Shot Through the Window

Last week when I just looked out of my window, waiting for some inspiration, I saw a young oriole at the hummingbird feeder in my photinia. Eager to take a few quick snapshots - I don't dare to use the term "take photos" here - before s/he flies off again, I grabbed my Canon PowerShot SX40 HS with its amazing super zoom and snapped through my window - the only way not to scare the heck out of this little bird. Of course the shots turned out crabby, I don't even care to post them here.

However, while standing at the window, hoping for the return of the little guy, I noticed my sunflower and how beautiful it looked in the late afternoon sun that was illuminating it from the back. Before thinking any further I took a photo of it through the window. When I looked at it on my computer I liked how it had turned out and posted it to flickr as my photo of the day - and forgot about it.

photo of the week

Can you imagine my surprise the following morning when I opened my email inbox and it was overflowing with flickr mail?

What had happened? Well, the photo had made it into the "explore" gallery, something I have to admit I was unaware about until that moment. Apparently there is an "explore" gallery on flickr every day, but I don't know how the photos are chosen for the gallery. What I do know is that the photos in this gallery are exceptional (I felt very small when I looked at them) and get tons of views. I can't tell you in words how much I feel honored that my photo made it into this gallery. I still don't understand how this happened and it still amazes and astonishes me.

As of today, my sunflower has had more than 5000 views and my flickr circle has grown significantly. I still get notifications about people who favorite this photo. Every time I kind of shake my head over it in disbelief - and I am super happy, especially since this happened at a time when I felt totally uncreative and had those infamous doubts of not being good enough. This was a wonderful boost for me!