StatCounter

I use StatCounter to keep an eye on whether anyone's actually reading my ramblings here. It's a great tool. Not only do you get to see how many people visit your site--and you can look at that data in many ways--but where they've come from. Every now and then, I get a huge spike in traffic. When that happens, it gets my attention. "Wow!" I'll think. "Where are all these people suddenly coming from and why?"

StatCounter always answers that question. By looking at the "Recent Came From" statistics, I can see the sudden surge of surfers are usually coming from a specific URL. I then click on that URL to see why all these people--sometimes thousands of them--are suddenly showing up for a look-see at my blog.

Yesterday was a good example: All of a sudden my traffic doubled and my "page loads" quadrupled and a lot of it was coming from the photography website, Digital Photography Review, AKA dpreview.com. Not only will StatCounter tell you where your site's visitors came from but, in the case of forums, it will direct you to where in that forum they came from. Cool stuff, no?

Regarding yesterday's traffic spike, it seem there was a thread on DPreview in which beauty dishes were being discussed. Someone in that thread mentioned that I had written about the Mola Beauty Dish and suggested others on DPreview have a look. Obviously, the poster included the URL to my article. Then, "Boom!" I get this huge traffic spike! I also looked at the "Page Loads" data and found that, after perusing my Mola post, many of these people decided to look around at a bunch of other pages for some reading or looking at the babes or both.

If only StatCounter could tell me whether people view my site for the photography babblings I author or for the pretty girl pics I post? I guess it really doesn't matter much. Both the words and the pictures are of my making so my ego remains stroked and/or intact either way.

Today's images are of the lovely Leah. MUA was Charlene. Ya gotta love the heart that's in the image at the top. BTW, if you're detail-oriented and you think something looks a little odd with Leah's teeth in the first shot, it's because she has braces... and yes, she's over 18! She's in her twenties actually.

Posted below is a behind-the-scenes shot of the lighting setup for those of you who like seeing that stuff. All shot with a Canon 5D. (Except the BTS shot which I snapped with a Canon 20D w/28-135 zoom.) I used a Canon 85mm, f/1.8 prime with the 5D, ISO 100, f/5.6 @ 125th.