Archive for the ‘building my website’ Category

Here is a small sample of the wonderful packet of letters I got this week from students at the Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory School in Evanston, Ill., a school I attended for a few months of second grade. Read about my visit and see photos here.

I also got a nice note from a teacher. The arrival of the packet gave me a good reason to update the feedback page of my website.

It’s ready to view! See the book trailer for Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. I’d love to hear what you think.

It’s also available on my website and on my Amazon author page. (Look in the far right column at the bottom.)

Richard and I have been busy behind the scenes (mostly Richard, it must be said) working on a new look for the website and the blog. Please let us know what you think.

Rose

I guess it is no surprise that Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature did not arrive today — given that it is Sunday. But I am continuing the countdown, nonetheless. Here is another photograph we took because of the beautiful spiral, but it is not clear to me how or if this is a sprial that relates to Fibonacci numbers. I do like red.

I have been adding resources to my website that relate to Fibonacci numbers. If you go to the Books section and select Growing Patterns, you will have the option of clicking on a menu for Fibonacci links. It includes 10 links that I found while researching my book. Some include classroom activities.

I am always trying to improve my system. I have known since the beginning of blogging that I should be embedding watermarks into my photographs. But there’s often a gap between what I know I should do and what I have the time, energy, and knowledge to do. In this case, the process is fairly simple — once I got around to it.

In Lightroom, which is the program I use to process and catalog my photographs, there is a function for exporting photographs. I have to run the export function in order to transform my photographs from raw images into jpgs for posting on the blog. In the right hand column, in the metadata menu, there is a copyright option. I typed Sarah & Richard Campbell in that field. Then, with the photo selected, I clicked on the file menu and clicked on export. In the export dialogue box I checked a box next to the Add Copyright Watermark field. Apparently, it is not possible with Lightroom to customize the placement of the watermark. If you know different, please comment and let me know. How do you other bloggers handle watermarking?

Continuing with the website updates, you can look at the photographs from our recent Tuscon trip in the gallery section of my website.

Tuscon in Black and White

This may be the last of the Tuscon photographs. Richard converted it to black and white. We have been updating and upgrading around here. You may notice some new things on the blog. To the left I have added more links to the blogs of fellow Southern Breezers. If I have left someone out, please comment to let me know. I am still building my list. Richard converted the Tuscon sunrise photograph to a wallpaper file. It is very nice!

I now work with a webcam attached to my monitor. It’s a little disconcerting to have this eyeball like thing staring back at me. I am practicing using Skype (which I hope to use to do virtual school visits soon) by calling Richard’s parents in England. Unfortunately, right now the news from there involves major surgery and lots of anxiety about its outcome. But it is nice to be able to see Silvana and Tony while we talk. They enjoy seeing their grandsons.

We got some nice quiet rain today and we have been having a nice day in our basement lair. Two of the boys are helping blog/website maintenance. Richard and D are playing ping-pong. It is a good start to a much-needed week off.

Richard and I went to the Clinton Community Nature Center on Saturday morning to learn about tagging monarch butterflies. Dr. Bill Stark, a professor at Mississippi College, led the demonstration. After a brief slide show, the assembled group tagged seven monarch butterflies that Stark had raised with his college students. They had rescued eggs from the recent laying period. Here are some photographs Richard and I took during the process. I captured six shots in rapid succession so Richard and G helped create a flash movie. See monarch movie on my website.

We think the tinkering is done. This logo will make its debut on the website sometime soon. Thanks for all the feedback. We’re happier with this version. One reason I’m working hard on the branding and marketing stuff is that the Mississippi Arts Commission deadline for mini grants is looming. As a roster artist I am eligible to apply for funding to help me advance my career; one of the things I can apply for is money to pay for marketing materials like bookmarks, postcards, and posters.

Here’s another nice leaf we saw on a recent neighborhood walk. I am starting a new arts integration school project with McLeod Elementary School. I am talking with a fifth grader teacher and a support team about doing a project that will integrate the teaching of science objectives with digital photography and bookmaking. I can’t wait to get outside again with kids and cameras. You can read about last year’s project by clicking one of two categories on the right: Davis on the Map or Arts Integration – Photography.

My website was created using Joomla!, which has a very blog-like user interface. I find it easy to update my site because Joomla! stores content in ways that make sense to me. Rather than creating individual pages that remain static and must be changed individually, Joomla! creates pages on the fly by pulling the blocks of information you tell it to. A block of information could be an article, a document for download, a menu, a photograph, etc.

The other great thing about Joomla! is that it is free. Richard did the set-up but, by and large, I keep it maintained. Since Joomla! is an open source program, there are a lot of add-ons available. This means we can choose from several types of photo galleries, search functions, etc.

I spent several hours yesterday and today updating my website. I didn’t do any major overhauls, but I added new pictures to the galleries, updated the information on my appearances page, and added some new teaching materials in the photography section. Please let me know what you think. Also, if there is content you’d like to see that’s missing, please let me know.

Richard took this close-up of an amaryllis. I love the detail.

Well, it finally arrived. The first day of school. They might say it arrived too soon, but not me. G was excited because he doesn’t have to wear a uniform anymore. N and D piled into Richard’s car and G and I settled in to wait for the bus. When it didn’t get here by 8, I drove him to school. The bus did show up, finally, so I feel good about him being able to catch it tomorrow.

After basking in the quietness, having a glass of iced roobios tea, and reading a 5,000-word article online without interruptions, I started in on some work. Marketing work. In addition to maintaining a website (and maybe a blog), authors need to manage their online presence in other ways, too. For example, about a week ago, I was checking around on Amazon.com and found that Amazon had set up an author’s page for me. There was no content on the page — just an anonymous silhouette in the place of a photo and no biographical material. In order to add content, I had to create a user name and password. I was able to upload my photo and my bio, but before it went live, Amazon had to check with my publisher to make sure I was who I said I was. I was notified today that I could proceed with updating the page.

I linked my blog to my Amazon author page and I was able to correct a problem Amazon has had with the Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator page since the book was published. They listed Richard’s name wrong (I won’t repeat the error here) and they had him listed as the illustrator. I fixed both problems. Besides having an Amazon author page, I have a page on Jacketflap, Facebook (this one is a personal page, but I am considering developing a professional page on FB), Authors Round the South, SCBWI/Southern Breeze, and I have content on teachingbooks.net.

Wolfsnail had been listed on Amazon.com for at least a year before I realized that I could create tags for my book. Tags are essentially search words that people might use when looking for a book. I added all the ones I thought were relevant to my book. I’m not web savvy enough to know how much of a difference this type of online refining makes, but I operate on the theory that every little bit helps. Does anyone else know some similar things authors can do online to make themselves easier for readers to find?