My new site / gallery.

[GTX]

I'm working on setting up a big gallery site for all my photos, many of which end up on this site too. It's just a place for me to put everything.

GTX's Photos (gtxhome.com leads to a blank page for now)

I just set it up today and am working out some of the tweaks and settings to make it look better. It's got a rating and comment system (which is the main thing I wanted), and slideshow features. Each image is stored in 4 sizes: Thumbnails (For the main album page), Small (640-xxx when you initial click the image), Medium (1600-xxxx for a nice big, but not massive, detailed view) and Full (Full, original size, minus cropping). The small loads first by default.

Each image also includes the EXIF data, which I thought was a very nice touch.

I just want to have people check it out... let me know what you think... even if it's to get ratings of the images themselves. Mainly, though, I want some ideas from people who may have their own galleries... or if you know of some I can check out. Like, what themes may be best, or layout ideas, features I should look to implement, etc...

You can rate without having to register for the site. You have to register to comment though.

Current things I'm working on (in case you think of these):
- New Logo ("Gallery" is the default)
- Re-Naming the files.
- Removing photo property details for items my Nikon doesn't support.

So, yeah, just wanted to put that out there... Let me know what you all think of the site and the images

 

[SrBiscuit]

honestly, i'd like to see something a little more dynamic. this isnt much different from a flickr or a photobucket. if thats what you wanted, then cool.

did you buy a domain for these? are you hoping to generate business or just looking for a place to put your pics?
if you wanna keep it on the cheap, or if you dont really know how to make a web page, i recommend jalbum...it;s a prety user friendly interface that creates the index pages for you with clickable thumbnails, and you can choose what you want your site to look like. you just need a domain and some hosting.

feel free to check out my jalbum site at www.reactwithin.com/Pictures (this is a gallery site i set up just so my parents could look at pics)
or my regular site at www.reactwithin.com in the photo section.

nothing spectacular, but a bit more dynamic than a flickr type thing.

 

[ocular]

It's not loading for me.

 

[SrBiscuit]

yeah...down for me too now.
(another bonus of having your own hosting space is uptime...provided you pick a good hosting company)

 

[GTX]

Still loading for me. It's on a dedicated webhost. I haven't seen the host go offline in 7 years (since I've had them).

I store tons of stuff online, so whether or not I make a webpage, it doesn't cost me any more or less (including the domain name).

I do have some other packs I can try to load to make the page look a little more dynamic. I'll take a look at those.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

It's great that you put the original size on your site. That way people can print them as they wish.

 

[GTX]

I'm not sure if that was a hint of sarcasm or it made you happy.

In either case all I can say is I own the originals.

 

[SrBiscuit]

what he's saying though, is that because you do allow people to see the full res versions, they can print them and save themselves $ rather than buy a print from you.
it may have been both sarcasm and happiness lol...bitter jeweler might have a nice new poster on his wall...for free

 

[GTX]

Not like I have any way to sell them at this moment, but it does open up the idea of at least watermarking them.

 

[Gaerek]

In the 18 months I've been with smugmug, I have never seen them fully down. During maintenance, you can still browse photos, you just can't upload them, and I've only encountered this on a few occasions. In addition, you can upload the originals, but limit the size of the photo that people can actually see. They do all the backend work for you, and you can just focus on your photography. It's worth a look.