Sprengben [why not get a friend]'s photostream  

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Today there is a shot of myself. Normally I am quite comfortable not being in front of the lens but I thought I have to show you this amazing photo. When I travel I use to do this ridiculous thing. I jump in front of every cool sight I visit. This looks quite stupid but it is a nice remembrance for the location. I will show it to my grand kids when I am old…

So this is me at the Duomo die Milano in Europe's fashion capital. You can see I tried to dress adequate :).

The cool thing is that there are pigeons all over the place. Just like in Venice… You can see them pretty clear on the photo. If you move quickly they all try to fly away and make a lot of noise.

So here I jump in front of the dome and a good friend of mine was so nice to shoot.

…

Recently I get a lot of emails on the topic “how do you get all your views, your favourites and comments.” Well I want to share it here because time allows me not to answer every email instantly.

My personal 10 Rules to get attention on Flickr:

1.
If you want people to interact on your stream, interact on theirs. Tell them your honest opinion, be a reliable contact.

2.
Don’t advertise on other peoples streams. Too bad I did this in the beginning of my Flickr time. I am really
sorry for every advertisement I did on somebody's stream. People will hate you, block you and sent you some harsh messages.

3.
Try to post good, interesting and unique material. Don’t try to copy this person or that person. Find your own style and present it in a nice way. Also write something to your images like feelings you had when you took it or a song that comes to your mind when you look at the photo. Be creative! Because that’s what Flickr is about!

4.
Don’t try hard to be successful or something like this. Believe me you are not! Not even if you have 10 million views. For the big guys like for example Trey Redcliff or The White house this is just peanuts. Better try to have fun with photography because if you have fun the rest will come on its own.

5.
Try out some groups in the beginning. Even though all these blinking group badges are annoying it helps you to get some nice contacts. But find the point where to stop with this and get serious contacts with whom you interact ---> See point #1

6.
Try to get your shots on Explore :) (Somehow this only happens by accident every now and then)

7.
Don’t be rude because you think you are cool! In germany we have a saying:” Grüße die Menschen auf deinem Weg nach oben, denn wenn es für dich mal nach unten geht, wirst du ihnen wieder begegnen!“ which means: Be nice to the people on your way to the top because when you fall down you will see them again“

8.
Use Creative Commons to advertise your photos. In two or three years there will be tools to automatically detect who first released a photo. So why have fear that someone could steal your image. Professional companies don’t use your photos for commercials they fear lawsuits. Creative Commons works for your advertisement all over the world 24 hours without you being active.

9.
Use other Media to get your photos around. For example Twitter, Tumblr, a blog… you know all of these platforms. Mostly you are able to automatically post your photos to all these Websites without doing any hand clap

10.
Don’t take it too serious and eat chocolate! :)

I hope this helps! See you around

Ben

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It has been a while since I have been in Tokyo but I definitely plan to come back, soon! Some days ago my Japanese exchange student friends left and I am really sad about it.

I actually watched the movie: LOST IN TRANSLATION two times just because of the good old times… If you don’t know it yet, watch it. It is a strange but really awesome movie.

This shot is from the top of the government building. I did some other photos from the same location. You can see them in the comment section.

As I am browsing through your Flickr streams I see that the Tokyo Sky Tree is close to be finished. I think it is going to be the highest building in Tokyo so I really have to come back soon, to bring you some new and fresh Tokyo shots from above.

The shot you see here has been taken shortly after the blue hour. One can still see enough light to recognize the buildings. It is just enough light to get a nice gradient between the light coming from the buildings and the buildings themselves.
I think the mood of the photo is pretty awesome!

Love

Ben

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Hey guys! Over here in Germany we have winter. But the streets aren’t paved with white snow and the smell of Gluehwein everywhere. We have constant rain and bad wheather over here.
I really dislike bad wheather. That’s why I upload a shot of the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin from the better times. I tool this on a warm summer day some month ago.
I wish a fun weekend to all of you!
Ben

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I think this is an important question! What do you think?

No more words today! Have a save and creative week everyone!

Ben

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This is a verse from the Bible I discovered a while ago and I always wanted to use it for a photo of mine. I think it is obviously why I choose the title for this shot. There is the “Brandenburger Tor”, the most known gate of Germany and there is the Quadriga which looks as if they want to enter the gate in all their Glory. To emphasize the effect of entering something with glory and speed I used the Radial Blur Filter in Photoshop.
It wasn’t easy to not destroy the image with it but I think the effect turned out pretty well.
As I look at the image my eyes get really dizzy! What do you think? Is the image Top or Flop?

Also I decided to talk a bit on statistics on this image.
Lately a lot of my contact hit the 100.000 views mark. I am really proud of you. The reason why I want to share statistics with you is not that you think “how cool is he” or “man what an ass”.

The reason is motivation.

I want to motivate you to set a goal for 2012 and pursue it. I hit the 100.000 views exactly two years ago. A month ago I hit the 1.000.000 views. It wouldn’t have been without you that I could have reached this. So of course I am really thankful for all of you supporting me and viewing my Images.

If you are good in mathematics you see that it took me nearly two years to reach 1.000.000 views.
As I sat down and started my Flickr vision for 2012 I thought what do I want to achieve this year. After thinking a while I thought to change the two years into one year and the 1.000.000 into 2.000.000.

This means I actually need 2.000.000 views this year which is approximately 5479 views each day :-).

I really don’t know how I should do this but at the end of the year I will let you know if I was able to achieve this.

Again I want to motivate you to set your goals for 2012. If you are like me making crazy plans which cannot be achieved without much luck please write your Flickr goals for 2012 into the comment section.

I am really interested to see what you are planning.

Please remember that we are not competitors but friends . If your goal is to reach one view each day let me know. I am really interested to see it!

Ben

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