I like the original, without the lines. Larger avatars are good. Can't you add the one with the mask to your original? That looks nicely gruesome.
I clicked on the site. You have Adventure Tales Stories Photography as a heading. I think maybe stories and tales (although different) sort of suggest the same kind of content to people. Maybe put something more sensational, like Scandals, or even Legends instead of tales. People today are all into legends.
I've started a few websites. Never coded. Just used the standard GoDaddy and then Wordpress. I actually got a little website ADHD and had several going at the same time. I still pay for domain names because I can't give it up, but I don't pay attention to the sites.
My sites never took off. I'm not good at design or at attracting an audience. I found it helped when I started writing book reviews for other people. That generated some traffic.
I like your website. I think it's cool. But as for attracting traffic....????
Thanks for the suggestions, though I don't know whether I will further the site any more. I don't think I have ADHD, but maybe I have... as I tend to move on from things if I get bored!
Whats probably not clear is that the avatars are the people who attended that explore. The masked dude is @lpff who doesn't write here, but has an enormous Facebook following.