Google Traffic

I use Statcounter, a nifty service, to track traffic to this site. One of its more interesting features is a rundown of the search keywords–largely from Google, but also from MSN, Yahoo, Lycos, and others–that bring the unwary traveler here.

Some searches turn up more often than others, and there are definite patterns to the traffic. Lately, for example, I’m getting a lot of “farther Christmas” hits from the UK, Australia, and (I don’t know why…) France. “farther Christmas” is most likely a typo for “Father Christmas” but it has a certain ring to it. I don’t, alas, have any pictures here of Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Sinterklass, or any of the other aliases the old fella travels under; but I do hope to get some in the current season, and meanwhile I do have some Christmas-y pictures that you might like here.

Camera-related searches are popular, too. The stalwarts in my kit–the Hawkeye, the FED3, the Lubitel, the Argus, and the Spotmatic–have all brought visitors. Alas, I haven’t beefed up these pages with a lot of useful information about these cameras. I’ve added some things to the Hawkeye page, and I’m putting together a tutorial on reversing the Hawkeye’s lens, since that’s been the topic of more than few searches, but I don’t have much more to help you out with things like a stuck Spotmatic mirror (I’ve got a sticky one myself).

My old site’s index has brought visitors looking for information on my friend Art Ruckle (I’m assuming these are potential dates or FBI agents doing background checks) or Sweet Martha’s Cookies. The old site didn’t have much on these topics except a couple of State Fair 2004 pictures; the new site has yet to be updated with anything. So if you’re looking for Art and Martha, I can’t help you much. Though I can vouch positively for both.

People looking for prints related to Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” have been (mis)led to my pictures of the Washburn Water Tower. Sorry, not Mr. King’s tower, but it’s mysterious all the same.

Most of the traffic comes from links I know about: photo contests like the Thursday Challenge and Photo Friday, my listing at Photoblogs.org, a link from my story at Clean Sheets. Nothing mysterious seems to lead people here, though I do wish more of them would note their visit and come back occasionally.

However you got here, thanks for dropping by, and come back if you like what you see or read.