such a work in progress...C&C?

paigegreen916 · Oct 1, 2008

I'm working on a bludomain website for my *new* photo biz. it more than likely wont be up untill next year, as i continue to edit and choose images for the galleries. i was hoping someone would have time to check it and give me any advice or just let me know how it catches your eye. there are minimal images on it at the moment, and it isn't even accessabel except via direct link, like i said, its still very much a work in progress...
if you have the time or disire to take a peek and give some advice, i truly appriciate it!!!!
* edit *
I've take the link down to continue to work on the site.

also, if any of you out there use WHCC i would love to know what you think of their prints and books!

iflynething · Oct 1, 2008

How can I help you smile, today?

That's catchy and I like how you rearranged your name to make the name of your "company."

A few things about your site.

1) What is the name of the song on your website, and who sings it. It's going on my iPod. Also, is there a way to turn it off. (I couldn't easily find it if there was a place) I ask because some people look at work and if something starts going off, it wouldn't be too pretty. Just make sure that's out in the open.
Edit: I just opened up the page and New Soul is playing and I found the volume button. If possible, make that a little bigger so we can see it more. It could be better for people at work like I was saying. Nice choice of music. If they can use New Soul on the Mac commerical, I guess you can use it on your site.
2) What are you shooting with? I looked at a very large majority of your photos, and about 80% of them seem really soft or there is over post processing in them.
3) To me, a blog is mainly to tell you about what has been going on and not really for posting work. I would suggest having the gallery link from your blog, open to the galleries on your website. I think of a blog as a small diary of the person who is creating it.
4) I would change the first image on the webpage. The family looks out of focus. I guess I shouldn't say change it and not have one to change it to, just not that one. Just one that's sharper is all.

Other than that, I don't have anything else to say. Overall, I really like the layout of the site and all the flash is not too much. I think dial-up customers (what's that? ha ha) might find it a pain for it all to load. Nice area at the bottom for all the other links within the site. I like the Wall Galleries section you have.

Other than that, thanks for sharing. I have bookmarked you. Let us know when it's all done and really "ready" for viewing.

~Michael~

Oh, I like the loading icon you have

Sim · Oct 1, 2008

Overall, good work! The nav is consistent and you have some nice, yet subtle transitions and effects.

A bit of constructive criticism:
Firstly, I agree with Michael: you should default to your site and keep the link to the blog there. Keep in mind that there are a lot of photography sites out there. With so much competition, the fewer clicks it takes to get to your work, the more people will see it. Also, people are less likely to be interested in blogs of people they don't know yet; they're more likely to be interested in your blog once they've viewed and appreciate your work.

Secondly, I noticed that you're resizing the user's browser even though you're using a fixed with for your site and don't need the extra width. Resizing a browser is rarely a good idea (many people, myself included, have a reason for setting their browser size so resizing it without their consent can be irritating).

Lastly, I'd strongly advise against the music all together. It's nice in theory to many, but like Michael pointed out, it can really backfire in some situations and lead the viewer to quickly close the window and therefore your site, and that's probably not what you want.

iflynething · Oct 1, 2008

Well, I bookmarked it for a reason, but overall I really like it. Can you preset the volume of the music? Music is always iffy on a website

~Michael~

paigegreen916 · Oct 1, 2008

iflynething said:
Well, I bookmarked it for a reason, but overall I really like it. Can you preset the volume of the music? Music is always iffy on a website

~Michael~

what do you mean? did you bookmark it for another reason?

manaheim · Oct 1, 2008

Neat site, but I have a huge ... HUGE ... pet peeve about sites that resize my browser. Personal opinion.

paigegreen916 · Oct 1, 2008

thanks guys. i will DEF change the resizing, but i can't change the music volume or icon.
the reason my blog has all of the galleries and what not is because right now it serves as both my site and my blog. remember, my site isn't open to the public yet.
i shoot with a sony Alpha, my images are soft due to PP. i like that look.
thanks again!

BTilson · Oct 2, 2008

I would also recommend getting rid of the music completely. Your site doesn't LOSE anything by being silent, and you can easily lose customers if they are browsing somewhere where they don't want sponaneous music playing. I know I closed your site very quickly when the music popped up because I had my sleeping 6 month old in my arms. Had I been looking for a photographer, you would've lost a potential customer for that reason alone.

zeroskillz · Oct 2, 2008

Volume is a pretty simple control to add into the flash file...
www.flashkit.com
or more directly:
http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Interactivity/How_ot_u-Nathan-1378/index.php
or
http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Audio/Volume_-Joe_Jabo-727/index.php

hth
-ted

paigegreen916 · Oct 2, 2008

its a bludomain site, so theres really not that much i can tweak (volume control being one of them) i'll very seriously consider taking the music out all together. would a softer song be better, or no music at all?

BTilson · Oct 2, 2008

In my personal opinion, no music or sound at all is ideal for any website. (Unless it's a music website, obviously

) As I said before, I don't think you'd ever LOSE a prospective client because your site didn't have music, but you may lose more than you'd imagine due to spontaneous music popping up.

manaheim · Oct 2, 2008

^^ I agree. The music thing bugs me almost as much as the full screen thing. That being said, some nice calm subdued classical music might be nice if you have to do it.

BTW, not trying to knock you down... this kind of stuff really is the norm for photog websites nowadays. I don't like it, personally, but it seems to be expected on some level. You certainly shouldn't feel bad just because some curmudgeon on the 'net thinks you crazy kids are gonna just cause armageddon with all yer new fangled gadgets.

I swear, back in MY day, we served web pages in pure HTML 1.0 with no images. None of these new fangled glitzy graphicy picture thingies, I tell you! Nope! Them's for them crazy whipper snappers with their "Flashy" drawings and their "Jay Pegs" or whatever they're called.

*Chris pulls up his pants with his Arpanet suspenders and chomps down on his BBN Planet logo corn-cob pipe*

sdesha · Oct 2, 2008

I like the site nice color and name. I agree alittle with manaheim flashy sites are the norm these days. But they take a while to loud on some ppls computers. I love my old fashion HTML..of course I know how to write it, and its no templets so maybe thats why...haha...but overall great Job! and yes who sings that song?