Please critique and comment my website

The_Traveler · Apr 29, 2016

Quite lovely.
Moves quickly for me on a desktop altho there is a startling flash of images before each change settles down.

I have only what seems to be nit-picky things but I'll list them anyway.

Home Page: You have 'Welcome to the ......' which is an imperative statement, starting with a verb.
The next line also is in the form of an imperative, 'Hope you ...' when it is more comfortable (to me) in the form 'I hope ......'

The categories are a mix of ambiguous names ('untold' , 'faceless') and actual, understandable categories.
'untold' has no meaning for me even after I look at the pictures. 'faceless' is descriptive but at a low level.

I would merge 'untold' and 'faceless' galleries, remove what looks like duplicates (same pose, different person and dress')and make the category 'Conceptual Poses' or something to signal to people that these are not your average picture.
'Meet me' and 'Get in touch' seem to overlap a bit in meaning.
I would change 'Meet Me' to something also slightly off beat as 'I am...' (a bit more interesting than 'about')
Then your categories would be something like 'Conceptual Poses' 'Portraits' 'Documentaries ' 'I am...', 'Get in Touch' - non-standard but understandable. (I think that navigation should be a mystery that needs thought.)

The pictures are great, I would cull so that each one is unique.

mmaria · Apr 30, 2016

vintagesnaps said:
Nice. I think having a rather small number of photos works well (and I agree about changing them out periodically to update and keep it fresh).

I might think about combining Untold and Faceless (or maybe try another name for Faceless although I can't think of one) and keep the standard Portraits. Then maybe add a Travel/Landscape/Scenery section? or whatever you want to call it (another creative name like Untold would be interesting). I'm thinking that because you mention in your bio that it's beautiful where you live, you might want to show that.

I'd do some editing of your bio under Meet Me (some of this might be due to language differences). I'd title the sections using nouns and change Documenting (a verb) to Documentary (noun or adjective). You could get on the Merriam-Webster dictionary site and look up synonyms (like truth for documentary, etc.).

OK, this is turning into an English class lesson, lol so we might need to go get Lenny, and there's not necessarily a right or wrong in editing, but here are my suggestions.

"Photography is almost easy when you have such incredible locations." (Delete 'to shoot on')

"I enjoy different types of photography because of the challenges they bring," (delete 'along') ... "but the thing I like most about photography is that no matter how hard I try, ..." (Keep the rest of the sentence. I deleted 'the' twice, and omitted a comma after 'that'.)

Next paragraph starting after 'honest emotions' -
... "if they see a captured piece of a soul, a moment of someone's true happiness or sadness, or a story that's waiting to be told." (I deleted 'on it' - I think you meant 'in it', which seems redundant, and deleted a comma and inserted 'or'.)

Next paragraph, starting after ... 'you like what I do' - ..."want to collaborate with me, or hire me;"... (I added a semicolon). Then later in that sentence after "my site" there should be another semicolon.

Looks good overall Maria. And on second thought, don't ask Lenny anything til the end of the semester! lol

(And I liked that phrase 'captured piece of a soul'.)

The_Traveler said:
Quite lovely.
Moves quickly for me on a desktop altho there is a startling flash of images before each change settles down.

I have only what seems to be nit-picky things but I'll list them anyway.

Home Page: You have 'Welcome to the ......' which is an imperative statement, starting with a verb.
The next line also is in the form of an imperative, 'Hope you ...' when it is more comfortable (to me) in the form 'I hope ......'

The categories are a mix of ambiguous names ('untold' , 'faceless') and actual, understandable categories.
'untold' has no meaning for me even after I look at the pictures. 'faceless' is descriptive but at a low level.

I would merge 'untold' and 'faceless' galleries, remove what looks like duplicates (same pose, different person and dress')and make the category 'Conceptual Poses' or something to signal to people that these are not your average picture.
'Meet me' and 'Get in touch' seem to overlap a bit in meaning.
I would change 'Meet Me' to something also slightly off beat as 'I am...' (a bit more interesting than 'about')
Then your categories would be something like 'Conceptual Poses' 'Portraits' 'Documentaries ' 'I am...', 'Get in Touch' - non-standard but understandable. (I think that navigation should be a mystery that needs thought.)

The pictures are great, I would cull so that each one is unique.

Sharon and Lew, I replied here to both of you because some things overlap and I could say them to you both.

Thank you Sharon, everything is noted and fixed the way you told me. Totally understandable.
And Lew, those are issues I want to address. Thank you for noticing them, because things slip unnoticeably sometimes.

I put together "Faceless" and "Untold", added "b&w bundle"... Changed "Documentary" into "Real", changed "Meet me" into "Hi! I'm..."
Now, I only have issues with "Portrait" need to change that but don't really know how to say portraits differently.

I wan't my site to represent me, who I am and what I'm like. That's why I didn't choose "regular" page titles. I don't feel like I'm 'regular, plain or whatever" and I like to think that I tell stories with my photography. That's why "Untold" "Real" ... and I would like something different than "portrait" and to possibly match with "stories"

If you have any suggestions how could I change "Portrait" please tell me.

Thank you all, you helped a lot!