In Search of the Golden Circle

OK. I'll admit it.  I've been seeking photographic glory on Google+.  Well, actually I've been seeking inspiration mixed in with a little photographic glory. Enter "The Circle".

They say Facebook is where you share what you had for breakfast, Twitter allows you to announce to the world in real time where you're eating breakfast, and Google+ allows you to share your passion for breakfast with all of the other people on the planet that are passionate about breakfast- complete with beautiful photos.

As I'm not overly passionate about breakfast, I'm instead seeking out those who share my passion for photography.  More specifically, wildlife and landscape photography.  Do you have a clue how many other photographers are also playing on Google+? The answer is more more than there probably should be.  Not sure what I mean? Add a shared circle of 400 self proclaimed "best" landscape photographers and watch your stream for a few days.

"Nice weed photo". Remove from circles

"Oh, what a beautiful rock". Remove from circles

"I wasn't aware you could pile manure that high". Remove from circles

Eventually, you've narrowed down the circle of the 400 "best" down to just 5 of which you truly find inspiring.  It's a tedious process to say the least, but I certainly don't blame the other 395 "best" photographers for trying. I'm doing the same thing by trying to get into other shared circles to help increase my own footprint. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?  To be fair, not everyone has the same intent for G+.  Probably most are just up for sharing and talking shop. So am I, but hopefully with a more specific audience.

If this sounds familiar to you, you'll be happy to know there's a better way.  It's called PhotoExtract.com.  This website provides a glimpse of some of the best photos posted to Google+ each day via it's "Plus Extract" routine.  Plus Extract combines a little computing magic with the curator opinion of one +Jarek Klimek who, by the way, does a pretty nice job at helping the process along.  I'm finding more "circleable" photographers using this approach in much less time.

One casual observation though - not as many wildlife photographers getting Plus Extract love as I'd like.  If you think you're "Golden Circle" material, check out this link to see how you can get yourself seen on Plus Extract.