How to find Flickr's best photos

There are many good ways to discover great photos on flickr. Below are the most effective and fun.

1. Flickr's interestingness is a great place to start. Interestingness is an algorithm developed by Flickr to find the most (you guessed it) interesting pictures on Flickr. The page I linked to above will show you a calander view of the most interesting pictures on Flickr uploaded in a calander month, but interestingness is also a site-wide property. You can, for example, do a search for Tokyo, then sort it by interestingness (as shown), and you'll immediately see the effect

2. The best way to find great pictures, though, and one that involves really getting into Flickr, is to browse other people's favorites. Here's an example: I find this photo from the search I did on Tokyo. Pretty sweet. If I go to the photographer's page by clicking on her screen-name (lil) I can check out her favorites (she has some great ones). If I find some good stuff there I can bounce from favorites page to favorites page indefinitely (almost all my favorites were found this way).

3. Lastly Flickr's great community "pools" are filled with good stuff. There are communities of all sorts on Flickr, and each community (or group) has its own "pool"--i.e. the photos that members of the community choose to share with one another--usually dedicated to a type of photo (e.g. the long exposure group). Because each pool is created by the submissions of group members the photos in a pool are usually pretty high quality. Other groups, like the "cream of the crop" group, are dedicated to simply finding the best of the best on Flickr. Just browsing through these submissions is a great way to find great stuff. (also see 1000 views + 100 favs)

4. *NEW* To find a picture taken in a specific place just click the down arrow "v" next the "search" button after your place and click "for a location".

Here are a few simply ways to get your photos seen by people on Flickr and all over the web:

1. Submit your photos to groups! This is a good way to get your stuff out there, especially if you post to these groups often and submit quality stuff.

2. Communicate with other people on Flickr. Browsing other people's photos, telling them what you think, adding them as contacts, and "favoriting" other people's photos are all good ways to get noticed. The more you get yourself noticed the more your photos will be seen (and farovited, and commented on). Its a virtuous circle. Also consider making a free Flickr account for your best work, as filling up your Flickr account with a mix of personal and "artsy" stuff can deter deep browsing of your photos.

3. Find a real life photo group! Lots of cities have "flickr meetups", and there are lots of groups out there for photographers of all skill levels to get together and talk about their work, whether or not you're one of flickrs best. (Here's an example, or check out the left column of the Flickr Blog).