Maria Manjelo Photography

[MariaManjelo]

Hi, new here. Seems as a good place to make friends in the field. I am Maria, live in New Jersey
I am a portrait photographer, fell in love with Maternity Photography after having my first baby.

Take a look, and say hi

Maria

New Jersey Maternity and Baby Photographer.

 

[TomOScott]

This is just my initial impression, so take it with a grain of salt.
You're a maternity photographer. This means new life, happiness. But the brown background, the decorations on your site, etc. . . . Well, it looks very old, almost like a senior center site. Sorry to be so blunt, but your site design strikes me as out of sync with the clientele you're trying to reach.

 

[MariaManjelo]

Thank you for your reply. Now you got me thinking

 

[WYSIWYG]

I like the website for the most part. It's good that it's responsive because I viewed it on my phone.
Mt wife enjoys shooting the same type of portraits with maternity and newborns.
Biggest thing I would fix is take the boudoir off the same page as everything else. We went through the same decision process and thought boudoir didn't belong next to babies and pregnant ladies.

Maybe create a separate page, subdomain, or new website altogether.

 

[MariaManjelo]

interesting. why? you think people might find it offensive?

 

[sm4him]

interesting. why? you think people might find it offensive?

Some DO find it offensive, but that's not the reason to separate it. It's really a matter of this:

Do you think that someone looking for a talented professional boudoir photography is going to pick you, based on what seems to be your main area of expertise, judging from your website home page?
It's not about the nature of boudoir photography, really--in fact, I'd say the same for your wedding photography and senior portraits. If I were looking for someone to do one of those types of photography, and I saw your home page, I'd assume that what you REALLY do is maternity and newborn photography, and I'd move on to someone else.

When you work in completely different areas of photography, it is *sometimes* a good decision to separate them completely--that is, different websites for each area. You can have something on each website that perhaps says, "looking for a Boudoir photographer? We do that too; visit www.idothattoophotography.com."

On the other hand, running one website can suck time from doing photography--still, it's something to consider.

 

[WYSIWYG]

I don't but some people I asked do find it offensive or said someone they knew would find it offensive. I'm not saying you need a whole new website maybe just make it a category like yoursite.com/boudoir. And not have it on the homepage.

 

[waday]

Does boudoir lead to pregnant ladies and babies?

 

[EricBel]

I agree with the feedback on the site so far. I was a little thrown off by all the different photography types on your main page, only because of your description on this forum. Someone visiting your page without newborn and maternity in mind might think differently. I guess it depends on who your target audience is and really fine tuning what you are offering. The only other thing I would change is the picture is you and your family on the main page. I love the idea of having your family, the only thing I would change is having you smiling in that picture. Your family looks happy and inviting, and I'd like to see you that way as well.

 

[desertrattm2r12]

I think your photography is wonderful. The other things, well we can all tweak our "look" or business practices a bit once in a while. Food for thought. We are a Puritan nation and that's good and bad. We would not have bothered to help knock out Hitler if we were not like that. (Prior to Pearl Harbor 85 percent of the public in the US was against ANOTHER European war, 25 years after the "War To End All Wars).) But we're a little up tight about things other peoples laugh about.

 

[cherylynne1]

I have to say I agree about moving the boudoir section. While the pictures are beautifully done and tasteful, I also consider a few of them to be NSFW. The rest of the site is very family friendly, so someone who doesn't know what boudoir photography is (which is more common than you might think) might find it a little shocking.

The only other note I have is that on a couple of the children's photos you have two pictures from the same session with different white balances, and since they're right next to each other it makes one look distinctly blue. But that might just be me.

Other than that, I think it looks beautiful, warm, inviting, and professional. I love the personal stories that go with the pictures, that's a very nice touch.