![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2014-pickup-odometer-on-12-17-17-9847-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"pickup-odometer-on-12-17-17-9847-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd to think I almost missed noticing it.<\/p>\n
You might call it a personal quirk but I pay attention to numeric milestones in my life. Some are positive and others… not so much. I’ll turn 75 on my birthday this year and that’s one I have mixed feelings about. I have vivid memories of my mother’s reaction to turning 75 – she simply did not want to acknowledge it or talk about it. Or even have it commemorated.<\/p>\n
Hopefully my reaction will be different. Presuming I actually reach that milestone I hope to view it as an accomplishment.<\/p>\n
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On December 17, 2017 the Ford F-150 Ecoboost I had back then turned 100,000 miles. At the time I was on a bird photography trip in a remote area in northern Utah, very close to where we found Galileo the Short-eared Owl hung up on barbed wire. I’m usually laser-focused when I’m looking for birds but it was important enough to me to accurately document the occasion that I allowed myself to be distracted for a while so I could get all six “0”s in the photo. Don’t ask me why it was that important to me, but it was.<\/p>\n
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Earlier this month Feathered Photography hit a significant numeric milestone but this time the timing of my documentary graphic wasn’t quite so precise.<\/p>\n
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A few weeks ago I noticed that the “total views” in my blog stats were approaching 3 million. It’s taken me a very long time to reach that number so it was my intention to document the occasion by getting a screen shot of that stat when it was as close to 3 million as possible. But then I just spaced it out and didn’t notice until last night that I’d already passed 3 million views. So this graphic is as close as I came to hitting that momentous number right on the button.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I don’t know why the photo of my pickup odometer was important to me but I know why this stats graphic is. I’ll try to explain.<\/p>\n One of my primary goals with Feathered Photography has always been to promote an appreciation and respect for birds, wildlife, nature in general and this incredibly fragile planet we all live on. I’m not so na\u00efve that I don’t realize that most of those 3 million views came from folks who believe largely as I do when it comes to ecological and environmental matters. So yes, I do a lot of “preaching to the choir”.<\/p>\n However, it’s logical to assume (and I have evidence of it in my other stats) that a significant number of my blog views have come from folks on the fringes, folks who find my blog using search engines or direct links from social media and elsewhere. I know for fact that countless students around the world doing research for class assignments, research papers and the like, find Feathered Photography while researching their subject.<\/p>\n Many, perhaps even most, of those folks don’t belong to ‘the choir’, or if they do they don’t attend choir practice very often. So it’s my hope that Feathered Photography might contribute to having them singing a different tune, and maybe even considering joining the choir. And the more total views I have the more of those fringe folks I reach.<\/p>\n So I’ll continue to preach, to the choir and to the fringes. My blog stats help by providing feedback. And motivation.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And to think I almost missed noticing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/feathered-photography-jetpack-stats-2.jpg\" "\\"feathered-photography-jetpack-stats-2\\"")
Jetpack stats for Feathered Photography<\/em><\/p>\n