Focus On: Tag Words

I've been featuring the work of POE members, both here and on my own blog for a little over a year, and in all that time one thing has piqued my curiousity above all others. Why was it, I wondered, that in all my searches for work by POE members, the same names kept popping up?

Our Team currently has over 1800 members, and most of them are unfamiliar to me. That may not seem odd to you, but in the past 14 months I've spent quite a bit of time looking at and searching through the work of POE members. I'm not saying that I have a more extensive knowledge of our membership than anybody else, but with the exposure I've had I would expect to have encountered many more of you than I have.

There are of course cracks in any system, and it would be expected for a certain number to have fallen through, but not as many as apparently have. The reason that so many members are absent from my searches is that while I'm using the search term "poe team" not everyone is including it in their allowed list of 14 tag words. So, not only are they not showing up on my radar, they're also not showing up when any other contributor is looking for member content to include on the POE Blog, nor is their work showing up when anyone wants to include POE images in their treasuries. So, if you want to improve your chances of having your images show up on our blog, as well as any number of treasuries, follow these two basic steps:

1.) Use all of your 14 allowable tag words.

2.) Ensure "poe team" is included in that list.

I took a random and unguided tour through a number of member shops looking for images that didn't have "poe team" included as a tag word; here's a taste of what I've been missing.

The Mittens - UNCLELEE

Ice Car - gregbphotography

Gothic Self Portrait - Jenkiabaphotography

Self Portrait - KaraPesznecker

Old Stories are the Best Stories - keithdotson

Yellow Peril - AbiBoothPhotography

Uptown Theater No. 3 - Carolineanissa

Sacramento Gold Tower Bridge - bobkeenan

Winter Night, New York City - bradmeese

Emergence - LensArtwork

Morningstar Mill and Dam - mcresearch

Vintage Plymouth - NebraskaSky

Baby Chinnos - PhotographyByAnita

Alone - photographybyGray

FISHING BOAT 1 - RabbitHoleProduction

Skating Backwards at The Wharf, San Francisco - SerantoniDesigns

Paris ( 01 ) - SenArt

Tulips - stillpoint

Reflections of Barcelona - trekkerjen

Seven - zseike

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"PhotoGrunt" is Steve Raley, a photographic documentarian from Seattle, Washington.  He captures images wherever he goes, and he  frequently even uses a camera.  His work can be seen on his website, blog and his Etsy shop.