50 amazing Flickr streams
Beyond the stuff I’ve been posting in my twitter stream, I haven’t really had much time to post proper blog posts here on this blog recently – and my apologies about that. What I have been doing, however, is browsing Flickr to get some amazing inspiration, ideas, and tips for the whats and hows of photography. Throughout the past few weeks, I’ve been keeping bookmarks of my best finds.
I’ve found a whole load of amazing photographers who have made me smile, filled me with wonder, made me shy with inadequacy, and proud to be part of this whole ‘photography’ thing. My only shame in all of this is that there are many more than 50 good – nay, great – photographers out there – so I would very much like to encourage you to post a comment with your favourite Flickr streams…
So hereby, without further ado or messing about – my top 50 recent finds on Flickr.
Stella Brazil has an amazing knack for taking some truly phenomenal photos of people, making them seem alive, passionate, and really zing on the screen. Especially worth checking out: Beauty and Eu estou feliz
Uncle Phooey’s photostream is full of amazing macro, nature, and colour. An exploration into and a celebration of landscapes, animals, nature, and the world around us, along with the occasional HDR photo.
Heyoka’s photostream is dedicated to a lot of different stuff, but is currently focussed on using old processes. Only last week did she show me how to pour my own collodion wet plate, and her photo stream is a ringing endorsement of the awesomeness of doing photography the old fashioned way.
KhayaL’s photostream is one of pure, unadulted magic and fantasticness. Strong forms, amazing colours, and a deep, intricate sense of detail makes me come back to KhayaL’s photos again and again. Check out The Castle and Psyche, and The Drama for example. Amazing stuff.
adampigott’s photos are… well… very difficult to describe in words. The man has an astonishing ability to take deeply conceptual shots and really make them stand out. There are some fantastic portraits in there, some stonking nature shots, and some lovely architecture stuff as well. Highly recommended.
Gretchen Burkhart is a photographer who makes me regret not picking up photography earlier – at 17, she’s on par with many more established photographers, and is displaying a particularly fresh approach to portraiture. Her Senior Photos set, for example, is fab, but the rest of her photostream is also worth looking at – it shows a beautiful progression from casual snapshots and experimental self portraits, developing to the most recent shots in the series. Most impressive.
Davide Cherubini seems to have a bit of a fetish for old bicycles, and – to be honest – that’s all right by me. His cityscapes are colourful, filled with emotion, and more than a little bit of nostalgia. Pure beauty. La Bicicletta Rosa and Porta Storta are two excellent examples of his style
0olong’s an old friend of mine, and he has an interesting eye for photography to say the least – not always technically perfect, but he’s one of the photographers I know who really knows how to spot an image – especially with his gritty portraiture style or when photographing his other hobby – Clay modelling!
Lord V is one of the Macro Photography heavy-weights on Flickr, with literally thousands of absolutely, gobsmackingly awesome photographs. Dewdrop Reflection, Lichen and Cold weather Bluebottle will get you started…
Tala’s photos tend to have a beautiful dreamlike quality to them. It’s obviously the portfolio of a photographer who is still trying to develop her style fully, but the snippets she’s posting along the way are gorgeous. Especially awesome: dance and explode and this self portrait
Unfurled’s photo stream is something else – and her self portraits especially are a wicked example of how you don’t need others to model for you. this one, and this one, for example, are rather cool.
Anoop Negi has a couple of hundred photos in his stream, and most of them are awesome – the bulk of them are taken in India, and there are some really moving portraits in there – see Krishna A Child in Time. Vrindavan On A Foggy Day and OM SHIVAYA NAMAHA!!
Sarah Sitkin’s photo stream is full of surrealist gems of concentrated awesome. Check out her recent self portrait and the awesome Roadblock Rosslyn Rooftop for example. Wow, just wow.
Ed_Z does portraiture in an not-entirely-conventional way, but boy does it pay off. The Smoking Bride, and Stephanie in Red, for example, are both well worth a look
Gregor Winter shares his street photography on Flickr, and boy, am I glad he does… Gorgeous, off-the-cuff, mostly black-and-white shots which never cease to amaze me – great work from a fabulous photographer.
Greyhound Rick is an excellent example of a niche photographer – but man, is he getting it right. Out of his 600-odd photos, there are a lot of great studies of greyhounds in action – check out this one and don’t miss this one either… Such beauty!
hsmithphotography seems to have developed a retro-tastic photography style which just makes me grin uncontrollably – Leave my kitten alone and I’m Only Sleeping both have me reaching for my camera to try out something similar.
Cross Photography is a cross-dicipline photographer who is equally at home doing hard-hitting portraiture, industrial stuff, and tasteful nudes (NSFW).
Tarcisio_K has an eye for the dramatic, and while not all of his images are of the same quality, the good ones are truly fabulous – Sing Together, Blue Sky and Shadows and Shades are all examples of really simple ideas that just zing off the screen.
If her photo stream is anything to go by, Beth Jansen is a hell of a lot more patient than me, working as a children’s photographer. I’m not a big fan of kids, but damn are these little humans well captured! I defy you to look at this one and not go ‘awww’.
Ran is an Icelandic photographer who has put some of her amazing portraiture (see this and this – wow) and landscapes (here, and don’t miss this one) on halt recently to photograph the recent political mess in Iceland.
Mehrad.HM’s photo stream is filled with little gems of type awesome – everything from innovative portraiture via nature photography to some more experimental stuff – lovely!
Mode is one of those people who just intrinsically understands how colour works, but more importantly, how you can make colour work for you – whether he’s photographing skylines, people, fruit, or
buildings, he just keeps getting it right.
N Root’s street photography fills me with inspiration and a nearly unstoppable urge to grab a camera and just get out there.
I’ve tried ‘a photo a day’ projects many a times, but none of them got off to nearly as good a start as SaylaMarz’s current shot at it – only 27 days in, and there’s a huge amount of variety and tension in the series. Most impressive – one to follow in 2009, I reckon!
::reflecting truth:: is a good fit with SaylaMarz, seeing as she completed a 356-photos set in 2008, and is an excellent example of how gorgeously awesome it can be done. Although, hey, wasn’t 2008 a leap year? Hmm…
Dan Kitwood is an award-winning photographer whose flickr stream explains exactly how that came about – by taking astonishing photographs, of course!
NNBB & Alf have a mixture of street- and portraiture photography which works very well together – check out Victoria, this shot, and this one, too.
Natasha Klimchuk has a huge collection of people in their natural environments, and they’re all bloody awesome. Her Portraits and Cuba photosets are fantastic!
JavaJive’s done a fair bit of travelling, especially around Indonesia, and as a result of that (and of being a rather awesome photographer, of course), he’s got tonnes of photos worth checking out in his photo stream
Rcherms is another photographer whose street photography is worth a peek – varying between the ridiculous and the divine, it is certain to make you smile, at least! Special treats: Rosario and Fear the Rabbit
Aaron Courter’s stream is an eclectic mix in which the common ingredient is pure ingenuity. Check out O Brother, which is an adorable portrait indeed, and Wall-E, which made me grin like a lunatic – such a good capture!
Greg the Bunny’s portraiture is out of this world – and with a 5,000 image strong photostream, there’s plenty to explore. Start with these three: one, two (NSFW), three.
Eickholt has some great nature photos in store for you – see his photo of Harley the dog and the 4 confused mountain goats, for example!
Russ_t_UK’s photostream has a lot of cool stuff in it, including some exciting travel photography, and some really cool long-shutter work (see this and this, for example)
Cabbit’s photo stream is filled with fantastic architectural stuff from Canada, some quirky portraiture, and some other nuggets of awesome, like this portrait of MySpace the Cat. He’s got a lot of scraps and photos which might be better suited for Facebook on there as well, but well worth a browse nonetheless!
Anita Lee is one of the photographers I came across when I was researching for my Macro Photography book, and I still keep going back for more – Her series on dragonflies is fantastic!
Mendis is a nature photographer based in Singapore, who I’ve been a fan of for a very long time indeed. His macro work is something to behold!
AirBrontosaurus is a nature- and macro photographer of an truthfully wicked calibre, who has spent more time with the MPE lens than what’s healthy – but with results that make it all worth it, of course.
Only Alice does the architectural and portraiture things extremely well indeed, as witnessed by this gate in Marrakech, this graffiti capture, and much of the rest of her stream. Awesome stuff.
Martin Jacobsen is known chiefly for his design- and Flash magic, but damn, if the boy can’t take photos, too! His Jumping series and some of his portraits (also) are well worth a look.
Ronnie Rabena Photography is a great example of what happens when a photographers gets his claws into Photoshop well and proper. Disappear and Expect the Unexpected are just the kinds of things that make you take a double-take… Before grinning and reaching for your e-mail client to show your friends.
Chomdee appears to have set out to capture London in all its glory, and so far, I’ve got to say, he’s succeeding pretty damn well! Witness SOHO and Tower of London, for example.
Sakura* has a soft, almost tender photography style which I deeply admire – her use of shallow depth of field is beautiful. It’s got to be said – anyone who can photograph a simple cup of Starbucs with delicacy has to be applauded :)
Benroberts is another photographer who has an interesting way of seeing people – whether it’s the stark, the contrasty or the quirky, Ben’s your man.
Locaburg is one of the photographers who somehow manages to see, and capture, the vivacious colourfulness of life, expressed with passion, a sense of sarcasm and tongue in cheek. Beautiful.
Put simply, Jam 2.0 gets people. His forte of capturing even party photos, off-the-cuff shots and what most closely resembles to street photography makes me think he’s probably practically glued to his camera – but upon seeing the results, I’m sure his friends can forgive him.
Finally, my own photo stream is where you’d expect it, but I’ve not used Flickr much recently – although I’m intending to put a change to that soon!
Phew, that’s a hell of a lot of photographers, one hell of a mess of links, and tens of thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands – who am I to keep track) of photographs for you to take a look at. Don’t try it all at once, but have a look at a few at least… And if nothing else, do keep checking the rather awesome Flickr feature which shows you the most interesting photos in the past 7 days. I’ve had it as the start page of my browser at work for a while, now, and it usually wakes me up in the morning, at least!
My day job, if it can be called that, is being a writer. I've got one book out there so far and it's awesome, so go ahead and buy a copy! It's available from 
In front of you, five hyperactive men with guitars, drums, and microphones. Behind you, five thousand fans. In your hands, a camera... You're going to need more than just a little bit of good luck to pull this one off. That's where this book comes in.
Take a Canon EOS 450D. Attach a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. Hit the streets of London. See what happens.
Insights, suggestions and comments
I love you for this post! thanks!
Thanks for the mention Haje!
You’ve got some of my favorites on there too, as well as some new discoveries for me :-) I suspect I will be adding some new contacts…
I am glad I found your site look forward to reading more!! I am new to photography and only have a point and shoot six mega pixel which is what I took my photos on my blog with, but today i did get a 10 mega pixel digital. I don’t photo shop either. You can check out some of my photos and my inner thinkings, and crazyness at http://www.happyheiferhouse.blogspot.com
Great post… going to take a while to look at all of these!
very good post indeed. but i have seen this guy http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoken/ who has been there for a year now and is moving fast. most of all he shares what he learn.
thank you for the post. this is great
NICE man NICE !!!
Nice work Haje,
A couple of suggestions for your next one of these.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob_orchard/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpfarrow/
thanks for the heads up… glad you enjoyed some of my reccomendations aswell.
if anyone who is reading this does look at my photostream on flickr – http://flickr.com/bedlam – and wants to see more, most of my stuff is friends and family only. drop me a request by email/flickrmail and i should be able to open it up to you.
cheers
ben
My favorite is http://www.flickr.com/photos/50mm/
Without a doubt, she a master of photography through and through.
Thanks !!!!
Thank you! I’m flattered. Great site you’ve got here!
Heyoka totally rocks, as does Gregor Winter – it’s such a shame he’s not active anymore for personal reasons…
Integrity of light always challenges my mind.
This took up a frightening amount of my time I could have been working on other things, but it was so worth it!
My ABSOLUTE favorite on Flickr is Rosie Hardy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosie_hardy/
Can I do a shameless plug for my own?? (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanyaplonka/) sorry :P
Thanks for the lovely post here.
I love the works of some of the flickr guys you mentioned.
Stell Brazil has some really stunning ladies on her stream
The photography of Anoop Negi from India is just heavenly and the range is enormous and India is not portrayed in its cliched aspects of beggars, poverty, sadhus etc. Thanks I appreciate that being an Indian
Mode from Maldives has those stunning island in the ocean beauty of the sea and the sand and the sun.
heyoka’s photostream of monochrome is a treat.
I am not too conversant with other photographers that you have linked and I will have a look at them soonest possible.
I would recommend a photographer called “zoom in tight” http://www.flickr.com/people/zoom-in-tight/ for her brilliant thematic story telling specially of her famous story telling of Demi and Eve n Less http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoom-in-tight/sets/72157607664503789/.
Give it a try along with the hilarious puns and comments
By the way this is cool work. I am amazed you linked 50 photographers and then some of their works. That is a whole lot of work. How many days did that take in the making.
And then the process of selection of the 50 flickr photgraphers that would have been months of work and study.
Great going. I am most impressed.
Hey, thanks for the shout out! I’ve been having loads of people adding me as a contact on Flickr lately, and it’s taken me a week to figure out why. :)
Thanks for pointing out so many interesting photographers, too.
Thank you very much for your post !
My favorite photographer is Nanda Lee.
I love her creative story telling self-portraits : http://flickr.com/photos/nanda_lee/
Excellent post.
You must check this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnight-digital/
Thanks for the links to so many fascinating Flickr photographers. I always learn from others and have learned much from you.
Hey – Thanks for including me. Very nice to stumble across this!
yay!
Someone mentioned Rosie Hardy !
She is a wonder indeed with borrowed ideas, themes and settings and passing them off as original with no acknowledgment about them. Infact actually saying that she did not even see those photographs from which she was supposed to have copied.
Lo and behold, it turns out that those photographs appeared on her FAvourites in Deviantart site .
So thank you but Rosie Hardy is a sham.
Wowo really great streams. Thanks a lot of inspiration.
Awesome, aren’t they? Thanks for the kind words!
Re John:
Now now, aren’t we being a little bit too dramatic here? ‘her career as a photographer is over’?
Most photographers I know have gone through a phase of copying others work – granted, most either gave credit or never published the work, but that’s not the point; The photos are quite similar, but there’s no doubt that she’s a very good photographer technically.
She’ll come around and start doing more original work eventually. it’s called a learning process. Give her a break :)
- Haje Jan Kamps
Heyoka’s a reference for anyone that ever contemplated doing alternativa processes. pinhole, collodium and a whole lot of other stuff. I’m thankful I get to see her stuff not only on flickr but also on http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl?
simply amazing.
gonna check the others now. cheers
You had some good choices on the list. I correspond with several of those people on Flickr. But maybe I’ll be an honorable mention on a future blog post… if photo manipulation is something you appreciate.
Brad Barrett aka “Jeff Blazer”
Great post, there’s some amazing work out there
shaun
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