Making it to Flickr's Explore with my Infrared Photography - A Photographers Journey

When I made a decision in September of 2008 to start sharing my first photos on Flickr it was a big step for me. It was a whole new world that I had never experienced before.  Art was always in my blood and I used to draw when I was a toddler until my fingers were sore.  I always knew one day I wanted to try my artistic skills to photography. This was one of my first and early uploads to Flickr in 2008 called Through The Eyes of a Crystal. This was my very early attempt at macro photography using my Panasonic Lumix DMD-TZ5.

Getting around on Flickr in 2008 was not an easy task. Figuring out how to add photos to groups and how to get invites to all those "special groups" seemed like something that was only for other advanced photographers. However, I just thought I would keep trying and keep my spirits up but slowly but surely doing my own thing and making photos into art the way I wanted it done.  This photo below was of a sun pillar I had caught for the first time in upstate New York in 2008. Photo also taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMD-TZ5.

Learning Photoshop was my second and most important part of this whole process. I used to stay up 18-20 hours a day just playing with photos and pushing and clicking on buttons just to watch the changes it would make to the photos till I figured it out on my own. I did spend some time reading tutorials and watching videos on YouTube but it was still very overwhelming to me as a beginner. The more I relaxed and took my time discovering what could be done to enhance a photo the more I enjoyed what I was doing and knew I had to keep doing it.  The photo below was taken with my new Canon Powershot SX10 that I had received as a gift in 2008. 

After about 6 months or so I was invited to more than 200 groups and had quite a few followers, over 800, and it was growing daily. In February of 2009 I decided to start and be an Admin of my first group on Flickr, called "Above All The Rest and Simply the BEST". In just a few short weeks it had grown to over 2500 members. I was thrilled with the amount of activity and support this group had received in just a short period of time. Photo below is also the main image used as the Group Icon photo.

Then one day I came across a beautiful image that intrigued me. I had no idea what it was or how it was created it but I knew I had to find out! It was called a Fractal. A fractal by definition is a geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry. Fractals are used especially in computer modeling of irregular patterns and structures in nature. I then got my hands on my first Fractal program and began creating beautiful one-of-a-kind fractal artworks. The image below is titled Rainbow Math. One of my earlier creations.

It's now February of 2014 and to this day, I am still heavy into art and photography and love it more today than ever. My newest endeavor is Infrared Photography.  I have had my mind set to create these images on my own ever since I saw the first one and fell in love with it online.  I have been creating theses images for just over a month and have become very intrigued by the beauty that my camera can capture. With 6 years now of experience with Photoshop and my natural artistic nature I have found the type of photography that suits me best. The photo below, Bikeride in the Pink Trees, was uploaded to my Flickr account on January 31, 2014 and had made it to Explore. The current views on it alone is 20,789 and still climbing as I write this article.

The full size high resolution image can be viewed here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julev69/12240053665/

Bikeride in the Pink Trees

Its a very exciting day and great to know that with years of practice and much determination I am happy that my work is being seen all over the world by thousands of photographers that enjoy my creations. My best advice to anyone that wants to start taking photos and begin their own journey is to never give up and keep doing and creating photography that makes YOU happy.  Listening to others and doing what everybody else does is not always the best advice. Never be afraid to stand out from the crowd.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my article and learning a little more about my history as a digital artist and photographer as much as I have enjoyed writing this article.

Julie Everhart