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Flickr for Photographers
So, not too long ago I wrote a post about how a guy in Canada found a picture I took of him two years prior because when I uploaded it to my Flickr Pro Page, I filled in a title and description. He searched for the keywords and found it.
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Well, the other night I uploaded some of my interior photography to the site and among the keywords I added was the city of “Kissimmee”; since that’s where the houses and condos are. The next morning I got an email that “Kissimmee - The Heart of Florida (Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau)” had added me as a contact on Flickr.
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The admin for the “Visit Kissimmee, Florida” group asked to add the above image and two others to their group page. Now, I think this is all pretty cool, but the implications go farther. It shows how a potential client (and that’s how I see them) can find your work if you take the time to add titles, descriptions and keywords to your photos. This doesn’t just apply to Flickr. The meta data in your photos can be found by spiders and robots on the internet and anyone searching google, Bing or Yahoo can find your work. I check the stats and analytics from Flickr and my Web site and I get some referrals from people typing in certain words in a search engine.
David Hobby over at the Strobist blog wrote a fascinating 4-part series on Flickr; how photographers have been discovered, how to write tags and descriptions and how photographers can use the power of Flickr. It’s worth a read:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/04/flickr-and-you-part-1-rebekkas_19.html
Most Viewed Photo on Harry Lim Photography’s Flickr Page
So I’m a little obsessed. On an almost daily basis I check the stats and analytics on my Web site, Flickr page and blog. You know, just seeing if anyone’s out there.
And sometimes, I’ll even google myself to see how high my site is ranking…or if it ranks at all! (it does, by the way. First page. Right behind a cardiologist and jazz musician by the same name).
Actually, that’s a good segue ’cause the most popular picture on my Flickr Pro Page is of a saxophone. Well, not just any saxophone; a “Julius Keilwerth Tenor, aka the SR90 Shadow”.
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I took a picture of it last June when I did a photo shoot for my friend and jazz musician Derek Hudson. That picture has been viewed 150 times. That’s 3 times more than any other I have posted. [UPDATE 10/29/10: The count is now up to 324]
I even found a link to it on a search engine. I’ve tried to find the link again, but I can’t. I do remember that I was given credit for it.
So I keep asking myself: why that picture? Of all the ones I have posted, what is it about that one that makes it the most popular? Let me know what you think. Take a look at my Flickr Pro Page and let me know there or here or on Facebook which one is your favorite.
Tango in Toronto
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.
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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!
