Moroccan Series: Popular Image, Taroudant Walls

[David]

Hi All - I send many of my images to Flickr, partly for archival purposes, partly for contributions and partly so I can post here with ease. As you know, anyone on Flickr can "view" your images if you allow it. Some of my images do get "viewed" and there are occasional comments. Normally, I get zero views for any image. The following image, however, has had 11 views in the past few days. This is a large number for me. The question is WHY?




I do not think it that special; it is a documentary shot with a bit of tweaking. Does anyone here see anything "special" that would cause people to like or view it?

Cheers

David

[Dave Humphries]

Hi David,

Two possibilities as I see it;
You may have a word in the title or description which the search/tagging is latching onto and people find that word interesting and search for it.

The other alternative is that the thumbnail looks interesting and people click it.

From my perspective, it does look slightly incongruous, the view looks like it should be hot, dry and dusty, but the tarmac is wet.

It is quite a pleasant pic, might have been better with foreground interest that was more in keeping with the background than a dayglo cyclist, but we can't have everything

Cheers,

[Geoff F]

I suspect Dave has the answer when he says the lone cyclist in a dayglo vest on a wet road is exactly the opposite of what people are expecting from that background. It looks like there should be a camel under blazing sunshine - like all the other typical tourist images.

And your balance between the cyclist and angle of the road/walls is just about perfect. The eye is automatically drawn towards, and then past, the cyclist into the far distance.

This excellent image captures a real moment in time.

ps. Just out of interest, how about showing us one of the zero raters.

[David]

Dave, Geoff - Thanks for the comments, especially the complementary ones. There have been another 4 hits overnight. I had not thought about a tag or title word being searched for. I'll bear that in mind. There is also the possibility that the photo appears incongruous. Perhaps people do expect Morocco to be always hot and sunny with camels lolling about.

Here's a zero rater:




I thought this one quite good, both from a documentary aspect and its compositional aspects.


Cheers

David

[Geoff F]

That is a well balanced photo with good depth of field and I particularly like the washing line which gives it an extra bit of human touch.

But we always have to remember 'why do we take photographs'. While that image is technically fine and a true representation of that moment in time it lacks the WOW factor so I suggest that while it holds memories for you it is meaningless to the average casual viewer.

Something extra, like a person or animal in the foreground, would probably get more views.

If you wanted to take photos chiefly to count the number of 'views' it should be remembered that the average viewer has little photographic skill or an artistic eye so a photo must shout 'look at me' when seen as a thumbnail image.

I think it is really just a case of saying 'I like that scene, that is why I took the photo but I know it doesn't mean much to anyone else; and I don't care'. So keep showing your photos anyway; and I expect that if you start looking at them with a rather 'jaundiced' eye you will soon be able to tell in advance which photos will get viewed and which will be largely ignored.

Anyhow, that is my theory - what do other people think?

Geoff.

ps. Just out of interest, I've had a look at the most viewed image from my PBase Galleries and this is the clear winner with 6 views over the last 2 days. But I have no idea why this image is now in first place. It is a reasonably pleasant photo of an unknown traditional sailing boat which was passing by but it wouldn't have been my choice.

[David]

Hi Geoff - Thanks for the reply and comments. I've posted or contributed to a post somewhere here about the reasons why pictures are taken. I suppose my general aim is documentary and to take such images in a technically competent manner. Your photo of the sailing boat falls into that class; it looks very well taken and of interest to those who like that sort of thing. I wonder if as photographers we think of a "wow" factor in different terms from the general public. Perhaps there are a lot of people who like sailing boats and people cycling in front of city walls and say - "Hey look at that - that's brilliant." Whereas, we look for something else, angle of shot, lighting, novelty and so on.

Anyway, thanks again Geoff.

Cheers
David

[David]

Update re Taroudant Walls photo. As of today, 31st July 2009, this photo has had 89 hits on my Flickr, and now tops my hit list. There is clearly something about this image that people like or maybe there is someone with a dayglo cycle fetish. But I find it weird.

David