I think you draw attention to something that doesn’t often get attention: the use of pictures.

Personally, I think it would be nice to have a bit more variety in terms of the featured images here on Medium. It often seems to me as if us authors often choose the same pictures (perhaps because of the integration with Unsplash?).

I absolutely love Unsplash and the photographers who share their work there and yet, there’s a limit to how much variety even they can provide.

I like what you wrote here:

On those occasions where I cannot find an appropriate photo to use I chose the one which is the most closely related to the feeling I have when writing my story.

I think that’s a good approach to take.