why is this so popular on Flickr?

[furrycelt]

this is ranked the highest of all my images per Flickr's "interestingness" algorithm. and i don't know why. i didn't think it was that great of a shot.


ring my rust by furrycelt, on Flickr

thanks for your feedback.

[groovyone]

I like it a lot, but I am not sure it would be my favorite.

[The Barbarian]

I like it too. Don't know why. But when I looked on Flickr, the details kept me looking for a while.

[Hogleg 44]

Maybe because the object is so old. It looks like a tricycle bell of the 20's or 30's. It's very interesting and intriguing.

[furrycelt]

whata know? it just dropped to #2. not complaining, just makes more sense.

thanks everyone for the feedback.

[JohnT]

It's not a bad shot. However, it's old so that's probably the appeal.

[therest]

Nice shot, the rust adds a lot to the picture

[Nikonfan]

I like the contrast of something old in rusty in a clean studio setting. A little too much empty space on the top for my liking but it's still a cool shot.

[furrycelt]

Originally Posted by Nikonfan

I like the contrast of something old in rusty in a clean studio setting. A little too much empty space on the top for my liking but it's still a cool shot.

interesting. i never thought it could be interpreted as having been a studio shot.

one thing i thought was cool was that the color of the sidewalk in the background had enough warm tones to compliment the rust.

this image was shot with my Sigma 30mm/f1.4, with the aperture at 1.4; for lighting, it was very cloudy.

[Nikonfan]

The background compliments it very well. Looked like a backdrop to me! Now that I know it wasn't in a studio I don't like the picture anymore. Just kidding!

[Stifled_1]

I like the shot. If you don't mind me asking, what do you not like about it?

[furrycelt]

Originally Posted by Stifled_1

I like the shot. If you don't mind me asking, what do you not like about it?

it's a fair question. however, i don't dislike it. i mean, if i didn't like it, nor think it was good, it wouldn't have made it past the demosaic phase.

i like it, but didn't think it was in my top 20. given that the Flickr world is silent when you ask "why", i thought i would ask an audience of photographers who don't mind answering the question.

[dmcantrell]

The "interestingness" algorithm on flickr is not always linear nor logical. There are many, many variables that go into that rating. Some of the ones I know about are : number of views, number of comments, number of favorites, the tags on the image and what's popular that week, whether or not it's post in a flickr group (and whether or not that group is a "comment" group), hot links on other websites, etc.

Sometimes, trying to figure out why an image has a high interestingness rating is like trying to figure out why a certain stock is priced the way it is.

[d2creative]

Ya, this is my most popular. I know it's popular in the cycling community due to the bar wrap.
Doesn't matter that it's not a great photo. A lot of people end up on flickr through google.
The majority of my most popular pics are bicycle pics. And the pics of my tattoo sleeve.

[jeffkohn]

I don't use flickr so this may be a dumb question. Do they allow to search based on exif fields or things like lens model? PBase does, and the images of mine that get the most views by a pretty wide margin are those taken with the tilt/shift lenses, presumably because there's a fair amount of interest in them but not a whole lot of pictures (for a long time I was the only one on PBase who had any pictures tagged with the 45mm PC-E).

I could see the 35mm f/1.4 lens having a fair amount of interest.

But it may just be that the simplicity of the shot due to shallow DOF means that it looks good as a thumbnail. Some shots just don't translate well when viewed as tiny thumbnails.