Please critique my new website!

[B Kennedy]

I think you're being a little defensive, if you ask for C&C then accept what you get and take what you need from it. If someone is having issues with your site, chances are they aren't the only ones - if AOL has issues, well a lot of people use AOL.

YOU have to make the changes if you want their business - not them.

I'd personally make the music default to off with the option to turn it on, a lot of people browse from work and it's an instant turn off, regardless of them being male or female.

For websites and advertising in general, simple is better - it conforms to the masses... wow them with your work, not fancy animations and sound.

Just to keep this going, where did you see fancy animations? I find the animation subtle, and the sight is *very* simple imo. Simple meaning I've gone on some websites and you literally get lost in them.

 

[Sachphotography]

Truth be told your kind of photography is not one that really depends on SEO and what not. You business comes locally. I do not know why but your site is extremely slow on my computers. I have looked at it on three different ones and it is sluggish. Don't know why but just though you should know

 

[Tim Ray]

I think you're being a little defensive, if you ask for C&C then accept what you get and take what you need from it. If someone is having issues with your site, chances are they aren't the only ones - if AOL has issues, well a lot of people use AOL.

YOU have to make the changes if you want their business - not them.

I'd personally make the music default to off with the option to turn it on, a lot of people browse from work and it's an instant turn off, regardless of them being male or female.

For websites and advertising in general, simple is better - it conforms to the masses... wow them with your work, not fancy animations and sound.

I agree that I got a little defensive when it came to the one about my images looking funny, and should have just asked if that person was using AOL. I have no control over the quality of images when someone uses AOL with image compression turned on.

I did post this to get c&c and am thankful for all the great ideas that I have received so far.

You can turn the music off by clicking on the little music animation on the lower right side . I know there is a big debate about whether to use music or not, I'm currently doing a survey to see what my clients prefer, and I'm also considering c&c here. Maybe it would be better to only have music on the porfolio pages.

Keep the c&c coming!!!

 

[Tim Ray]

Truth be told your kind of photography is not one that really depends on SEO and what not. You business comes locally. I do not know why but your site is extremely slow on my computers. I have looked at it on three different ones and it is sluggish. Don't know why but just though you should know

Actually SEO is very important for our business now days, as our brides are from all over the country and even the world. We photograph weddings in other parts of the country besides just local weddings, we also photograph weddings all over our state and surrounding states, and not just in our local area. I just booked a wedding this week from Eastern Maryland from someone who found us by doing a search for photographers in Maryland.

 

[Sachphotography]

I wish you the best of luck on your endeavorers my man.

Cheers.

Daniel

 

[Tim Ray]

I have resized the images on the home page and reuploaded, maybe this will help with the speed problem. I never really noticed the site being sluggish, but I have a really fast connection. Does the home page load faster now?

 

[Tim Ray]

Home page: The photo you've picked for your "portraits" seems to have something weird going on around the face. It doesn't look sharp. And have someone edit the text. Some people think I'm too picky but bad use of english turns me off. Same with the rest of the site.

When I click on the blog button on the home page it takes me there without opening a new window but if I try from the portraits area it opens a new window which, like NOYZE, I don't like. And why does the raves button take me to the blog?

When in the portfolio section, clicking families takes me to photos of children where there are only five photos. After 18 years in business, it seems you should have more in your portfolio...

I don't have the thumbnails problem that NOYZE seems to have however I don't quite like the way they cover the right side of landscape images.

Why do some pages have music and others don't?

Some images have the same kind of problem as the portrait on the home page which I find annoying. Being brand new to digital photography and totally in the dark as far as website construction, I don't know why that is but it needs to get fixed.

Also, I would put the home button in the menu rather than by itself at the bottom.

The blog doesn't do much for me but I'm not a blog person. I find most of them boring.

Other than that, it is nice looking if a bit slow.

I imagine some of those problems are due to the fact that it is not finished.

I have resized the images on the home page, see if that corrects the problem you saw. Thank you for your help.

 

[Sachphotography]

Still slow....... Checked on two different connections. Both high speed.

 

[paulk_68]

Tim Ray, your site loads fast for me. I'm using Firefox, and would guess that the people who say it loads slow are using IE. I like both the main website and blog (great job on the blog), but agree with those who say the music needs to go.

 

[B Kennedy]

Tim Ray, your site loads fast for me. I'm using Firefox, and would guess that the people who say it loads slow are using IE. I like both the main website and blog (great job on the blog), but agree with those who say the music needs to go.

I have to agree, I just checked myself and your page does load much faster in firefox.

 

[Tim Ray]

Okay I have removed the music from the site...what do you think?

 

[B Kennedy]

Okay I have removed the music from the site...what do you think?

There's no way to put like a little "media player" on there, that viewers can click on it to start playing? Because I do feel that per say, the bride/groom & family may like to hear the music, especially if you created individual playlists per event or something. You know like including the music they wanted played at the wedding, so when they view their pictures/slide shows online they get to click on the player to play their music.

I know you had general music playing, but that may be interesting to play/auto-play music in individual galleries (I think it will compliment the images from that event). I dunno if thats possible, but something I would look into for my site. Like for instance if I took pics at a sweet 16 and made a slide show to be seen online and wanted to play music in that gallery, maybe i'd put on like the song she entered the party with.

All in all, I do prefer the general site not having music

[EDIT] by the way tim, are you designing the site on your own or did you hire someone?

 

[Tim Ray]

Okay I have removed the music from the site...what do you think?

There's no way to put like a little "media player" on there, that viewers can click on it to start playing? Because I do feel that per say, the bride/groom & family may like to hear the music, especially if you created individual playlists per event or something. You know like including the music they wanted played at the wedding, so when they view their pictures/slide shows online they get to click on the player to play their music.

I know you had general music playing, but that may be interesting to play/auto-play music in individual galleries (I think it will compliment the images from that event). I dunno if thats possible, but something I would look into for my site. Like for instance if I took pics at a sweet 16 and made a slide show to be seen online and wanted to play music in that gallery, maybe i'd put on like the song she entered the party with.

All in all, I do prefer the general site not having music

[EDIT] by the way tim, are you designing the site on your own or did you hire someone?

B Kennedy...thank you for your help, and everyone else who have helped, I really appreciate it very much. We do create slideshows of every wedding set to music.

I am designing the site myself.

 

[Nicholas James Photo]

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