"Street Photography -Lupa" and search again. Like that you will find probably your first 50 contacts with interesting street photos.
Another way is to browse through the big and good street photography groups. There is a group called "Street 1000views+100faves" where a lot of interesting street photos are stored. There you will also find some good ones.
Participate in discussions
Every group has a discussion board. Some of them are pretty active and "you should take a part in it. For example the "HCSP (Hardcore Street Photog-
raphy)" group is a very popular group with some active threads to participate in. There are other groups where you can discuss great topics. I guess you understand, what I mean.
Participate in contests
In some groups there are contests or games taking place. This keeps you taking photos and also people will see your work. You get feedback and you can give feedback.
Use the Stats feature
Flickr Pro provides you a statistic page. This page helps you finding out how your photos have been visited. It also helps you find people linking to your Flickr photos. It's not about telling them not to do so, but finding out why they do that. Maybe you can enter something to your tags or add the photo to a different group. It's all about finding out about the behavior of the Flickr user who visits your profile.
Categorize your photos as Creative Commons
I know this is a delicate topic and I will talk about this in another chapter. In Flickr it will definitely help you getting more attention. There are even websites specialized in free photos on the Internet and those people would find your photos on Flickr. When they like them, they want to see more of them.
And you may have new followers.
Conclusion
It's all about marketing and the
right action on Flickr. It all needs
time. Not time to take your pho-
tos, but time for "marketing"
your photos. The decision is on
you, what is the right way to go.
Just keep in mind, just uploading
a photo to Flickr without doing
anything else to it, will not do
the job. You should not wonder
why nobody is interested in your
really good photos. It's not about
making high quality photos only;
it's also about marketing them.
Flickr Explore
How to get "Explored" on Flickr
Explored is the "Most wanted" feature on Flickr. Every day Flickr shows the 500 most interesting photos. This does not mean that these 500 photos are the best of Flickr. They are somehow the most interesting and most viewed, commented and favorited photos of a day. How does Flickr choose these 500
top shots every day? This is a state secret and I can only give you some information I figured out myself.
Upload a good photo
The first thing is a good photo or at least an interesting or funny one. People have to see something they like, something they can comment about. A photo has to make a difference, must be unique and appealing. You may upload a more mainstream kind of photo than a very special one. Then you have a good chance to get explored, if you follow the next points carefully.
Looking good as a thumbnail
People often have to judge by a thumbnail, if they want to open a photo or not. When your thumbnail doesn't really show something, nobody will look at it. That’s why a lot of my portraits got explored.
Fill in all the details
Your photo should contain EXIF information, some tags (not too many), should be geo-tagged, have a title, have a description and should be in a few groups (not more than 5). Don't try to hide anything and don't try to spam your Flickr contacts with too much information. Just enter some simple and solid information about your photo. Not more and not less...
Have a lot of contacts
This probably helps the
most in getting attention
on your photos. But there
are contacts you follow
and contacts follow you.
It's a difference and you
should figure out, how
many people follow your
work. This can be found
in your Contact list by
clicking on "Who calls you
a Contact?". You get
more contacts by upload-
ing good photos into the
right groups. People, who
are interested in the
same kind of photog-
raphy, may also like your
work. Add these people
to your contacts first and
then they might add you
as well.
Don't add a photo to too many groups...
While I was writing in a previous chapter to add a photo in many groups, for Explore this doesn't work. It is hindering you to get explored when a photo is in too many groups. I would even say that you should not add it to any group for the first 48 hours after the upload. If your photo doesn't get explored, you can add it to as many groups you like. If it got explored, you keep it off too many groups.
Upload it early in the morning
You have to be aware that early does not mean early everywhere in the world. When I upload something early in the morning here in Europe the day has not yet ended in the US. Therefore you should wait until the US wakes up, before you upload photos to Flickr The longer a photo has time to be seen, the bigger the chances are to get up the explore hierarchy. Actually it also depends on the location of your contacts. Generally I can say that you should upload after the Flickr day has started. In Central Europe Time this would be 09:00 am.
Share it off Flickr
Social media platforms may help you, sharing a photo. There is the Twitter and Facebook button on the top left of your photo. Use it at least once per photo right after the upload. I also have a lot of Twitter followers and they sometime re-tweet my photos, which brings me even more views. Please do not spam your social media followers. One note or comment is enough. Maybe you can do this twice within 24 hours, but not more. You should do that only for the really good photos, not for all of them. And of course a tweet during the day when people are in the office might be better than when they are sleeping. Use this function at the time, when most of your Twitter followers are online.
Makes the viewer comment and favorite
Find a way that the viewers of your photo will either comment, favorite or leave a note on it. It is not only the views which count; it is more the comments and favorites which are the key to success. You either ask for a good title or to share their best photo or even mark something in the photo with a note. It is important that they leave their comment and mark it as a favorite. I once read an article about Explore when someone suggested to put a note on the top left of your photo to remind people to favorite your photo. Whatever helps to get their attention, use it. Never spam your contacts with too many activities. Find the ones which work best.
Comment and favorite photos of others
You also get attention by commenting on photos of other people. They will look at your photos and tend to leave a comment as well. It's all about giving first before you can expect something from someone else. This needs a lot of time, but it’s worth the effort. You will look at the work of other street photographers and might get inspired.
The timeframe of views counts
The more views in a short time will help you getting explored. So it is important to do everything (upload, tag, geo-tag, share, …) at the same time.
Ideally at the prime time, when most of your contacts and most of the Flickr users are online. Because then people will see it in their "Photos of Your Contacts", on Twitter & Facebook, in the groups (if you add it to some) and also by searching (through the tagging). It would get into Explored quickly and people will also see it there as well.
Check the status on Scout
Scout is
a service from Big Huge Labs which shows the Explore status of your photos. You can see the photos that have been explored in the past. You can see the highest and the current ranking. You have to know that the Explore status can change and you can climb up or lose ranks over time. You can even get dropped from Explore, if you do something wrong. It can happen when you add your photo to too many groups after it has been explored.
Marketing
Introduction
There are a lot of very talented photographers who lack some marketing skills.
They just upload it to one community and that's it. They don't have a concept on how they "sell" their product. With sell I don't mean getting money, but more to become famous. Street photography is not about money, but there is much more potential some mouse clicks away...
Make a good, unique and innovative product
First of all you have to create a good product (meaning photos), which is innovative and unique. There is enough mainstream and boring photography out there. People want to see shocking photos from a new perspective, different points of view, in your own, recognizable style. In street photography it’s not enough to put your camera to someone on the street and press the button.
There is much more and you should think about your style first.
Show your product
It’s easy to say that you should show your product. Where and how you show it is much more important. You should upload it to the big communities of the world. Facebook, Flickr, 500px and other famous sites. It’s important that you reach a lot of people who might like your street photos. Choose the platform wisely as you don’t want to waste your time on communities which are not open to your style of photography.
Share your product
With the sharing possibility some people have a problem. Sharing means that you give away your work for FREE. Nobody will find your work just by acci-dent. The more and the cheaper you share, the better. I mentioned the Creative Commons in one of the chapters. When you want to share, this is your way. When I see watermarks or read the word copyright on the about page, it makes me sick. There are a lot of people looking for free photos in the Internet every day. These are the people who will find your photos and use them.
They have to mention your name (under the CC license) and this is free marketing, which is worth much more than when you sell a single print. Sure you pay with a photo, but you would not earn anything at the beginning anyway.
No matter how hard it was to create it, you have to give something first and then you might get something back, if you have done a good job. But first of all, you have to share. Print postcards and share it with your friends. Put 10
postcards together in a transparent sleeve and leave it somewhere people would “find” it. Maybe on photographic places, exhibits, art galleries, on the toilet of “The Louvre” in Paris, trains or wherever people have time to look at them. People might like it, they might send it to their friends, they will talk about you, they will visit your website and so on… Maybe this will be the story of your life, which you can sell as a book. Just find new ways of sharing…
Let your product get mentioned
Check out blogs about street
photography, they may write
about you. Maybe you have a
crazy idea or style they are inter-
ested in. Remember, prevent go-
ing out making boring photos.
You have to have a concept in
your photography to stand out
from the masses. The crazier the
better and people will be inter-
ested.
Send your photos to contests,
compete with your competitors
and take part of discussions in
forums. The more people talk
about your photos, the more
people will see them. There are a
lot of forums out there, so just
find and join them.
Tag your product
In order to improve the success of your products, you should tag every photo with the maximum amount of tags and should add them to the maximum of groups (Flickr). A lot of people search such platforms by key words. Use rare and also common keywords, which might not 100% fit the photo. You want to get attention and for that, any word is fine. I have added my “Crossed…” photo also to the “Foot Fetish” group on Flickr. I have posted my “Tattooed…”
photo also to tattoo groups, which may not have anything to do with street photography. But such people might be interested. At least they look at your photo, might share it and you get up the ranking ladder. Remember to use all the tags you have and add it to all the groups you can.
Feed your Followers
Your fans like your work and want to see new stuff. Therefore you cannot just make one good product, you have to produce it daily from new. They are hungry, feed them regularly, but don’t spam them. One photo a day would be fine. Keep the quality and consistency at all times. Don’t upload some crappy B-Sides. Either upload quality or leave it.
Get in contact physically
The online community is one market, the physical one another. I like to be online, but I also like to meet photographers in person. Everywhere I travel to, I organize photo walks to meet other street photographers and to share my knowledge. Some people from such walks became good friends and there will be new followers as well. But the main thing is the social aspect of such walks.
It’s fun to shoot together and to meet people you know virtually in person.
Build a community
The good thing about being online is the
community aspect. People with the
same passion are easy to join a commu-
nity. So why you don’t build your own
one or at least participate in an existing
one. The more followers you have, the
more they want to know about what
you are doing. Facebook and Twitter
might be the best for this. Maybe also a
blog, but a blog is only successful when
it is being done on a regular basis. Also
try to share your knowledge and keep
everything transparent. I hate it when
people hide their EXIF data of their pho-
tos on purpose. There is nothing to hide
and nobody will get as good as you are
by looking at your EXIF data. And if
someone gets better than you, then you
are not good enough.
Build a brand
Branding is important and keeps people recognizing your work. Choose a brand name or a pseudonym. There are too many photographers out there with their real name. It even makes your URL too long. I chose 85mm and still like it, although I don’t shoot with 85mm at the moment. When I get a full frame camera, this may change. But I keep it and still use it, as I have chosen it at that time.
Conclusion
This chapter got much longer than expected, which shows that there is a lot of potential on how you should go about marketing your product. You better start today thinking about it and get some kind of concept on how you want to improve your product with the help of marketing. I nearly forgot to mention that there is also the Vivian Maier approach. You don't publish, you don't care about marketing and you will get famous after you die. Also a way of working…
Now, please go to Twitter, Google+ & Facebook to share the URL of this book to all of your friends: http://book.85mm.ch. Thanks for your cooperation.
Copy is right
Forget the “All rights reserved”
A topic which is really sensitive in photography is the whole copyright situation. Some people think that they have to protect their work, no matter what happens. This reminds me of the music industry which tries the same thing since years and still loses market shares every year. In the days of the Internet, people have to change their mind set regarding copyright and making money from street photography
.
"Street photography is a way of life,
not a way of earning money…"
Thomas Leuthard
There is no market
Sure there are people who can earn money with photography, but street photography is a special kind of art. Not everyone would hang this into his living room. Therefore I guess there is not a big market for street photography. In this case there must be other ways of earning money than by selling prints of your photographs. But this is not the topic of this chapter, we talk about the copyright itself.
Stop watermarking
There are people who watermark their photos. Some really do this in an ugly way where you cannot look at the photo anymore. Why are they doing that? I have asked one of these guys and it seems that some people have stolen his work in the past. What is the problem when someone takes your photo from the Internet? Why do you upload your photos to the Internet then?
The Internet is a different place, copying is easier and you cannot really protect your work, except you watermark right through the photo and upload it in a bad quality. The best way to "mark" your photos is probably to find your own style, everybody would recognize. Sure this is not easy, but it would be very powerful. Therefore you should not waste your time watermarking your photos, but you should go out shooting better and more consistent photos.
The Creative Commons
Another way to get your work spread around the globe is to mark it as Creative Commons. This means, people can use it, change it and re-publish it for free, but they have to mention your name. It might sound weird to some people that you give away your work for free, but you always have to give something first, before you can ask for money. The more people who will like and share your work, the more famous you get and the more people will follow you. One day you can start selling prints, give workshops or try to earn money in another way. I tend to say that you cannot start earning money as of day 1.
Going Candid... Page 5