Landing on Flickr Explore

On March 23, 2015March 23, 2015 By AngeliaIn Posessed by Nikon17 Comments

Have you ever heard of Flickr Explore?

No?

Well, let me tell you, it’s a page of badassery as far as photographic images go.

The best of the best. The boldest and brightest. The most UNBELIEVABLE photos uploaded to Flickr.

They call it Explore. And if you do Explore, you will be astounded by the talent they choose on a daily basis. That’s right. Every day. From millions of photo uploads, the Flickr Gods choose 500 to display for twenty-four hours on their feature page (called Explore).

That’s one photo out of 17,000 images or something like that. It’s really crazy and the images are crazy good. Did I say that already? They are CRAZY good.

If you’d like to see for yourself, click here. This will take you to the Flickr Explore page for today. At the bottom, you can scroll through previous days.

And this post is not about the secrets of how to hit the Explore page – although I hear there are some, and many have theories on this process. But I do not.

I consider it dumb luck (for me anyway). I’m pretty sure that is how it happened the first time I hit the Explore page. With my image of the vintage light bulb for my Project 52 that week.

And yes, I am happy with this one. The light is stunning. I found exactly what I wanted and executed it exactly as I saw in my head. And NOOOOO. That never happens with me. I, normally, have a bright idea heh! and it NEVER turns out how I envisioned it.

But this image.

It totally did.

And to my surprise (or dumb luck) hit the Flickr Explore page. It was quite a thrill! Thousands of views and hundreds of people favoring your image. It’s enough to make a photo girl proud.

So, twenty-fours later, my image drops to the next day and a new set of 500 images are displayed.

And of course, those images are just as Ahhhhamazing as the day before! Hey, no big deal, it’s just another day of The Extraordinary Images of Flickr.

Life goes on.

Another week, another photo for my Project 52.

But then…several weeks later…it happens again…

Yes, dear readers, my image hit the Flickr Explore page for the second time. And WHAT!?!

This time it is an image of my mean ol’ Maya kitty looking deceptively sweet. Oh, so deceptive!

She is probably my go to photo subject. I can’t even tell you how many photos I have of her from kitten to (almost) adult. She is just very photogenic. I mean look at her. She is just gorgeous. And don’t let her fool you, she bites. And she bites hard.

Several of her kitten photos got a lot of views too.

This one as her eyes were changing from blue to green.

This one the day we brought her home.

And just for fun, here is another set of photos on my Flickr that were viewed quite often. One is from the girls’ beginning of school photos. And the other is for the birthday of my oldest step-girl.

Maybe, they weren’t Explore-worthy, but they sure were view-worthy. I wish I could tell you how it’s done, but alas, it is still a mystery to me.

One thing, I will do…keep posting photos on Flickr and sharing them with you.

Maybe, you will find them as interesting as the Flickr Gods do.

A Post Full of Joy

On December 19, 2014 By AngeliaIn In my heart forever & ever, Timeless Treasures31 Comments

And pretty, pretty yellow lights.

And also…

…a very cute baby that I adore.

I tried to do Christmas photos on Sunday of all the kids. My step-daughters and grand baby. I got lights set up. I got the flash set up.

But…they spent half the day at church and the rest of the time one of them had a school project. She worked on it allllllll weekend loooong.

The baby was way too quick for me. I’m lucky I got two. Everyone always says….Oh, I can’t wait til they start walking! Um, No…just no…not when you are a photographer.

So maybe, we didn’t get Christmas photos this year. Maybe, we don’t have a card to send out.

But do you know what we do have?

Joy.

Heart-felt…full-on…precious JOY.

Wishing you all the joy your heart can hold. This season and always.

Jump over to The Daily Post – Weekly Photo Challenge – Yellow to see more posts about the joyful color yellow.

A Nifty Project in 2015

On December 18, 2014December 18, 2014 By AngeliaIn Posessed by Nikon15 Comments

For a few years now I have participated in a yearly photo project. Participate being the key word.

In the first year, I tried to tackle the monstrous 365 Project. In this one you take a photograph and post it…

Every! Single! Day!

I think I made it to Day 56. And believe me, that was a stretch.

The next year, I joined a Project 52 group. Because, surly, one photo a week is a heck of lot easier than three-hundred and sixty-five.

And it was.

But still…

As great as I started out.

Crafting and posting my shots.

I just couldn’t seem to make it to the end.

Year after year.

This year was best run yet! I’d like to believe the only reason it failed was due to the moderator of the group up and disappearing.

Poof.

It kinda takes the wind out of your sails when the project (and most of the participants) come to a screeching halt on Week 47 (or so).

And yes, I could have kept going. I could have made myself journey on.

But I didn’t.

I quit too.

And I failed, yet again.

Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure… it just means you haven’t succeeded yet. ~Robert Schuller

Or maybe?

I just didn’t succeed (yet!).

But here comes a NEW YEAR. A year of great promise. A year of new! Hello 2015! I have NO PLANS to quit you. And this year, I will FINISH a Project 52. I joined a new group where I will post a photo on Flickr every week (based on the theme created by administrators). I happen to know these gals. I know their creativity. I KNOW their dedication. There is no doubt in mind about this project and the completion thereof.

SO!

Care to join me?

Shall we travel this path together?

Who knows what we will find?

I promise it will be worth the adventure.

Here is all you need to know (and links!) The what, the where,and the when.

The what.

Flickr.

The where. Join the Nifty Fifty Project 52 Group 2015 and introduce yourself.

The when.

blog.

I would love to see you there. And if you don’t want to take part, you can follow me as I post my weekly images here.

All the images I have used in this post are from earlier photography projects.

I promise a lot of fun, a lot of great images, and a little push in stretching your photographic creativity.

A Beautiful Spring – Weekly Photo Challenge

On May 2, 2014May 2, 2014 By AngeliaIn Beautiful Life, Posessed by Nikon53 Comments

As you can see from my earlier post, we are happily rocking the spring here in North Central Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth area). And although we have had a few unusually cold nights, all in all, we are having a fabulous spring. Much cooler and longer than any previous years. I guess the season is taking its time to move on (just like stubborn winter!).

But you know? I love this time of year. Not quite as much as I love Fall, but almost.

One of the first blooms to make their appearance in the spring are the wild clover. They pop up in the yard just before the first mow of the new season. I blogged about them in Spring of 2011 (also a weekly photo challenge) right in this post here. See? I told you I loved them and so does my sweet pup.

Unfortunately, we have mowed them down and weeded them out (in the stark tradition of having a unified green fairway lawn). I don’t know why I can’t talk my husband into having a wildflower yard. Wouldn’t that be spectacular? A nature photographer’s dream? I can see birds and butterflies flitting about. Lots of variety and color. He wouldn’t even have to mow…

Hmmmm, maybe next year…

In the meantime, frozen in time before their untimely trim. My gorgeous yard clover captured with my most favorite Nikon.

Aren’t they beautiful? I love how they kick off spring with such pop and flair.

This post is part of the Weekly Photo Challenge by the good people at The Daily Post on WordPress. I love their weekly challenges and inspiration. Please stop by and see other entries. Maybe, just maybe, you will be inspired to enter your own. I would love to see if you do, leave me a comment so I can stop by.

Happy Spring!