500px.com Observations

500px has been an interesting site to be a part of and experiment with. Every photo site seems to have a unique or distinct set of followers. In addition to those followers there is a recognizable pattern of behavior. On sites like OneExposure or JPGmag there appears to be more discovery than on 500px. Perhaps this is because its new. Im not sure. Popular images are usually only hours old, you either post it at the right time and people recognize it or you post it at midnight and it never gets seen. Its very interesting.

Its not real clear that anyone reads the blogs either. In fact I just discovered that personal feeds are re-displayed under the site blog feed (very cool) but not sure anyone is looking.

While I like Flickr it is FAR WORSE in terms of being noticed.There, due simply to volume, if you don’t go to a great deal of trouble to join groups and submit your images they are never viewed. Yet, publishers go to Flickr often in search of images they can use (I have been published twice this way this year).

All in all, I like 500px far better than any other photo aggregation site out there. Since I am in the web development business and have built or manage the development of HUGE sites I am drawn to those that are simple, easy to use and elegantly done. 500px is all of those. This site breaks the Flickr (facebook/google) mold and adds a touch of flare and better information architecture to the site. And the galleries and portfolios are excellent as well as an integrated store and shopping cart.

Every site has its idiosyncrasies, and this one is no exception. As critical mass rises these things will change. I am still amazed at the quality of the work across the site by so many around the world. Photography really is a universal medium and its very interesting to see the world through other photographers eyes.

You are invited to look at my online collections here: http://500px.com/facesplacesthings

My online portfolio can be found here:  http://facesplacesthings.500px.com/

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