Panoramio, a strange obsession

Google Earth has been very good to me. The site has been incredibly helpful in planning my many bushwhacks and hikes for the last couple of years. A little over a year and half ago I noticed all sorts of little blue dots showing up on the GE map, signifying images people have taken of various spots on the aerial data and uploaded to Panoramio as an optional layer. I looked at the images available for my beautiful city and noticed that the Inner Harbor had become ground zero for Baltimore City Panoramio pictures but not much had been submitted for the rest of my fair city. So, using my neighbor's lightening speed wifi connection, I perused my picture directory and placed as many images I could of the city and elsewhere with my photos, primarily taken with my cheap camera.

I was pretty pleased with the result and was further enthused when I found I could monitor the count of pictures viewed. Unfortunately, 2 weeks after I had uploaded my first group of photos I received a rather unnerving comment about this picture. Now, I had deleted the comment in disgust but it went something like this:

"I can't believe that you would put up such an ugly picture of a bunch of ugly houses in Pottsville, PA when there are so many other nicer buildings to photograph."

You could just imagine the steam that was coming out of my ears when I read that. I didn't think those rowhomes were ugly at all. I think they are beautiful. I think rowhomes are beautiful. I live in a rowhome. I am pleased to announce that even though I deleted that nasty comment, the Pottsville rowhome picture is my most popular photo. 440 wonderful people have looked at the rowhomes in Pottsville. Other pictures that people seem to like are the one I took of Orianda and one of Antietam.

Photos that I like the best rarely get viewed, those that I don't think are so great are incredibly popular. I can't explain taste. I have learned I have a strange affinity for domes on churches, the strange way Baltimore City cleans the trash out of the harbor, tulips, herons and bears. I have too many pictures of mountains and maybe too few of people.

Maybe the one thing I have learned is that I see the world in a much stranger way than everyone else.