Switched from a Zenfolio website to a Wordpress designed site. Feedback appreciated.

[achtungbarry]

I was using Zenfolio for my portfolio site but got frustrated with the lack of customization options so I decided to swith to Wrdpress in order to come up with a more funky design with better impact. I have kept the Zenfolio site as an online store but the new site is the main portfolio site.

Barry O Carroll Photography

Does the homepage have good impact?

Is the site easy to navigate?

What do you think of the colour schemes and layout?

What do you think of how the galleries are organised?

Is there anything you would change?

Any other comments and critiques welcome.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Beautiful site.

I tried wordpress but compared to html I'm found it so difficult. Did you set the page up yourself?

I got stuck on the 1st part trying to use the 1st page as static with no blog. Although I pressed the buttons for such, using that generic template I COULD NOT get it static and remove the blog

 

[achtungbarry]

Thanks for the kind words 2WheelPhoto. I actually purchased a custom theme called 'Photorific' which allowed me to have the full page slideshow as the home page. It is actually not too ddifficult to set up.

 

[photobykelly]

I like the Home page. Its nice and inviting. A couple of things that I do not like is your home page isn't optimization friendly (unless your not looking to rank in Search Engines). There is no content for keywords that you would want to rank for. The other thing is just a preference of mine that kind of bugs me but really isn't too much of a big deal. I don't like how when you hover over the navigation there is no text highlighting or anything similar to really let me know visually what im hovering over. As well as your slide out menus they overlap the navigation again this is just me nit picking what I like. Personally I would like to see the slide out menus from your navigation to be bumped right up to the edge border to border. Not overlapping. Other than that Its neat, clean, and organized. I like it. Oh and you might want to add some style to your contact form possibly add a second form for a service request. (i.e. Senior Pictures, Wedding Package, etc). Hope this helps.

 

[jimpurcell]

I like it! It took NO time to load. Sweet. Easy enough to get around. Finding ways to SEO is hard, but your blog should tie that up nicely. Well done.

 

[dakphoto]

I was using Zenfolio for my portfolio site but got frustrated with the lack of customization options so I decided to swith to Wrdpress in order to come up with a more funky design with better impact. I have kept the Zenfolio site as an online store but the new site is the main portfolio site.

Barry O Carroll Photography

Does the homepage have good impact?

Is the site easy to navigate?

What do you think of the colour schemes and layout?

What do you think of how the galleries are organised?

Is there anything you would change?

Any other comments and critiques welcome.

Hi Barry

Love your site and your work... really beautiful.

We've just launched our new portfolio site but have had to leave our client galleries on a separate domain... dakphotosales.com which is hosted by Smugmug. Smugmug integration in to Wordpress is virtually non existant as any plugins play havoc with our WP Theme. Also, my goal is to have everything under the one domain so that all traffic goes to or is driven to, the main site.
Here's my question, your gallery is really simple and slick and I wondered is it actually a subdomain hosted on Zenfolio or how does the integration actually work? ie where are the images residing? On your domain server or Zenfolios servers.

Would really appreciate any help you could offer.

Kind regards
Dave

 

[kokonut]

Hi there,
I checked out your new website. I like a lot the theme you have chosen. I find the navigation quite easy and the menu is clear. Maybe you should create some subcategories for the galleries shown in the main navigation bar (with a kind of scroll down menu) but I don't know if your theme enables that kind of categorization.
I aggree that you should do some onsite SEO optimization, not only the titles tags but also your content needs to be optimized for your main keywords.
Unless you don't want to get found through the search engines ...it is up to you.

 

[achtungbarry]

Hi Barry

Love your site and your work... really beautiful.

We've just launched our new portfolio site but have had to leave our client galleries on a separate domain... dakphotosales.com which is hosted by Smugmug. Smugmug integration in to Wordpress is virtually non existant as any plugins play havoc with our WP Theme. Also, my goal is to have everything under the one domain so that all traffic goes to or is driven to, the main site.
Here's my question, your gallery is really simple and slick and I wondered is it actually a subdomain hosted on Zenfolio or how does the integration actually work? ie where are the images residing? On your domain server or Zenfolios servers.

Would really appreciate any help you could offer.

Kind regards
Dave

Hi Dave,

First of all, thanks for your kind words about my site and my work.

As for the galleries, there are 2 elements to these. Firstly, I use the (free) Nextgen plugin to organize my galleries. It is really simple to use. Secondly, I use a plugin called Justified Image grid. This gives the thumbnail pattern displayed on my site.

Finally, I sell my photos through Fine Art America. One fantastic feature of Fine Art America is that you can embed your entire web store into a page on your site. This means that people can order prints from Fine Art America but never have to leave my site.

Here is my webstore: Web Store - Framed, Canvas, Metal & Acrylic Photo Prints | Barry O Carroll Photography

All that is required for this is a simple piece of code provided by Fine Art America.

I see you sell mainly portrait work so I am not sure if this will work as well for you. In the past (before Fine Art America) had the ability to embed the web store, I used my galleries as you see them with a link in the lightbox to the page where the photo could be bought.

I hope this helps.

Barry

 

[achtungbarry]

Hi there,
I checked out your new website. I like a lot the theme you have chosen. I find the navigation quite easy and the menu is clear. Maybe you should create some subcategories for the galleries shown in the main navigation bar (with a kind of scroll down menu) but I don't know if your theme enables that kind of categorization.
I aggree that you should do some onsite SEO optimization, not only the titles tags but also your content needs to be optimized for your main keywords.
Unless you don't want to get found through the search engines ...it is up to you.

Hi kokonut.

Thank you for your suggestions. It is much appreciated.

Admittedly, I do not know a lot about SEO. I use a plugin to add keywords and titles etc to each page but I know there is more I could do.

Do you have any links to good guides, tutorials or articles about enhancing SEO.

Thanks.

Barry.

 

[Annrive]

I really enjoyed the layout really simplistic not a lot of clutter and easy to navigate. Color scheme is good and consistent. I personally would remove the widgets on the bottom of the page, I don't think their necessary. Definitely liked the organization of the web store easy to find specific items.

I myself am also using WP but am having difficulty editing my themes so I'm thinking of just creating one from scratch from html.. What theme are you using?

 

[HughGuessWho]

Hi Barry

Love your site and your work... really beautiful.

We've just launched our new portfolio site but have had to leave our client galleries on a separate domain... dakphotosales.com which is hosted by Smugmug. Smugmug integration in to Wordpress is virtually non existant as any plugins play havoc with our WP Theme. Also, my goal is to have everything under the one domain so that all traffic goes to or is driven to, the main site.
Here's my question, your gallery is really simple and slick and I wondered is it actually a subdomain hosted on Zenfolio or how does the integration actually work? ie where are the images residing? On your domain server or Zenfolios servers.

Would really appreciate any help you could offer.

Kind regards
Dave

Hi Dave,

First of all, thanks for your kind words about my site and my work.

As for the galleries, there are 2 elements to these. Firstly, I use the (free) Nextgen plugin to organize my galleries. It is really simple to use. Secondly, I use a plugin called Justified Image grid. This gives the thumbnail pattern displayed on my site.

Finally, I sell my photos through Fine Art America. One fantastic feature of Fine Art America is that you can embed your entire web store into a page on your site. This means that people can order prints from Fine Art America but never have to leave my site.

Here is my webstore: Web Store - Framed, Canvas, Metal & Acrylic Photo Prints | Barry O Carroll Photography

All that is required for this is a simple piece of code provided by Fine Art America.

I see you sell mainly portrait work so I am not sure if this will work as well for you. In the past (before Fine Art America) had the ability to embed the web store, I used my galleries as you see them with a link in the lightbox to the page where the photo could be bought.

I hope this helps.

Barry

I really think your site is 100% better than most I see where critique is being offered. It's simple but not he basic Wordpress site that looks LIKE a Wordpress site.

However, when I clico on a picture in your Web Store section, nothing load on the next page except the base page.... not pictures or purchase details.