My Flickr Photo Collection.

[Garethp8873]

Dear Members,

 

For the last four years, I have been taking photos at preserved railways. In my photography, I have mainly aimed at taking photos of the goods wagons on each railway but have also taken photos of loco and diesel traction and carriages too.

 

Although I have seen several of my photos being linked to a couple of topics on here, I would like to try and help more railway modellers with my photos. How would any you suggest I improve access for railway modellers? I appreciate what advice you can give me. A link to my photopage is here. Here is also a sample of some the wagon photos I have done.

 

Garethp8873.

 

 

[Chris Nevard]

Maybe put the different type (or railway company etc) of wagons into different sets or collection? You can keep your existing set up as well.

[Oldddudders]

You have some fine and useful pics, but the key to more hits on flickr (implying someone has found your stuff interesting, which is the only reason for putting them there, after all!) is to add more tags. Thus the GWR shunter's truck needs tags like "GWR", "Canon's Marsh" and "shunter's" to get swept up in searches for those items. Frankly, the fact that they are at the SVR may be of less interest to modellers and other enthusiasts - they may well be searching for the vehicle detail, not the location, which they might access direct on a website.

[ForestPines]

If you're concerned about getting hits on Flickr, then, as people have said, add more tags. Also, post to more (relevant) groups; moreover, check your stats and see what search terms are actually bringing people to visit. I always put in a vehicle's number as one of the tags: you will then get hits from people searching for those specific items. If you know any technical terms that are unusual or somehow specific to the vehicle concerned, put those in too: for example, if I'd taken that 5-plank open picture, I'd have tagged it with terms like "dean-churchward brake" - maybe something relating to the fact that the brake gear is in pre-1939* condition, although of course for a tag you have to be succinct.

 

Try to write full captions, too, more than just date and location. Myself, I try to write full, chatty and informative captions, and it pays off. It's the captions, after all, that spark off long conversations about the preservation rate of Palvans etc. (although that one, checking back, I originally put a jokey one-liner!) Sometimes when people search Flickr they will only search captions, not tags; and it will also push your Flickr photos rather higher in the Google Images search results, I find.

 

* GWR experts please feel free to correct me on the date there - I've seen conflicting reports of the date by which the brake handles had to be moved to the right-hand end of the wagon, the fact that the original deadline was extended not helping.