Hi
After the intro / front page the rest of the site loads quickly ( approx half second ). I have a 1.1 Mbps connection in the UK. Love the site esp.the written bits and the the part "about me" . Would love to see the other photos once they are loaded. Lots of character.
I'm not an expert on things like webpages and maybe easily impressed ?! but it seems fairly easy to negotiate with logic layout.
All the best !
I think the loading problem is traffic - looking at the hits, there are apparently plenty of lurkers on this site
Paddy- I knew some of the "prose" would draw some criticism - The blurb under that picture is aimed at market not other photogs. Prose is prose. I don't know what to do about "giclee". We've debated "inkjet" vs "giclee" ad nauseum. Maybe just saying "digitally printed" is sufficient.
I also realized the colour scheme won't work for everybody - some LCD monitors in particular don't handle it all that well (personally, I'm of the opinion that typical LCD monitors are useless for imagery, but thats just me) - the logo has a "fuzzy shadow" which does give it a "shimmer" - jury is still out on that, but the more I looked at it the more it seemed to fit the title. YMMV...
"Most of all - to me it just feels like the website sort of jars with the images and the ethos I think you are trying to project (even the blue on black, while okay on it's own, also seems to do that to some extent)"
That "jarring" was intentional - my work is very eclectic, and the edition image on the home page isn't entirely representative of what I do (the image itself has to be redone - its a resize of the digital file used in the print and lost a lot in the downsizing. I will scan an actual print for that when I get to it.)
It's all a work in progress..
Hi Paul,
Why frames and why trying to hide the code?
Both of these things simply add unnecessary complexity layers to your site.
Regards,
Hi Paul,
I'm one of the 'lurkers'. I've been to your site several times. I quit liked your photo! I think Paddy pretty much captured my thoughts, in terms of web site critique. But here are a couple of other thoughts to consider:
The logo, to me, was "ethereal" and didn't bother me too much... but I came to that conclusion after looking at it several times and pondering if the fuzziness was intent or my bad eyes. I concluded that it was intent. I guess 'ethereal" is close to 'ephemeral' ;-)
The writing style in your bio was initially annoying... a total lack of proper pronouns (if I remember my English grammar -- which isn't guaranteed). That, too, I got over quickly; it's a personal style, I suppose.
I fully understand putting only low-res image on the web site, but I'd be very interested in seeing what the look of the final product is like. In fact, I probably wouldn't buy a print without this knowledge. Have you thought of including a sample of the full res quality?
I wasn't too keen on being 'lured' to interesting pages like 'Gallery' and 'Equipment' only to find "Under Construction". My personal preference on web sites is be told a link is under construction rather than clicking links and being disappointed.
I laughed my a$$ off about you being a civil servant. All good civil servants have an alter-ego... and I like yours! Please reconsider categorizing yourself as an equipment fiend, or however you stated it. It's quite clear that you have a nice collection of cameras... but its also clear from the image you feature that you know how to use it. You seem to be a 'photographer' rather than just an 'equipment whore'.
p.s. two minor typos... I believe aperature is aperture (Thanksgiving description) and another that I can't immediately recall in your bio page.
p.p.s. isn't $CAN 100 too round of a number... how about $99.99 :-)
It sucks. Sorry.
Wilhelm (Sarasota)
Gee, thanks, Bill
Marko - no frames on this site (I'm assuming you mean "html frames")... I used a code encryption routine that I've used for past sites with sensitive code, but html technology has overun that some, and site encryption is not as casually easy as it once was. I can likely dispense with that, but then why would you want to look at the code?
Before anyone gets too excited about The Prose, some of what's there is there to get content up for site development - it will get polished to some extent before its done. I have a very colloquial writing style for casual work (and to me, this is casual work - considering the precise crap I do for a living.) and frequently it comes out in the way I write.
Brian - some excellent suggestions - clipping a portion of the actual file is an excellent idea I hadn't thought of, and I would have had the same concerns as you... The "site under construction" issue is a point taken - it bothers me too, but in all honesty, I put the site up for review sooner than I might have to get some overall feedback - its less work to fix a few pages than rip apart an entire site... I assumed I would have content in those areas - the buttons are gifs - I'll make some "under construction" ones in the interim. Typos will be fixed.
Understand guys, that this is a work in progress... Those who have written their own websites know that its a fair bit of work making it all come together so that it looks respectable on different systems.
Hi Paul,
Here a few more tips that may help you today and down the road:
You can optimize your site for much higher natural (organic) search listing results. For one, change the titles of your pages to include keywords such as photography, photographs, Large Format, etc. Be sure to use keywords in the text of each of your pages, and repeat them (but not to often). Put keywords in your URLs.
Frames create problems. For instance, they snarl search engine indexing (still), and can create long load times for the many users that block them, and some that don't. Right click blocking is futile as well. If you put conent or code online, it is there for anyone with the will to grab (not condoning this in any way), so no need to create potential site problems in doing so.
Hope this is helpful.
Paul,
I should have said more clearly... in general I liked your site and I really like the photo you are featuring.
THERE ARE NO FRAMES ON THIS SITE!!! Randall, I understand what you are saying - I haven't tackled any of the "meta" cleanup yet at all. I could also benefit probably from CSS too, but I'm too lazy to learn that right now. Once the content structure is finalized then I will go back and clean up the code. I don't use a generator - I write this stuff by hand.
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