How do you decide which of your photos are your favorite ones? Do you rely on technical criteria, like sharpness, or do you rely more on the overall artistic impression? Do your memories of shooting an image factor into your calculations? Do WordPress statistics play any role in your thinking?
As I noted yesterday, my blog’s second anniversary, I am taking a brief pause from posting new photos to think about the blog and my photographic journey over the last two years. During this period, I though I would re-post some of my favorite postings. I am posting them in their entirety, because I think that my prose enhances the appeal of my blog (and I find that I enjoy the creative experience of expressing myself in my words as well as in my images).
I tend to photograph a lot of insects in the summer and birds in the winter, but some of my most memorable images come from my infrequent encounters with mammals, like this tender moment that I shared with a beaver family last summer that was visible one day during the daylight hours.
In response to my initial questions, I tend to give my greatest priority to the overall artistic impression and give little weight to WordPress statistics. Some of my best photos have relatively few views, while I have a few unexceptional images that have a lot of views.
Text of the original blog posting that first appeared on 18 July 2013:
Last Friday, after some violent thunderstorms, I visited my local marshland park, where the staff alerted me that three beavers were sleeping on a patch of dry land near their lodge, which apparently had flooded. The three North American Beavers (Castor canadensis) were all snuggled together and reminded me a little of puppies. I am working up some more images, but thought that I would give a sneak preview of coming attractions.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
This is a pretty cool photo 🙂
It’s as good now as it was then. I think I lean more towards artistic photos but I also always try to get them as sharp as possible.
Cute image….nice, Michael. I agree with you, some of we we ourselves think are exceptional, may only be received passively. But through our posts we have the privilege at least to share our work (play?, passion?) with others – and perhaps in some cases, even convey our own personal impressions. 🙂
You raise a good question. I think my answer would be it’s complicated. Stats wouldn’t change my opinion but my favourites all have some combination of art and technical criteria and it’s not consistent.
From my memory of your many photos, this is also one of my favourites in part because I don’t ever recall seeing something like that.
Favorites? Not sure I would categorize any as such. Ones that sold may be inching ahead, but that just means it is someone else’s favorite. I always seem to like the last ones shot then something new comes along and all is forgotten. I do like your “puppy” beavers. That expression is priceless.
So cute! I will be glad to see some of the images you posted before I started following your blog.