I Love Baseball

Anyone who knows me will tell you. I love the slow rhythm, the simplicity of the rules, the fact that any player can be a hero one day and a goat the next. When I lived in NYC, I often went to Yankee stadium for two out of every three home games. Back then, the Yankees stank, so I could buy a ticket to the cheap seats and slip an usher a five and sit right up against the dugout. (Unfortunately, this was before I owned a camera.) My husband is a Braves fan. On the two occasions the Yankees played the Braves in the World Series, we had to watch in separate rooms.

Natural then, that when our son was old enough, we signed him up for teeball. He promptly told his coach he liked soccer better. Coach John accepted the challenge. When Ryley got his first hit from a pitched ball, John picked him up and ran him around the bases. At the end of the season, the team had the opportunity to run out on the field with the minor league Renegades. Each teeballer had his name announced to the crowd, each tipped his cap in reply. Ryley’s love for baseball was born that season. Thanks Coach!

This is my homepage photo for the month of June. Sorry this one’s not for sale.

10 Ways to Dress Up Your Blog

Congratulations, you started a blog. (Maybe I even inspired you to do it!)
Now you’re ready to give it a facelift and think about adding some new
features. The only blog software I’m familiar with is blogger.com, but I’m
sure you can achieve any of these ideas using other software.

1. Templates. You can change your template at any time. So don’t feel
cornered into keeping the layout you chose when you didn’t know what you
were doing. Change the colors and fonts to match your website.
Go to Layout menu/Pick a New Template.

2. Images. People love pictures. If it’s appropriate, select the photo and link it back to your website. (Doing this, however, disables the default function of viewing an enlarged version of the image.)
When you create a new post, click on the little photo in the menu bar. Or, to permanently add a photo, go to layout/add a page element/image.

3. Poll Question. You can pose a question to your readers with multiple choice answers.
Go to layout/add a page element/poll question. Enter the question and the answers in the boxes displayed.

4. Video. A good video can burst onto the internet and get passed around the world giving you lots of site traffic. Post your video on your own site as well as the popular YouTube for maximum effect.
When you create a new post, click on the little filmstrip in the menu bar. Or, to permanently add a video to your page, go to layout/add a page element/video. Or, simply create a text link to your video on YouTube.

5. Link back to your website. A big reason to have a blog at all is to direct traffic back to your website. So, link back to your site when it's appropriate. This may give you ideas for updating or adding content on your site.
When you create a new post, select some text, click on the chain icon in the menu bar and enter the link to address.

6. Change the color of the blogger nav bar. The default blogger nav bar at the very top of the viewing screen is blue. You can change it to be tan, black or gray to better match the look of your blog.
Go to layout view/select the edit button in the blue nav bar area and select the color you prefer.

7. AdSense. You can make money with your blog if you don’t mind mucking it up with ads. I saw a book recently (forgot the name, sorry) that suggests you can make a living this way. I think you’d really have to work at it though.
Go to layout view/add a page element/adsense.

8. Labels. I love this feature. You’ll notice that every post of mine has a category—artist tech tips, my work, etc. This feature creates a Labels menu on the left side of my blog. If a reader is only interested in one area that I write about, they can click on that label (ie artist tech tips) and see every single post I’ve created on the topic. It keeps track of the total number of posts automatically!
Go to layout view/add a page element/labels.

9. Create custom header with link to your website. You can insert an image instead of text on your main header bar.
Go to layout view, select the edit button in the top header bar, in the image window, browse to locate the image.

10. Add a photo to your profile. Go to the Dashboard page. Choose edit profile in the righthand column. Scroll down to Photograph/Photo URL and browse to the location of your photo.

Blog-o-Meter Reading May 27, 2008

Search results for Molly Ahearn:
• Google: #1
• Yahoo: #1
• MSN: #1

Google Page Rank for my site: 2 (out of 10)

Number of page views to this blog: 1738

Number of page views to my site: 1549

Number of email subscribers: 13

Photos from the Archives: Adirondack Splendor

The 6 million-acre Adirondack Park was declared a forever wild area by the New York legislature in 1882. Over the last 30 years, we’ve canoed many of its serene streams, hiked its rocky peaks, and reluctantly fed millions of its black flies. The businesses in the small towns throughout the park remain mostly family-owned giving it an old-timee feel I find irresistible. You see quaint lakeside cottage villages with names like Journey’s End and Offtrack Bedding. Great lodges welcome travelers with tree trunk porch columns, moosehead trophies and snarling black bears standing on their hind legs. Many of the buildings have a rough-hewn siding I call Adirondack because I’ve never seen it anywhere else.

History is Aliiiive

Kudos to Merritt Books for a fun, well organized festival. I love the idea of celebrating books; planting the seed of reading. Our local history panel discussion had a cozy attentive crowd. I enjoyed listening to our moderator, Wray Rominger from Purple Mountain Press, and all the other writers. Carleton Mabee explained how he tries to make his historical characters come to life by imagining their thoughts, feelings and lives. Jim Heron’s terrific sense of humor punctuated his talk about writing the history of Dennings Point. Ed Henry shared the evolution of his writing style—and the northeastern mountain ranges. Several people took the time to speak to me personally about memories of the fair. Thanks to all who came.

Share Photos Quickly and Easily Online with Clients

I wanted to have a better handle on flickr before I wrote about it, but I see now that I’m going to have to do it in pieces. Setting up an account is free and if you don’t need to upload lots of photos at a time, you can be an active member for free. Becoming a member is only about $25/year and it entitles you to unlimited uploads.

A basic and unbelievably handy way to use flickr is to share photos from a shoot with clients (or family and friends). This relieves you of the burden of having a backend to your website for posting images, saving money and programming headaches.
1. Download flickr’s flash uploader software.
2. Drag and drop jpg files in the uploader window area.
3. In the righthand area of the uploader window, hit the Create a Set button and give the group of photos a name—Club Med Bahamas.
4. Decide who you want to be able to see the images—only people you designate, only family, the world.
5. Good idea to give photos that you’re sharing with the world titles, descriptions and tags. This will help the photos turn up in a search.
6. Upload. This takes awhile.
7. View your photos. Sign in to flickr. Navigate to “Organize/Sets & Collections.”
8. You can invite people to see the images by navigating to “You/Your Sets” and then hitting the “Share This” button in the upper righthand corner of the screen. Type in a list of email addresses to issue a guest pass.
9. You can monitor the number of views of your guest passes by navigating to “Contacts/Guest Pass History.” When you issue a guest pass, that person will only see the photos in that set.
10. People can review the photos using the slideshow feature, or one by one. They can also order prints directly from flickr.

My Genesee Sunset Was Selected for DCAC’s first Juried Show

Genesee Sunset was selected to be part of the first ever Artist Member Juried DCAC (Dutchess County Arts Council) Show. Join me at the opening reception Wednesday, May 21 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Cuneen Hackett Arts Center in Poughkeepsie! I caught a glimpse of a gorgeous painting by Jose Acosta—bright colors, swirls of thick paint, Latin flavor, gorgeous. I’m sure all of the art will be inspiring. Let me know if you’re thinking of attending because the DCAC is trying to plan for food and drink.

Stone River Archival in Woodstock printed my photograph on archival silver gelatin paper, a technology used for traditional photographs that has just come on the market for digital prints. The paper makes the colors really sing, the bridge almost pops off of the page. The signed print is a real opportunity for collectors, available framed (16" x 20") for $295 or unframed (11" x 17") for $150. A percentage of the proceeds from sales will go to DCAC and Cuneen, so please bring your checkbook! Or, let me know if you can’t make the opening and would like to prebuy the print.

Entries were judged by Patricia Phagan the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. The exhibit will continue through the end of June.

Directions:
Cuneen Hackett Arts Center, 9 Vassar Street, Poughkeepsie, NY
From Rte 9, north or south, take Main Street/River District/Poughkeepsie
exit ramp. Take Main Street East bound (opposite way from the Hudson River).
Go through 3 traffic signals turn left on Vassar Street; the gallery parking
lot is the first drive on right.

Wanna Know How Many People Visit Your Site?

There’s no black magic involved, just a Google account and a little html headache. Here’s how:

1. Get a Google account.
2. Navigate to “My Account/Business Solutions/Analytics” and sign in to your account.
3. On the lower part of the screen, select “Add a website Profile.” Type in the address of your site and hit the “Continue” button.
4. A new window will appear with some code in it. Select all of the code and then copy it. Hit the Finish button at the bottom of the screen.
5. Here’s the tricky part.
a. Using Dreamweaver:
Open all html files in your website. Switch to code view. Search for (/body). Paste the code immediately before (/body). Upload modified files.
b. Using Blogger:
Log in to your blog. Navigate to “Customize Settings/Layout.” Just below the main tabs is a secondary nav bar. Select “Edit HTML.” Search for (/body). Paste the code immediately before (/body). Save your changes.
6. Return to the Google window. You’ll see your site listed. After you’ve uploaded the tracking code to your html pages or your blog, the status should read: “Receiving Data.”
7. From there, just double click “View Reports” for the site (you can follow several) you’d like to track.
8. The top graph shows how many visitors came to your site on a daily basis. The default graph is for the previous 60-day period, but you can change the dates to any time period you’d like (i.e. year-to-date).
9. The Content Overview shows which pages in your site received the most views. This information can be very revealing. Use top performers to help you figure out what you did right and apply that to other pages.
10. The Traffic Sources window summarizes how people found your site. Ultimately, you’d like to have a healthy percentage of people finding you by search engines and/or referring sites.

A Good Book is Easy to Find

Merritt Bookstore is behind an unusual spring festival May 16 and 17 in Millbrook, NY. Rather than food or music, books will take center stage. Authors from many different genres will participate in panel discussions and book signings. Kickoff events on Friday night at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies include live music from Bindlestick Bill and New York Times environmental reporter Andrew Revkin. Saturday, bring the kids for a pancake breakfast, followed by children’s story hour at Merritt and a parade.

I'm on the Local History Panel
I’ve been invited to be a member of the Local History panel which will meet at the Lyall Memorial Federated Church at 2:00 pm on Saturday, May 17. Other panel members include: Pulitzer Prize winner, Carleton Mabee, The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F. Morse (Alfred A. Knopf); Laurence Carr, The Whytheport Tales (Codhill Press); Edward Henry; Jim Heron, Dennings Point, A Hudson River History from 4000 BC to the 21st Century (Black Dome Press); and John Polhemus, History of Preston Mountain (Purple Mountain Press). Wray Rominger, co-publisher of Purple Mountain Press and Harbor Hill Books will moderate. Other panel topics include: spirituality, poetry, historical fiction, mystery, childrens’ books and young adult fiction and nonfiction.

Many of the authors will be available for book signings throughout the day on Saturday at Merritt Books at 57 Front Street in Millbrook. I will be there from 12:30 to 1:30. Come see us!

Directions to Lyall Memorial Church
Westbound off of Route 44 in Millbrook: take the second left past the light onto Maple Avenue.
Eastbound off of Route 44 in Millbrook: take a right onto Maple Avenue (before the traffic light).

Mud People

What happens when the weather warms up enough to keep mud from freezing in
Clinton Corners, New York? We celebrate. The boys (didn't see any women
drivers) break out their funny car-looking tractors and drag race pulling a
weighted trailer down a dirt track. The kids swim in mud trenches emerging
like aliens from a dirty planet. ATVs squirt mud spray in all directions as
drivers of all ages compete. And this photographer couldn't resist shooting
this bit of Americana in her backyard.

Your Local Arts Council is a Powerful Resource

Five years ago, my son started kindergarten and I suddenly had one day a week completely to myself. I'd just finished going through my photographs from that year's Dutchess County fair and decided it was time to take a chance and try to put together a show. I'd been shooting the fair for more than ten years and had built up a nice collection. Having no experience in the fine art world, I made an appointment to show my book to the fine people at the Dutchess County Arts Council (DCAC) to see if they could give me some direction. Boy did they ever.

Charged with promoting and encouraging cultural development in the Mid-Hudson Valley, the DCAC helps all kinds of artists and art organizations in many ways. They host an active and frequently updated website with current events listings and arts opportunities. If you sign up for their newsletter, they'll email you a weekly list of grants, scholarships, residencies, and open calls for artists happening nationwide. Among lots of other things, they offer workshops on arts management, run an impressive series of Folk & Traditional Arts Programs, publish a few brochures on arts events in the area, and host an annual juried fine art & craft market. I highly recommend becoming a member just to support the arts. A side benefit as an artist or artist organization is that you gain a pr firm, an advocate, a friend, and a powerful ally.

After that initial meeting, Loretta Spence, Director of Programs and Arts Services, graciously advised me of every suitable opportunity that crossed her desk. The DCAC handles grants for the New York State Council on the Arts and when it came to that time of year she suggested that Susan Linn, then Director of the Rhinebeck Chamber of Commerce, might want to sponsor me. Rhinebeck is the host town of the fair, so the pairing made perfect sense. Susan did sponsor me and we did win a grant to show my images at the town library.

For me, the best way to sell my fine art photography is to show as much as possible. DCAC is helping me do that. I was selected in a juried review of member artists to show my work at the Millbrook Winery in the fall where they select artists for a program called Art in the Loft. I'm also entering my Genesee Sunset photo in DCAC's 1st Artist Member Juried Exhibition in May/June.

If you're just starting out, see what your local arts council is up to. If you've been around, my readers and I would love to hear how your arts council has helped you.