So as you may be aware I’m quite into my photography and find myself using up quite a lot of my spare time heading out on photo walks. I first got into photography about 18 months ago after I realised I had taken over 10,000 photos with my little point and shoot. It was time to upgrade and I’ve since had a Canon 350d and now a Canon 40d. Before I go any further I just have to say the Canon 40d is a fantastic camera and in my opinion really does feel as though you are using a proper grown up camera compared with the entry level models, without having to pay for the likes of a Canon 1d. The screen is fantastic, integrated cleaning system a nice touch, and the photos are vibrant and alive. A great choice, especially if you are thinking about an upgrade but can’t face paying 4 figures for the top of the line models.

Anyway I digress from my original thoughts, which were of course to do with Flickr, and especially to do with the algorithm they call Explore, or Interestingness. So far I’ve had 5 of my photos featured on Explore, the highest being in the low 50s. Over the past few months I’ve been trying to work out what makes a photo interesting and this is what I’ve come up with.

• Don’t spam groups with your photo, at least initially- if you want to try to get your photo into Explore then limit the amount of groups you send it too, especially those which force people to comment on your photo. I find around 8-10 groups is fine.
• Choose your tags carefully - if you photo is a building, then try and be descriptive about that building. I’ve noticed every time I’m on a site that is connected to Flickr people search for tags rather than just browse the photos, and you want yours to be picked up.
• Time of day - Flickr bases its top 500 photos in a 24 hour period. Now I’m not too sure when that time starts, but your photo will have more time to build momentum if you put it in closer to (after) 12.00 at night, rather than 11pm the night before.
• Get peoples attention - I quite often find myself heading to the Explore page and from this I add a few additional contacts, especially those who have an outstanding photostream. Given that Flickr is such a friendly place they will quite often add me back, meaning more eyes on my photos.
• Keep your best until last - if you are uploading a batch of photos, then keep the one you would like to get into Flickr Explore to last. Quite often your contacts will have their settings to display only the last photo you uploaded.
• Quality of the photo - last, but by no means least, make sure you take a good an interesting photo. At the end of the day this is what will drawn peoples eyes to your photo and from there the Explore magic can start to happen.

Let me know if you have any other tips for getting your photos into Explore, add me as a contact or if you have any other questions let me know.