Feedback on my photos/site

[kahulani]

Aloha,
Check it out:

http://www.mangohillphotography.com/

I'd just like some advice. My clients have expressed nothing but good reviews, however, I'm not professional, so my clients may not have any expectations, and are usually friends of friends, referrals or whatnot. Would like some feedback on the site and/or photos. Thanks so much guys!

 

[nickisonfire]

first thing I noticed as soon as it loaded:

TAKE THE MUSIC OFF!

I'm a big fan of ol' Jack, but normally when I'm browsing around I normally have music playing in the background and I hate when other stuff just starts playing. And even if your someone who isn't listening to music, you don't want to be at work and while browsing the internet a song starts playing.

Next thing I would say is maybe kill the black background. I like the notebook look and I think if you continued the white it would look real crisp.

Not really sure whats going on with the title, the main address is Mangohill, but in the header it says the owner's name. Then in the middle it says Mangohill by Brandy. I'm not really sure whats going on there. A very minor thing I know but it gets a little confusing (ie: Who I'm I contacting, Mango Hill or Brandy)


Your photography is pretty good, the one thing with your portfolio is I think you should cut down the 6 divisions of it to maybe 3, for instance your 'plants' section only has a few images so you might just want to combined it with another section

Overall it looks good, just needs a few tweaks.

Edit: This is such a small thing and it's probably not a big deal to some, but I'm kind of obsessive compulsive about stuff like this, when you click any of the arrows in your portfolio to go to the next image, the image comes in from left to right, at first I thought I was going backwards through the photogallery until I saw the numbers. Like I said, very minor but it kind of irks me

 

[Rekd]

TAKE THE MUSIC OFF!

Web pagte NOT visited. Entire thread reported to moderators for deletion. Reason: Music on web page.

/runs away screaming "turn the music off" :lmao:

i'm kidding. I'M KIDDING!

Take the music off and I'll see about visiting it. As long as it's not a flash-only site. :thumbdown:

 

[Gaerek]

As far as the site itself, I don't really have any issues. I would remove the music though. I don't know about other people, but when music starts playing that I didn't start, it's usually enough to make me hit the back button. This also might be a personal thing too, but overly complicated websites (lots of flash/javascript/xml/whatever the kids are doing these days) tend to turn me off. I like simple. I like to be able to hit the back button to go to the previous page I was at.

As far as your photos are concerned, well, first of all, are there any in particular you'd like critiqued? I didn't see any that were absolutely terrible, but I did see a couple I might classify as a snapshot, more than a photograph. Also, be very mindful of your horizon. Slanted horizons seem to be a theme in a lot of your shots, and for me, that's very distracting. I have a bad habit of doing it too when I take shots, but it's very easy to fix in post.

You are a far better photographer than I was when I started. Don't give up. Keep shooting. Post here to get critiques of your work and learn from your mistakes. There are some great photographers here who give excellent advice. You're doing fine.

 

[percent20]

Here are a list of a few things with reasons

Agreed with the no music, or default it to off. Reason above.

Get rid of all flash. You need to have linkable pages so people can hit http://www.mangohillphotography.com/prices.html or something like that. Not to mention flash makes un-indexable, mostly, by search engines. Being indexable by search engines increases your ability to be discovered.

Get rid of the blogspot blog go to your own hosted Blog on your url. The more posts you make based on your blog the more search engines will index your site making it easier to find you when people search for you. Plus you don't want people to actually leave your site until they are done viewing it.

I also recommend working on what you name your links. Purchase is a bit too aggressive, and confusing to some. Prices is probably better, or even "how much". I could go on about copy so i'll stop there.

Try to move away from your @juno email address makes people raise eyebrows. Again try. Sometimes you just can't.

Those are the things I would change.

I do like the idea of your site has good flow for the most part and is appealing. Your purchase page's text goes a bit funny for me with a lot of overlapping text.

hope those tips were helpful. Web stuff is what I do so I kind of can get really picky.

 

[Chuck]

I'm another one who really dislikes: (1) music that automatically comes on - - I usually have music or the TV on when browsing; and (2) all-flash sites - - too slow and bothersome to navigate.

Also, I'm not quite sure I get the whole Hawaii thing - - you're from WA and live in OK. Confuses me.

For your photography, you should post up 1 or 2 images here, and ask for specific feedback. But for one example: On your family photo, the woman and the baby have various body parts cut-off due to the original picture composition or cropping. Very distracting in my mind.

And yet, you have some very nice pics and clearly love doing it. Sooo, keep going and learning - - and learn to take criticism well and not personally. On-line, nobody knows anything about you as a person. If someone just says your photo sucks - - ignore it. But do pay attention to actual criticism, learn what you can - - and then make your own assessments/decisions.

Ultimately, photography is an art. As long as you're pleasing yourself and your clients, all is good.

cheers

 

[rub]

Well, first things first, that was one of the slowest loading sites I ahve ever come across. Also, the text is either very small, or just a jumbled mess (under "Purchase").

As for the photography itself, I think you are off to a great start. And we all have to start somewhere. I saw some very nice images, some okay images, and some that I thought shouldn't be on your site at all. I think its much better to have a few GREAT images in each category, rather than lots of so so images. Weed out anything that gives you a second thought.

As for other peoples comments, listen to them, learn from them, then shake them off. If you want to be in this biz, you will need to grow a thick skin pretty quick. Lots of photographers are scared of the new generation, those who buy a camera, take a few shots, and then think they can make a business out of it. ( I know, I did that myself) They will belittle you and be rude. But some of those photographers will also see your desire and passion, and will give you constructive critisism that will help you grow in your art.

Maybe your clients have low expectations, but you can change that. You pricing seems reasonable (not dirt cheap, which is a good thing) and if you can continualy exceed there expectations, they will grow. You just have to make sure you grow as well.

If you love what you do and are proud of what you produce, keep at it. Listen to what people say about your work and learn from it every time. If you cant take the critique, don't turn your hobby into a business. It will suck the fun and passion out in no time.

Good luck!

 

[kahulani]

I'm another one who really dislikes: (1) music that automatically comes on - - I usually have music or the TV on when browsing; and (2) all-flash sites - - too slow and bothersome to navigate.

Also, I'm not quite sure I get the whole Hawaii thing - - you're from WA and live in OK. Confuses me.


cheers

My family is Hawaiian - I take pride, and I think it makes me unique. As far as the music, thanks all, its off the site!!!

 

[Chuck]

I'm another one who really dislikes: (1) music that automatically comes on - - I usually have music or the TV on when browsing; and (2) all-flash sites - - too slow and bothersome to navigate.

Also, I'm not quite sure I get the whole Hawaii thing - - you're from WA and live in OK. Confuses me.


cheers

My family is Hawaiian - I take pride, and I think it makes me unique. As far as the music, thanks all, its off the site!!!

Sorry - I couldn't tell that you were Hawaiian (or anything, for that matter), and I guess I wasn't thinking at all along those lines. I was focusing on you as a photographer, your website and your work, and my comments were directed towards those considerations. And with respect to that, I stand by my comments.

 

[PhotoXopher]

Another frickin' Flash site, ack!

The one photo I saw looked pretty good to me though, but I got sick of watching the swirly 'wait while flash does some other transition bs' thing to stop and actually show me something.