discovery thoughts

12 Mar, 2026

My last post here (robin on feeder) suddenly started getting some attention, and I found out why – it had made it to Bear blog's Discover Trending feed.

This reminded me of when I did a photo blog on WordPress, I think back in 2017. They did a monthly Discovered post, and my photo blog then – followers about 10, including my wife – was chosen as the blog they were going to feature. The email from the chap who did the choosing said my 'dramatic' black and white images of the Cornish coast appealed to him. The Discovered blog had something like 22 million followers - actually I think you automatically followed it when you created a blog on WP – so potentially, that's how many readers the blog was highlighted for.

I can't remember the precise viewing figures my blog shot up to when that hit, but for a few weeks it was many thousands per day rather than the two or three a day it had been. It was close to 10,000 on the first day.

Then, after about two weeks of frenetic activity, it was all over. But I was left with the feeling, rightly or wrongly, that with a sudden massive increase in followers of the blog – followers now numbered over 3,000 – I had to maintain the standard.

Choosing shots to post next had become a major point of anxiety, not the casual whim event it was before.

From that point onwards, I was always worried. Was the picture good enough for being put on this pedestal now?

I think I'm over that now. I will just post pictures based on whether I like it, not on whether I think many other unknown and unseen people will.

Bear blog doesn't have follower numbers, and thankfully doesn't have native commenting either. Answering comments, because it's in my nature to be polite and do so, was a lot of work. Even if a lot of the time it was just saying "Thank you" in various ways to pretty banal complimentary ones

"Nice photo."
"Thank you."

"I like that!"
"Thank you for taking the time to say so." (What, about a second?)

Just simple anonymous stars if you particularly like one now are welcome. And I know that the audience like robins, if I ever feel like just getting a boost to my self-esteem.

Here's one of the dramatic black and white pictures. I'm helped by the nature of the coastal rock here suiting the contrasty black and white treatment.

wavebreak 8709

click on the picture for a lightbox view