I do feel very much like an explorer with my fractal work, many of my renders purely serve the purpose of being a map to see what areas to explore further.

It does seem strange to me that most fractal artists stay in such standard safe areas (ie the 'outside' of sets) when there's incredible amounts of fractal structure in the lakes and at non-standard parameter values.

I think that what's needed is patience and to be happy to jump into something that you initially can't make sense of, just to see what happens. Eventually you can learn genuinely new things by doing that.

I also have this blog:

http://ultraiterator.blogspot.com/

Things are a bit more arranged by theme there and there's a bit of discussion on how these fractals are found.

Thanks Guido too, I'm so glad that you find them exciting to view! I agree – sometimes there's a very visceral sensation almost like vertigo just from looking across them.

I also get this urgent feeling of wanting to go in and look closer at so many things – that's what keeps me exploring so much I guess!