Nobody’s Technidol Wedding

Hold Your Hands and Pray – Kodalith

Snow Day – Explored

Snow Day!
Snow Day!

Amusingly, this iPhone snapshot I took yesterday  1 made it into Flickr Explore, currently ranking #163. [Update: later this same day, now ranked at #24!!] Still don’t quite understand the Explore algorithm, as I’ve taken this exact photo dozens of times, or more, but this particular one resonated. I’m just happy it snowed finally.

What is Explore?

Explore is a Flickr feature with the intent of showing you “some of the most awesome photos on Flickr.” Photos are automatically selected by computer according to a secret algorithm called Interestingness (see below for more about that).

Is Explore a showcase for the top Flickr photographers?

No. It’s for photo viewers, not the photographers. It exists so that, at any moment, anyone who wants to view interesting photos can go to Explore and have a reasonable chance of seeing something interesting. Does that imply that photographs not in Explore are uninteresting? Of course not. There are many, many wonderful photos uploaded to Flickr each day that aren’t selected for Explore. But to serve its purpose, Explore only has to include a small sampling of all of the photos on Flickr (currently at 500 per day or about 0.005% of the daily upload volume). And Explore tries to show photos from as many different people as possible to create a diverse selection.

Explore is for the viewers. It’s a way for Flickr to show the world a sampling of what is being shared there. It’s there for those who are new to Flickr, who are lost in the vastness of it all and don’t know where to begin. It is not a “best of” listing of photographers. It is not a popularity contest.

What is Interestingness?

Interestingness is what Flickr calls the criteria used for selecting which photos are shown in Explore. All photos are given an Interestingness “score” that can also be used to sort any image search on Flickr. The top 500 photos ranked by Interestingness are shown in Explore. Interestingness rankings are calculated automatically by a secret computer algorithm. The algorithm is often referred to by name as the Interestingness algorithm. Although the algorithm is secret, Flickr has stated that many factors go into calculating Interestingness including: a photo’s tags, how many groups the photo is in, views, favorites, where click-throughs are coming from, who comments on a photo and when, and more. The velocity of any of those components is a key factor. For example, getting 20 comments in an hour counts much higher than getting 20 comments in a week.

(click here to continue reading Frequently Asked Questions.)

Flickr even owns a patent on Interestingness, aka Interestingness ranking of media objects.

According to BigHugeLabs, I’ve had 104 photos that made Explore (though some dropped out later), but who is keeping track! ahem…

Thanks, Flickr!

Footnotes:
  1. with Hipstamatic and tweaked with Snapseed []

Just Biking In the Rain

Just Biking in the Rain

Near Buckingham Palace, on Constitution Road1, in the middle of a fairly hard rain. We were huddled underneath an old, big tree, waiting for the rain to subside, when these ladies whizzed by on a bicycle, laughing hysterically. I was mad at myself that I didn’t get a chance to focus properly, but conversion to black and white (TRI-X 400 emulation) captured the essence of the moment.

Lightbox version

Footnotes:
  1. methinks, I am guessing based on a perusal of Google Maps []