Wedding Photography Website Critique

[ryjamesphotography]

Hi guys, I just recently joined the forum here and am looking for a little critique of my website and images. Trying to make my website the strongest it can be to attract clients so any tips or comments are greatly appreciated. Here is my website ryjamesphotography.com

Thank you!

 

[Designer]

The images seem a bit slow to load. I like the use of white space. It is easy to navigate.

 

[ryjamesphotography]

The images seem a bit slow to load. I like the use of white space. It is easy to navigate.

Yeah, I may have to large of files up there, uncompressed JPEGS. Thanks for the response

 

[KmH]

All JPEGs are compressed.
But you can compress them more than when the JPEG file was first made.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Okay, here's my feedback, in no particular order:

• Your name in blue is kind of weird looking. It's too far off, and the rest of your site (aside from pictures) looks monochrome so having the blue logo kinda just stands out awkwardly. And the design itself is kind of off-putting to me. I'd have graphic designer look at it for you. Sometimes we think we can do it all, but having someone who is trained and experienced can do way better, way faster.
• If this is supposed to be a wedding website, I feel like the first photo people should see on the home page is of a wedding. But you have a landscape shot instead. And consider resizing the slideshow so it only shows one photo at a time (but that's more of a creative choice).
• Your images do load slow. In my experience sizing them down to around 1700x1700 works fine for most web uses.
• Again, if your intention is to do weddings, then that should be the first option on your menu bar, not events
• Looking at your wedding page, it looks like you've shot about 1 wedding? Before you begin marketing to that crowd specifically, I would get some more experience and portfolio under your belt. Different people, different settings. Just to show you're experienced.
• Your portraits are kind of random, and many of them look like snapshots. That's my personal opinion. I feel that if you're marketing for weddings, these should be engagement portraits. Just my opinion.
• Sports shots look cool, but again, random, for a wedding website.
• For these other photos, I would maybe make a tab for "Personal" if you really want them on there. And just have a drop down menu for portraits, sports, and events. And then have Weddings have its own header menu item.
• Pricing page..... there are varying opinions on this. For me, it wasn't worth having it on my website. I scared customers away who couldn't afford my prices. And while, yes, if they can't afford your price, why bother, I've found that sometimes I like giving those people a deal anyway. Maybe they can provide some networking opportunities, or something. Having the $1500 price tag right at the top (especially considering the lack of your portfolio) is a bit off putting to me.
• The about page is simple, but decent enough. However, the script font isn't doing it for me. It's hard to read. Consider having this be a "Contact" page instead though. Yes, you have your contact info in the footer, but a lot of people, myself included, expect for there to be a contact page, perhaps with a form you can fill out to make it easier for people to contact you.
• Your Instagram logo at the bottom is so small and unnoticeable I don't know if it's even worth having there. I didn't notice it until I got to the about page.

That's all I've got for now. To reiterate, this review was based on what is currently on the site. If you plan on adding more photos, and what not, then some points may be moot.

Hope this helps.