Making a (small) splash on Unsplash

Last week, I got an email from Unsplash telling me that the photo below had been downloaded 1,000 times.

Frankly, I nearly fell off my chair. I've only got around to uploading a handful of photos to the service, which allows people to donate photos to a free pool, which people can then use as they wish. I make extensive use of it here, and for Next conference, and so I do try to give back when I can.

This image, though, was shot in under a minute to illustrate a Next piece at the turn of the year. To see it being so widely used caught me by surprise. But perhaps it shouldn't - artistic thinking is quite different from illustrative thinking, and this image was conceived of as an illustration from day one.

It's way ahead of the other few I've shared:

Apparently I'm in the top 25% of contributors, which isn't bad given the tiny selection I've uploaded…