IFC S1 R36 entry - Helping @irvinesimages

Image by @yeszuzia

I don't post as much these days, but I always try to find opportunities to help the people that are helping the communities. And since @apolymask started the marketplace on the IFC Discord channel, I think his resources has been stretched even further so I do applaud him for all the effort keeping this wonderful corner of Steemit going.

When I first saw round 36 of the IFC I wasn't really sure what I could do to help, but since it was something that could really help @apolymask personally I thought I would give it a shot anyway.

Add to my following list

Firstly, I read through the post and seeing all the wonderful images taken by @irvinesimages and realizing that I was not even following this amazing photographer I had to add him to my list of followers.

Research on Photography

Now a while ago a friend of mine did some research on the photographers of Steemit and came up with some interesting findings. I know it was from some months back but I believe that the insights and trends are still valid so I want to share it with you here:

https://steemit.com/photographer/@johnnos01/steemit-user-research-photographers
https://steemit.com/photography/@johnnos01/steemit-photographer-user-research

I think this might give you some idea of the different types of photographers on Steemit and some factors that contribute to their success. It is a shame that my friend didn't get an opportunity to look further into this, but I know that there are also some good research from the #blockchainbi group that looks into tags and their usage so this is one area that can help gain more attention to the posts and gain greater return for your posts.

https://steemit.com/stats/@eroche/deep-dive-of-steemit-tags

Understand your followers

You can also make use of the many tools developed by people to understand the people who vote for you and contribute to the payouts, such as the Steem Analytics tool here:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@eroche/steem-analytics-update-voting-history-and-more-stats
https://steemit.com/steemdev/@steemreports/quick-account-information-page

Seek promoters and influencers

There are also some people who are very active and engage with their fellow Steemians. I guess you can think of these as the promoters and influencers on Steemit (who are not necessarily whales) but can help you gain followers and provide exposure to your work:
https://steemit.com/curation/@paulag/league-of-excellence-and-curation-leagues-week-6

Participate in photography contests

One thing that is probably more obvious are the photography contests on Steemit, and I can see that there is already some participation in the popular photography contests like the 7 World’s Continents Photo Challenge and ColorChallenge so I can't add much more to it other than maybe look into some of the other photography contests on @artz's list:
https://steemit.com/contest/@artz/steemit-contest-compilation-02-04-08-04-win-sbd-steem-upvotes-and-other-prizes

Use other Steem related applications focused on photography

I know that many photographers have looked into steepshot.io to make posting easier and target people who are more interested in photography:
https://steemit.com/@steepshot

I think zappl also seems to be quite popular because of the short text format that makes many of the posts more image focused as well:
https://steemit.com/@zappl

Join blockchain based community for photographers

I introduced my photography friends to BeScouted (https://www.bescouted.com/) because it is a community focused on photographers and what they do, and there are probably more out there:
https://steemit.com/@bescouted

Discord groups

I don't know any specifically dedicated to photography, but some of the art based ones will have a section for photography as well.

Steem Artists: https://discord.gg/MRXf6r
iTalent: https://discord.gg/77tJYJ