| « Previous | Home | Next » | Photographer at Work - Redux Tuesday, January 09, 2007 |
 A group of local photographers is planning a return to the Plotterkill Reserve, where this shot was taken in the fall of 2005, on the 20th of this month. I plan to go along, but may hold back from the long hike in and out and stick closer into the parking lot (not wanting to stumble on a root or something and pitch into space...). The past week has been interesting for forgingahead. Most regulars probably noticed little difference (other than the introduction of the 'redux' idea), but between January 1 and yesterday, seven days, forgingahead went from only a couple handfulls of visitors to record numbers and back again. The histogram on my counter (Site Meter) is amazing. There is a huge spike. But so what? Like many other bloggers, I have been trapped in the chase for traffic before. I tried all the usual ways of generating traffic. I played the meme game with PhotoFriday and Theme Thursday. I joined several ranking sites. I have actively participated in various discussion groups. And most recently, I had the honor of being listed on the Hall of Fame at Photoblogs.org. All of these activities have generated 'traffic' to my site. People have come and visited... and moved on. Last winter I spent hours per day (literally) visiting blogs and leaving comments. People returned to my site and left comments. With many of you, I began private email exchanges. With some of you, we became friends. We came to know one another's work, to glimpse into one another's lives (to the extent possible in this medium). So I look back on that journey and wonder. Which meant the most to me: big numbers with no connection, or modest numbers with a strong sense of humanity? Is this really a question? Of course not. There is no question that I would much rather have 15 or 20 regular visitors who I know than 250 daily visitors who I never get a chance to know. I understand that forgingahead, like me, is going through a difficult period now. Until my eyes are returned to normal, things will be rough here. Things will be erratic. But because of the kind sentiments of my regular visitors -- no, my online friends -- I have no doubt that I will get back out there as soon as I can and forgingahead will enter a new stage. | |
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Posted by forgingahead Archived under: People, Places |
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