I’m feeling a bit flat today, after all the excitement of yesterday’s ‘vermin in ermine’ escapades…..I’m so glad that one worked out so well – it’s been on my mind for weeks since I did my ‘50 ways to leave your lover’ gallery.

What that gallery pointed out to me is that I think of my PAD archives as being just that, archives. BUT only one of the shots in the gallery was photographed specially for the gallery and the rest were almost entirely from my PAD output. There are one-or-two from other pbase galleries but mostly they’re PADs. I’d kind of assumed that people who look at pbase see the PAD galleries just because they’re updated so regularly. Apparently this is not so. Many of the shots I put into ‘50 ways’ were shots that had been hit several thousand times in their PAD home and they got another few thousand more by reposting them. There were even many comments on pics from PADders who I’d have thought would have already seen the shots so would have just thought of them as a big yawn.

It never occurred to me therefore that the pics had a shelf-life beyond PAD yet that gallery has been hit more times in two months than my latest PAD has been all year. This suggests to me two things – firstly that the PAD phenomenon could be ‘on the wane’ in the sense that the number of hits per photo and I suspect per PAD gallery (though I can’t be sure of what’s happening to other peoples galleries) is dwindling. Could this be because there are so many PADders now that the whole thing is fragmenting? Could it be that the standards are dropping (as some suggest…..not me, I hasten to add)? Could it be that mis-use of the meta gallery is driving some observers away? Could it be that in days gone by, people would have to go into the gallery to see today’s offering but now can work out whether they think it’s worth a look from the thumbnail? I dunno, I expect it’s a bit of several, if not all of these….

The second thing is that by putting some of my good shots into another gallery and giving it a different name, I’ve attracted a whole new set of viewers to my photos, who perhaps would never have seen my pics if they’d been in my PAD alone. This strikes me as a good thing, given that I came to pbase to have my PAD seen and since then I’ve become more and more interested in photography rather than snapshots so ‘widening my audience’ seems important. Anyway, the yards of comments from non-PADders on the gallery demonstrates that this is true.

Whenever (which actually is very rare these days), I am looking at the recently updated galleries pages looking for something to attract my interest, I would NEVER click on a gallery that’s title was ‘shots with my 20d’ or ‘holiday in Greece’ or ‘nature’ or even, to be honest ‘photo a day’. (Though before I get a few more brick bats slung at me, I WOULD (and often do) click on an interesting shot on the PAD meta-gallery and then if I like it, I may go back a bit and browse other shots/galleries from that person.) So, my theory is, if there are other folks like me out there, that you’re more likely to get a random hit on your gallery if you give it an unusual name.

I realise that could be considered a very narrow-minded approach but something has to grab me by the throat before I’ll go and look. It may be (and indeed I’m sure it is) that there are thousands of wonderful photos on pbase tucked away in galleries called ‘shots with my 20d’ but the honest truth is I’m never going to see them. Everyone sets their selection criteria somewhere and that’s mine. Oh and yeah – I do know that some of my own galleries leave a lot to be desired in that department too but they were mostly named before I settled on this theory and I can’t be bothered to go back and change them!!

So, the Vermin in Ermine gallery is designed to do what 50 ways did…..bring more people to seeing my photos. Give me new horizons.

The friend from last year whose struggle against cancer after recovering from a stroke is still battling this illness - who knows what demons he faces....