Turmoil in my top four
So Flickr has this notion of “interestingness”, which is some algorithmic measure of how “interesting” a photo might be to view. No such measure can be perfect, and as one might expect there are vast oceans of (digital) ink spilt debating the pros and cons of Flickr’s algorithm. (Mostly cons, I’m afraid, as people are much more inclined to whine about how their pictures aren’t ranked high enough than they are to celebrate those that are.)
I will not enter into that debate here.
Instead, I’ll note that my two most “interesting” images on Flickr (according to that measure) had for over a year been (in order) the wonderful sunset on Bending Lake (Ontario, Canada) from a fishing trip with my Dad, and a close up of a poppy in a Shakespeare garden in Stratford-upon-Avon (both above).
In the last month or two, however, all that’s changed, with two new images leaping into the top four. My “most interesting” image is now this shot from Denali National Park during our summer trip to Alaska:
While I quite like the picture, I was completely surprised by the level of response. (Further evidence that I’m a totally crap judge of these things.) I find the colors quite surreal, for example, and while they are pretty accurate (I didn’t fiddle very much), I’m surprised that others didn’t find it too fake looking. Strange.
The sunset remains in the second spot, but the new third “most interesting” is this sunset over a cornfield here in town:
In driving Sub-Evil Boy back and forth to Barrett for Prairie Fire Theater summer camp back in August, I spent a lot of time looking at the local prairie and thinking about photo possibilities. Most of these I never had time or opportunity to actually do anything about, but I went out one evening to take some shots of the sun setting on some wetlands that I thought would be nice. They’re OK, but this was the real find that evening. As I headed back to the house, I liked the way the setting sun was lighting up the corn in a USDA experimental plot at the edge of town. One thing led to another, and I ended up with this, which I’m quite fond of.
The poppy remains in fourth, which is nice. I like the poppy :-).
