Well to me its a place where I post up miscellaneous shots and proof of concept shots to gain some insight into their worth. I never really post up anything I consider finished work.
Why this, well I genuinely need some neutral other person insight into their actual worth. Okay, I know what technically makes a good photo, and I know my own aesthetic taste; but, and it is a big but, from my own personal ivory tower I don’t actually know what the not emotionally attached Jo Public opinion of my work is. And that is my Achilles Heel.
That is where 500px is good, it is low on values of social interaction, so the following you have is not based on your sociability with others, it is truer to the body of your photographic worth.
500px is on the other-hand burdened by a natural bias towards the over processed glossy magazine look, which is not really my thing. So I know it would be exceptional if I ever managed to get a fabled pulse of 99.9 with my general work (its not that I couldn’t do this if I wanted to as it is after all it is just technique, it’s I’m not really worried about it).
Having said that however, I have managed to get a top of the Popular for a couple of categories, and I have wallowed in my satisfaction/smugness none the less. Who ever said I wasn’t contrarian.
Petzval Lens shot of summer grass that headed the Pulse scoring for Abstracts on 500px