[jmschrei]

Looks like my shot for August 2 made it into Explore and I notice Bruce (WWIFA) in there too!

[WWIFA]

Looks like my shot for August 2 made it into Explore and I notice Bruce (WWIFA) in there too!

Say what!? Congrats Joe! Thanks for the heads up.

[Bramela]

Explore? Rod, coujld you clarify that one, I am not familiar.

I am becoming increasingly worried about my photography. I visited the Eye Specialist on Thursday, and report is, though I am struggling a bit, she advises me it's about as good as it's going to get with a slim chance of some slow but small improvement.
The AF on these lenses better be more than good, because I am not much help. Photography future is looking a bit shakey at the moment, but maybe time will tell.

I have a good adviser at home, as my daughter, chronically ill with MS, is 90% blind. She laughs at me a bit.

[jmschrei]

Explore is a daily collection of selected shots on flickr. There seems to be some sort of algorithm but the subjective quality of shots varies greatly. I checked and you had an explored shot back in May. It's kind of fun and boosts the old photographic ego.

Sorry to hear about your vision. I came late to wearing glasses when my arms became too short but I often have a great deal of trouble seeing clearly through the view finder especially under certain light conditions. If in doubt I may shoot a couple of extra frames which may be cheating to the purist but, hey, life is short!

[photolady95]

I've never had any in explore that I know of. Seems someone told me once your photos have to have a lot of favorites on them to get in.

Sorry about your vision Bruce. As you all know I'm waiting to have the cataracts removed from both eyes; however, my regular doctor said I might have to still wear glasses after surgery. I'll see the specialist on the 29th of this month. Only then will I know for sure about what they will do to my eyes, and if I still have to wear glasses....while I don't relish the idea, I'll live with it if it makes me see better. I can't imagine not doing photography.

[todd]

Here's the 65 shot hand-held stitch I mentioned that I did last night with the 77 (things drummers can do while waiting for the rest of the group to get their acts together so we can start playing).... Tried to get foreground and top background in focus with the middle oof, but didn't quite pull it off as you can see.

And to offer some perspective on the unscaled size of this compiled image, here is a 100% crop of my friend in the back (top) working the board:

[mattt]

Looks great. Have you heard of The Brenizer Method?

[jheu02]

In NYC today, then Phoenix, AZ tomorrow, so with a shorter focal length this month than last, I may need to work on my street photography. Should be an eclectic mix of shots anyway.

[OzzRod]

Explore is a daily collection of selected shots on flickr. There seems to be some sort of algorithm but the subjective quality of shots varies greatly.

Thanks Joe. And congratulations to you and Bruce.

[patjp]

About Explored pictures on Flickr - I use this site to find if I have been Explored or not.

Scout: Find your photos in Flickr's Explore pages.

Good work so far this month!

[todd]

Have you heard of The Brenizer Method?

yeah i've tried it quite a bit now over the last few months but not with the 77 yet. I mostly tried it with the 31 and it's not really a long enough lengh for it. I really like the look of it when it's done well.

[repaap]

Great work Todd! Nice stich.

I'm having a bit of struggle with internet at the moment. My modem seemd to go out of order yesterday and WiFi so I'm depending on my mobile web now. Until my new modem arrives... I think that there is hustle with modem every second year. Good busines, I guess. :/

[Bramela]

Surprisingly, I find that I have one photo in Explore from May this year. Never realised.

Thanks for the heads up guys.

[OzzRod]

About Explored pictures on Flickr - I use this site to find if I have been Explored or not.

Scout: Find your photos in Flickr's Explore pages.

Good work so far this month!

Good advice Patrick. The FAQs are a useful read too, and go a little way to explaining how it all happens, but noting that Flickr's algorithm is secret and that it is revised from time to time.

My August 3rd Bar Beach at Dusk made it to Explore and this was the first time I actually saw one of my pictures in the Explore pages. It was interesting to check it during the day and to see how the ratings changed. Mine came in at 468 but rose to 57.

FWIW .... I quite enjoy the smartphone app "Flickriver". It presents a ranking of one's own Flickr pictures in terms of "interestingness". Although it doesn't go any further in defining "interestingness" it does give an indication of the external appeal of one's pictures. Explored images are at the top, but it's the ones that appear below that are of interest and sometimes surprise. Number of views is certainly not the determinant - most of my pix are lucky to reach 100 views but one I submitted from our Singapore trip just exploded well after posting and I have no idea why - it now has over 3500 views but no comments and only 2 faves - go figure. Interestingly (to me anyway), several of my last month's WG3 images are way up near the top.

And Congratulations Bruce (Bramela) on your Explore.

[mattt]

Right now the "Views" are all screwed up on Flickr.. i've had some days with 5000 views and that is just not normal. So they must be tinkering with that algorithm again.

Kozlok made a sound observation from yesterdays posting. After messing up the 2X TC the other day, I had to play around today and see how the hand held operation worked. This is at near minimum focus with the Rear TC equiped and SR set to 600mm. Hand held at ISO 6400 1/400 at f4.0. Besides the trouble of seeing focus in the VF I think that sharpness wise it worked out better than the duck shot from yesterday. I also didnt realize that I could get a thin DOF at 14 feet minimum focus, but there you go. The focus point is the G in the left side car.