I know what you mean. I get excited if I see anyone has responded to my blog posts at all because I'm so new here and don't have much of a following. When I go and look and it's just "great post, followed, follow me back!" it doesn't feel like we made a real connection.

I like your portraits and the friendly whales picture. It would be interesting if you did portraits of a selection of the better know Steemians. You could have a Famous Steemian portrait gallery.