How about yet one more example of neat things that happen when you share your stuff? This is a photo I posted a month ago on flickr; it is a wooden drafting table my Dad had used back in the 1950s and after years of storage in an attic, I decided to re stain it:
Nothing special about the photo (except it had the word “drafting table” in it), just one of several thousand sitting in my bin.
I keep an RSS feed for my flickr comments so I know when someone writes something (so I can respond, or just so my ego can get a small stroke), and a day ago came this cryptic comment from a Joe Allam:
Expect your views of this picture to go up drastically in the next few days.
Sure enough, when I went to check, it was up to 82, far above the normal views on my photos. And the number is climbing, notes Joe:
And now at 152 on July 2nd, 2008 12:50 GMT. Here is your reason enjoy.
The reason is my humble drafting table is playing a small role in a tutorial on the PSDTUTS site, Create a Realistic Blueprint Image From a 3D Object:
In amazing detailed, illustrated steps, Alvaro Guzman shows how to import a 3D model into PhotoShop, and manipulate the model data to generate a realistic looking blueprint image. He than shows how to make it look like a real piece of paper (with subtle shadows, folds, drapes) laid across my drafting table photo.
Now I have used PhotoShop for like 15 years (back to version 3.0), and realize, as always how, little I know, this is amazing techniques shared.
And now I am hooked on the PSDTUTS site, which is in its words,
PSDTUTS is a blog/photoshop site made to house and showcase some of the best Photoshop tutorials around. We publish tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain in a friendly, approachable manner.
Photoshop is a fantastically powerful program and there are a million ways to do anything, we hope that reading PSDTUTS will help our readers learn a few tricks, techniques and tips that they might not have seen before and help them maximize their creative potential!
And once more, I get this adrenaline rush (woooooooooosh) from another exmaple of web serendipity that creates new connections, opens new resources, like new neurons forming and firing off.
Thanks for finding my photo and dressing it up! Up to 175 views and climbing.
As a hint- this pretty much was enabled because in my compulsive manner I title and add captions to all my photos that brought the photo up when someone searched on “drafting table”. Don’t expect much if you back up your camera like a dump truck to flickr and release a pile of ones with titles like DSCN2345.JPG – take the time to put some context there. I think in some circles people might call this “metadata” (I speed up this process using the iPhoto/Aperature flickr exporter, well worth the shareware).
But more so, just share your stuff. Its addictive.
Later, on the Blog…
This story takes another leap as the tutorial inspires an artist to remix Dad’s table into an image for the cover of a scientific journal.
Featured Image: Finished Stain Project flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)
I wish more people share their stuff like you do, by the way, without your picture I had not published my tutorial, yes I’m Alvaro Guzman the tutorial writer.
Thank you very much for sharing your work, I hope will use another of your pictures in the future.
PS. views 348 by now 😉