YFGF gets 'Explored'

Flickr is a website for uploaded images. Since 2006, I have been posting most of photographs there (@Cizauskas).

Each day during the year, Flickr employs a 'secret' algorithm to select five hundred images for a daily-posted Explore page —all exemplifying some sort of 'interestingness.'

During 2024, Flickr selected seventeen of my images for Explore.

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● ROW 1

• Tree falls into winter (12 December 2024)
  ☞ 8,534 views; 266 'faves'; 78th chosen of 500 selected that day.
  ☞ This image achieved the highest Explore position of any of my seventeen images.
• Woodland at Glenn Creek (22 November 2024)
  ☞ 8,766 views; 217 'faves'; 102nd/500.
• Purple aster (13 October 2024)
  ☞ 8,992 views; 232 'faves'; 150th/500.
• Bird of paradise, against blue wall (13 September 2024)
  ☞ 6,177 views; 188 'faves; 313th/500.
• Paddleboard morningtide (28 August 2024)
  ☞ 6,632 views; 128 'faves'; 479th/500.
• Strasburg pitches (04) (28 August 2024)
  ☞ 6453; 73 'faves'; 186th/500.
• Umbrella in the foliage (12 August 2024)
  ☞ 9,728 views; 171 'faves'; 92nd/500.
• Moving Keys (24 July 2024)
  ☞ 7,379 views; 103 'faves'; 351st/500.

● ROW 2

• Gnomes' back beat on parade (26 June 2024)
  ☞ 8,358 views; 120 'faves'; 216th/500.
• Dancing to the tunes (02) (26 June 2024)
  ☞ 8,514 views; 118 'faves'; 157th/500.
• Geese, too? (19 June 2024)
  ☞ 6,882 views; 162 'faves'; 269th/500.
• Percussionist in the green (3 June 2024)
  ☞ 10,310 views; 119 'faves'; 85th/500.
  ☞ The most viewed of my 2024 images, 'Explored' or not.
• Lanceleaf coreopsis (sepals & petals) (10 May 2024)
  ☞ 9,497 views; 282 'faves'; 98th/500.
  ☞ The most 'faved' of my 2024 images, 'Explored' or not.
• Arabia Lake (in early spring) (24 April 2024)
  ☞ 7,658 views; 215 'faves'; 230/500.
• Arabia Mountain spring landscape (03) (5 April 2024)
  ☞ 8,822 views; 217 'faves'; 104th/500.
• Holy hellebore (5 February 2024)
  ☞ 6,921 views; 207 'faves'; 474th/500.

● ROW 3

• Winter beech woodland (12 January 2024)
  ☞ 7,873 views; 210 'faves'; 474th/500.

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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. The top 500 photos ranked by Interestingness are shown in Explore.

Flickr has stated that many factors go into calculating Interestingness: 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.

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. Many wonderful photos are uploaded to Flickr each day not selected for Explore. But, to serve its purpose, Explore only includes a small sampling of all of the photos on Flickr, showing photos from many different people to create a diverse selection.

— Big Huge Labs.

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6 x 10∧6

From the FWIW department...

For what it's worth, as of the morning of 26 April 2020, the 55,373 photos and images that I have posted to Flickr since 2006 have been viewed six million times.

And the pace of views is quickening. I passed five million views six months ago, on 27 October 2019. I hit four million views fifteen months before that, on 1 July 2018, and the three million mark, nearly two years earlier, on 16 June 2016.

Sine joining Flick in 2006, I've used six different cameras (excluding cell phones and Palm PDAs). In order, from most recent to oldest:

• 1. Olympus OM-D E-M10 II
• 2. Olympus Pen E-PL1
• 3. Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
• 4. Canon PowerShot SD400Digital ELPH
• 5. Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Digital ELPH
• 6. Canon PowerShot A520

Originally, most of what I was uploaded was beer-centric. In the past 4 years or so, however, my emphasis has shifted more toward 'artsy,' playing at being a photographer, if you will, if not always so successfully. The beer pics remain a-coming, just not as often.

Thank you to all who have viewed my images and to all of you who have 'favorited' and/or commented on them.

Yours for good fermentables,
Thomas Cizauskas
26 April 2020.

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5,000,000 beers and other things

Yes, some of us photo-dinosaurs still use Flickr.

In 2006, I first began posting photographs and images to that online image hosting service. As of this morning, 27 October 2019, my 53,450 photos and images have been viewed 5,000,000 times. That works out to approximately 1,054 hits per day.

Beer salesman's electronic cockpit, circa 2008.

I passed four million views on 1 July 2018 and the three million mark on 16 June 2016. I have used six different cameras (excluding cell phones and Palm PDAs). In order, from the earliest to the most recent, they have been:

• Canon PowerShot A520
• Canon PowerShot SD400 Digital ELPH
• Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Digital ELPH
• Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
• Olympus Pen E-PL1
• Olympus OM-D E-M10 II

During those thirteen Flickr years, much of what I have uploaded has been beer-related. In the past few years, however, my emphasis has evolved toward the 'artsy,' if not always so successfully.

Thank you to all who have viewed my images, and to all of you who have 'favorited' and commented on them.

Now, back to the brew.

Yours for good fermentables,
Thomas Cizauskas
27 October 2019.

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