Hockley Photography» Photo Web Links

Fanning on Facebook

Aaron — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:30:45 +0000

A while back I setup a Facebook fan page for Hockley Photography, but I haven’t really used it until recently. I’m now publishing some photos to Facebook (and tagging included individuals in those photos).

If you’d like to become a fan of Hockley Photography, head over to my Facebook page and click the button at the top. You’ll then see any content I post on Facebook as part of your news item stream.

Photoblogging Locally: Vancouver Snapshots

Aaron — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:15:02 +0000

I recently launched a new website featuring photos I’ve created around my hometown of Vancouver, Washington. It’s a fun way to share some of the interesting and quirky sights of my locale. Photos can be browsed sequentially and are also categorized by neighborhood. All photos are also available for print sales or commercial licensing.

If you’d like to follow along, I’m posting a new photo each weekday at Vancouver Snapshots.

7 Fun Ways to Explore Flickr

Aaron — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:42:48 +0000

Flickr is a great site with some great photography. Most everyone is familiar with the process of uploading photos or viewing photos of a particular person, but there are a lot of cool ways to find interesting images on Flickr. Here’s a quick list of some of my favorite ways to explore Flickr:

Through the Explore pages. Flickr uses an “interestingness” algorithm to determine what appear to be the 500 most interesting photos uploaded each day, and they’re showcased through Explore. Take a look around. There’s some amazing material. I’m proud of my photos which have been featured in Explore.
Browse by an interesting tag. Simply go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/tagnamehere – for example, check out recent photos tagged as “reflection”.
Browse by a hot/trending tag. What’s hot right now? Go to the popular tags page to see.
Browse by location. Fickr’s Places area allows one to find photos from a specific location (based on the geotagging data associated with individual photos).
Find a group on a topic of interest. Name any topic and there’s probably a Flickr group. Want to see photos of fire engines? Portland? Monkeys? The color red? It’s there. And if you manage to find a topic not already covered, you can always create a new group!
Browse some random Flickr photos using the Random Photo Browser from BigHugeLabs
Also from BigHugeLabs (they have a bunch of Flickr tools), a photo wall that provides a dynamic, always-changing display of photos being added to Flickr. You never know what might pop up or catch your eye.

Did I miss something? How do you like to meander through Flickr?

Great Flickr Find: Post-Its by gracie’s ephemera

Aaron — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:30:09 +0000

Every once in a while I stumble across something unexpected and amazing on Flickr. Check out this set of photos of post-its by Flickr user gracie’s ephemera. Wow.

Critiquing the Interesting

Aaron — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:45:18 +0000

Flickr’s Explore section allows users to, um, explore, the most popular photos on the service. The top 500 photos (as ranked by Flickr’s Interestingness algorithm) uploaded each day are included in Explore.

I’ve had around two dozen photos in Explore (photo set here). Recently I noticed that this photo was ranked #1 overall for its day.

The interesting part is that among my photos, this one really doesn’t do too much for me. It’s a telesmash that IMO isn’t very well composed. As soon as I took this shot in the field I was mad at myself for cutting off the top part of the smoke. Apparently the Flickr community disagrees, and I’m not going to argue with the masses that think this was the best photo uploaded to Flickr last year on May 22, but it’s a reminder that one’s opinion of a shot is heavily subjective. The community says it’s great, but I see room for improvement.