So THATS how Flickr works!

I have finally taken the time to develop (sorry, not a pun honest!) my Flickr page. It seems that I had missed a couple of key features that, when used, really get my photos SEEN. The first discovery was the use of Tags. By tagging my photos with keywords, it allows my stuff to be found when someone does a search. I went through and batch-edited most of them first to add common keywords like Alaska, Glacier, Mountains, Anchorage etc., and then went back to each photo individually and tried to add as many tags as possible for each. Within hours, my viewed count started to rise.

And this morning, another discovery Groups! Starting with care, I joined four. Black & White photography; a best of Flickr type of group; one focusing (again no pun!!) on the use of bright color; and a fun one just about Macintosh photography (which, upon examination, seems to extend to iPod photog.).

And OMG, you should see the viewed counts skyrocketing now! Its like I turned a faucet on. My previous viewed counts would be analogous to a drip.

I was chatting with a photo-hobbyist buddy who also wants to go pro with his work. He was less than enthused about the idea of opening up such a large library to the public on Flickr. But heres my take: First-off, everything that I posted to date have either been old scans from my 135, or digitals taken from mid to high-end pocket cams! Were I to make prints to sell, I might get good, tight resolution up to a size 11x14. Could I mat and show smaller work at a gallery? I guess. But a digital SLR would produce enlarged prints of 16x20 or larger. Second point: my Flickr images are copyright protected. Third: When I start selling my work, those buying wont necessarily know that theyre up for download on Flickr.

Once I have a new camera and start taking photos in really high resolution, Ill probably start watermarking, and adding copyrights to the meta-data in each photo. At that point, Ill still upload to Flickr, but maybe at a lesser size and resolution. In any case, Im really stoked about the whole prospect of my photos getting out there and seen.