Today's post focuses on a dozen milestones in my photography during my Flickr years (2007-2018). There is a small overlap with previous posts, but most of these images have not appeared in the blog after the re-start. The image above was shot by my wife in the Montparnasse Paris graveyard (copyright Lu Schaper).
Commuting in the fog (2007)
I shot this in the morning at the Almere train station, ready to commute to Amsterdam. Up to then (August 2007), I had received hardly any reaction on the pictures I put at Flickr, but this changed all that. For over ten years it was my most faved shot.
Smooth Jazz (2007)
Our beloved cocker spaniel, probably the first time that I applied some post-processing. More importantly, in October 2007, this was the first of my photographs to hit Flickr explore, the 500 most interesting shots of the day, topping out at #302.
All in the family (2008)
A candid taken at the park near our home of those years, when the freshly fallen snow had already melted away for the most part. Not a personal favourite, not a lot of response on Flickr, but still a very special shot for me: it was selected as one of twenty winning entries for the competition "Relaxed in Almere", and was exhibited in the city hall for one month - the first time a photograph of mine was shown in public.
Aurora (2008)
This Shanghai Pudong cityscape with its golden sunset colours and reflections in the main building was another Flickr Explore success, reaching #119. More importantly, it was used in an exhibition about Shanghai Architecture in the New York Skyscraper Museum.
Windmill in ice (2009)
One of my most popular shots ever, and a personal favourite as well. This is the windmill in Rijssen (the same spot where our wedding shoot was done in 2000), reflected in ice and flipped upside down. Not only did it reach Flickr Explore, but peaking at #22 it performed far better than any of my other shots until then.
Impression (2009)
A clear example how I'd evolved as a photographer in a few years, seeing possibilities I had not seen before, Thus is a shot from 2006, trees reflected in puddles, which I had never used. By flipping it upside down, pushing the colours, and applying a Lomo-treatment, I created a shot I still count as one of my best. And Flickr agreed with me, it hit Explore big time, topping at #83.
Almere tower abstraction (2010)
At the time, a new building was completed in the centre of Almere, and I shot a few images that were rather successful. This one was faved a lot, and I have no idea why it did not get to Explore. On the bright side, this was the second shot of mine to be exhibited in public (one of 20 winners of an Almere photography contest).
Morning mood (2010)
I was walking in the park with Jazz, when I came across this beautiful scene. Like the previous one, dozens of faves, yet no Explore. More importantly though, when we opened our art gallery in Kampen in 2012, our first sale was a print of this shot.
Escheresque (2010)
Funny story this. The popular photography site Photo Tuts Plus had a feature on abstracted architecture in photography. Amongst the 80 examples picked, one was mine (the roof of a Shanghai museum). More importantly, five shots were selected as lead-off illustrations of the five main tips. One of these, illustrating "Find the fantasy" was this shot of mine of a Shanghai high-rise building, first posted to Flickr in 2009. I did not notice it was mine to be honest - it had received no attention whatsoever in 2009 and it had dropped out of my mind. I reposted the shot in 2010 and the faves rolled in.
Shanghai patterns (2011)
A metal gate on a Shanghai street near our apartment. Intriguing play of lines, curves and reflections. This was the first shot that made money for me: a Singapore architecture firm paid for its use in their brochures.
Autumn in the park (2012)
Like in Almere, we have a great park in walking distance of our home in Kampen. This autumn impression is nothing special to my taste, but it was selected for the first edition of a local glossy magazine - making it my first shot that was published that way.
Penetration (2018)
I had good hopes for this abstract - but the results were far better still. Within two days after posting to Flickr, it made Explore, and gathered over 17000 views and over 280 faves (to give an idea: for an average shot of mine those numbers would be around 50 and 2-3), making it my best received photograph in 11+ years of being on Flickr. Oh yes, what is it? A detail of an outdoor sculpture by Morgan Betz at the City Museum The Hague. And this shot ended my presence on Flickr, not with a whisper but with a bang.
Copyright statement: all images copyright Hennie Schaper unless marked otherwise. Contact me if you like to use them.
