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A year of sunsets

A year of sunsets

Flickr has a lot of sunset photographs. Too many, some would say.

To build this graph I collected just a few of them, by searching for photos that have been tagged “Sunset”.

I collected only 100 photos from the hundreds posted each day of the preceding 365 days, so that the photos are evenly distributed across the past year. There are over 35,000 photos shown in the graph.

I positioned each photo horizontally according to the day it was taken, and vertically according to the hour it was taken.

By making each photo translucent, I created a “hot spot” which shows when the most photos were taken, each day of the past year.

The bright band shows the approximate time of sunset for each day. You can see that as the year progresses, the time of the sunset changes.

The deepest dip in the band corresponds to the summer solstice (about June 22), and the highest part of the band corresponds to the winter solstice (about December 22).

This is the second time I’ve graphed the curve of the sunsets using Flickr sunsets. The first time, over a year ago, I used all the photos then available, which produced a more inconsistent looking graph:

Tag Graph: Sunsets by time

Mystery Tags

Can you can figure out what tag was used to make this next graph? (click on it to find out)

What is the mystery tag?

And here’s another mystery tag with a characteristic time signature – can you guess what it is?

What is the mystery tag?

6 Responses to “A year of sunsets”

  1. Matias Says:

    I registered just to say I admire your work and it really excites me. I am an infographist, and I just LOVE this kind of things.
    Well, I guess the first mistery tag is “moon”, or something related to that. And the second one, not sure, maybe is “sun”.

  2. wuzziwug Says:

    Check his links to find out the correct tags. I was off by a “br” on the last one. :)
    Perhaps you can use maplib.net to upload a higher resolution of the photo and make it browsable– I really like sunset photos, I want to see them closer. :)

  3. graffeo Says:

    i just found your magazine cover collage on wiredBlog and am thinking about reviewing your works for my site, http://www.newsubconscious.net. i think that your art is a beautiful fushion of system-based art and simple aesthetics that contributes something new and relevant to internet art. have a nice evening~

    _christopher.graffeo

  4. the new voice of your subconscious » Blog Archive » [art-full.] Says:

    […] by way of wired’s blog i justdiscovered krazydad.com, whose recent online art project is featured today. upon investigation, i have discovered a trove of interesting and delightful art projects. im considering a more lengthy review of the site and several featured works, but want to include a brief preview here to generate some interest and promote new art: Recent works posted on or realized by Jim Burgardener of krazydad.com are an exciting additions to the orgy of unconsciously collaborative art populating the internet. Two specific works—A year of sunsets and SF Cover Explorer—best present the inspiring marriage of an autonymous ruleset and a gentle, poised beauty. These pieces offer a beautiful fushion of system-based concept art and aesthetics that contributes something new and relevant to internet art. […]

  5. edgargonzalez.com » exprimiendo flickr Says:

    […] Jugando con tantas imágenes como ofrece flickr, se pueden crear multitud de composiciones como generar grandes imágenes a partir de portadas de libros de ciencia ficción, fotografías de objetos circulares, ordenar los miles de fotos que existen de puestas de sol… […]

  6. OgMog: beta » Monday Mediabation #8 Says:

    […] Spacial arrangement of flickr photographs based on their tag. My favorite (posted above) is “A year of sunsets,” photos that have been tagged with “sunset.” The bright band that curves across represents the approximate time of sunset each day. A very cool flickr hack. More on his blog. (via Epp Inc.) […]