Absolute Photo

One of my work colleagues told me that when he was exploring some team-building activities, he considered a hike to the Carbide Wilson Ruins, in Gatineau Park.

"I went onto Google Maps to check it out," he told me, "and the first photo I saw of the site belonged to you."

Indeed, one of the photos that I took of the falls below the old mill has been shared with Google. For years, I've contributed reviews and photos of various sites, restaurants, stores, and more for the search-engine giant. And that particular photo has garnered more than 277,000 views.

But it's by no means my most popular photo in terms of views.

Not surprisingly, restaurants and images of food get a lot of views but even they don't get beyond a few tens of thousands of views (however, a photo I shot of the outside of Bite Burger House has seen almost 883,000 views). My most-viewed photo is almost obscure in terms of venues, as its not a world-famous spot nor is it likely to make the top-10 list of places to see in Ottawa.

Taken about six years ago or so, my most-viewed photo is of the Absolute Comedy club on Preston Street, in Ottawa's Little Italy neighbourhood. As of the beginning of November, the photo has been met by 1,187,041 viewers.

I mean, it's not even a great photo. It was shot on a night when I was taking a stand-up comedy class and was about to perform on stage for the final class. My instructor, Pierre Brault, was also an emcee for the club that week.

In total, my contributed photos have had more than five million views. If only I had that many views on my blog or on my YouTube channel.

I suppose my Absolute Comedy photo has some nice colour saturation, but it surprises me that it's received the greatest amount of views. And that includes photos that I've taken in Europe, the Caribbean, and in South Korea.

Perhaps, in these days of economic, environmental, health, and political turmoil, people really just want a good laugh.

Happy Friday!