Harry Lim's Photography Blog

You know the expression “it’s a small world”. And we all know how the World Wide Web makes it even smaller. Well a funny thing happened not too long ago. But the story starts in 2007. That’s when I took a trip to NYC, Toronto and Niagara Falls. Step by step…inch by inch…sorry, obscure reference for some. 

Aaannnyway…While in Toronto I spotted a couple dancing the tango in an open air market called St. Lawrence Market. I snapped a few pics with my point and shoot Canon 800IS. 

click for larger image

Almost two years later, I uploaded the photo to Flickr and about a month after that I get an email: 

” Hello Harry,  

I came across your picture during a search, and it was a VERY nice surprise. It nicely captured the essence of Argentine Tango – living in the moment; a dialogue without words. 

That’s my back facing your camera in this pic.  

No other dancer showed up that day, so I had all afternoon to dance with that girl and got to know her better. She was in Toronto for some studies and has since gone home. 

I am wondering if you can send me a hi-res version of the picture just for my personal use.
Thank you in advance.
Peter” 

I was blown away! The picture was captured in a brief moment, in passing, two years prior…in another country! And the guy in the picture finds it and contacts me! 

I exchanged a couple of emails with him just to make sure he was who he said he was and gladly sent him the images. 

I took this experience to reinforce something I had just learned and I would like to pass it along to my photographer friends using Flickr. The possibility exists that a publisher or editor is looking for a particular image. They could search through stock agencies, but some also search Flickr. Your image stands a better chance of being found if it is properly titled and filled in with a description. Afterall, who searches for “IMG_1003″ or “DSC_009″? Because I titled and labeled my picture, it was found. No, it didn’t lead to a client or a financial payoff….yet!