My New (Jan 12, 2012) Website

I just went live with my website using the A Photo Folio service (hopefully the DNS will be updated in your area by now.)

It's a Flash site with HTML, iPad, and Mobile versions. The idea is to be on par with other commercial photographers, with a minimalistic interface that displays my images as well as possible.

It replaces a 6.5 year old Movable Type-based blog and gallery format that was well received. But I wanted to display larger images with a modern, art-buyer friendly interface (i.e. make it like other contemporary photographers's sites so it is familiar to navigate). I also wanted to eliminate the old blog with over 1000 entries, since most of them were irrelevant - and I want to control my public image a little better. (Everything is archived of course.)

I still have to set up the iPad app and link to Facebook (yes I succumbed and made an artists' fan page). And frankly there are a couple of frustrating things I can't do with the A Photo Folio template that would make it a better and more consistent design - but to their credit, they may well adapt my modifications system-wide. (One is to have a persistent copyright notice in the footer of every page, an oversight that really bugs me.) (Or I can hire someone to modify the template myself.)

Still, even though it is not exactly how I would want to design a site from scratch, the image management and gallery system is rock solid, and while I hate to admit it, images in Flash have a really nice look, especially on a larger monitor.

Comments are welcome, especially if you find a typo ;-p

Oh and while I have toned down the R-rated imagery to just a few topless female boobs and a torn Trojan wrapper, you might not want to look at it in front of the kids or during your political campaign.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frank Petronio

It's a Flash site

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All I get is a white screen with a message saying "Please upgrade your Flash player".

Mine is up to date as far as I know.

Flash is a very poor choice for visual sites.
It hogs bandwidth, forces visitors to view content in a mode not of their own choosing, and is not compatible with some devices.

Sorry to rain on your parade.

- Leigh

Works fine for me, although I have to say I am not a fan of Flash either. Can you make the red numbers that count up to 100 disappear when clicking on a new page? The new site has a nice clean look, but I find the white background a bit bright.

I really liked your Movable Type-based site, especially the blog front-end - it was clean, straightforward and responsive.

Afraid I'm less happy with what I see of the new one so far:

* It feels sluggish by comparison; waiting through the counts is annoying.
* The different spacing of the gallery menu links vs the other links is awkward - perhaps have the gallery menus in one closely-spaced set and then the other links in a separate closely-spaced set.
* The navigation links look awkward floating at the lower left.
* Having the thumnails float on a transparent layer above the picture currently on display looks messy and distracting.
* Having the "About" content - and no other content - come sliding in from the left is weird. I'd rather that nothing came sliding in from anywhere.

I'm afraid it feels like a step backward. The bugs and distractions sabotage the minimalist feel.

I have no idea how much weight you should place on my reactions. FWIW, I'm an extreme minimalist when it comes to my own website design preferences. But I've never tried to create a website intended to sell anything and I have no intuition for how your intended audience will react.

I guess I need a new computer.

I have no complaints.

Works on the iPhone
Liked your old format better though.....

Thanks, keep it coming.

I'm not very happy with what they offer for text pages either, it is limited and impossible to format other than changing fonts.

The use of Flash is a conscious one, albeit reluctant. On a 27" monitor it scales up very nicely ~ they are large images (200kb) so they take a bit extra to load.

There is an html version to click on if you don't have Flash installed.

Not defending it but explaining the rationale. I will be messing with it (forever).

3 seconds from initial opening of the page until I see something other than white, which is 2.99 seconds longer than most people these days are willing to wait.

Checked it out again at work, PC running internet explorer..... 24" monitor = way better.
Much easier to navigate than with the iPhone. No wait time for me to load initially, but the images did take a second or so which I didn't find problematic. The mouseover feature is well done. I did find the font a bit small on the text pages.

I like it, very clean and fluid :)