My new web site: Critical Comments?
Ok, I had a local web designer do me up a web site. It has about 25 B&W large format images in the gallery/albums. What I would really like is for some other photographers to look at it and tell me if I'm going in the right direction. Any comments?
http://www.mikesfineartphotos.com
The third photo in 'Tumacacori' is excellent.
A couple of suggestions, if you don't mind... It takes four clicks to get to see one of your photographs: you have a splash page, then the about page, then the gallery index page, and only then a photograph. I'd suggest bringing the gallery page index page up closer so a visitor can get into your pictures faster, rather than making someone go through the about page. I often read the about page, in a photographer's site, but only after I know what they do.
Also, I may be unusual in using a small screen, but it's not possible for me to see a whole picture without scrolling down. There's a lot of vertical space given to the heading banner, that could be compressed easily without losing the look of it, and with the right-shifted layout you have, the "image gallery" header could be moved to the left of the images to buy you still more vertical space for the images if you think it's not already clear that you're in the gallery.
Also, on a smaller screen, the menu bar, because it is sitting so far to the right, wraps around to another line on the gallery pages, but not on other pages.
Hope these are helpful.
Just my two cents but the logo/identity doesn't seem to be in sync with the classic, carefully-crafted, fine-art images.... whereas the logo has a sort of retro 50s American Diner type of feeling...
Get rid of the splash page. There's no need for splash pages - its not doing anything constructive. Just start with the "About" page as your homepage.
When you're viewing a photo within a gallery and you click the back button of the browser, it sends you back to the about page. It would be better to go back to the gallery page to choose another gallery.
i think the dark gray background is a mistake. it makes both the shadows and the highlights look dingy, and it blends with the midtones, so gray areas just kind of bleed into the border. it's killing what i suspect are some nice looking images.
after designing a fair number of websites and multimedia presentations for photos, i've found that gray works for some images, black works for some, but white works for all (assuming they've been printed decently by traditional standards, to hold up in a white mat or with a white border).
Mike,
Your photography is good and I enjoyed viewing the images.
About the page design -
I agree with other posters here, the open splash page is not needed. I would just make the about page your index.html home page or make a new home page.
This comment is more about the general use of flash galleries. Photographers are using them and they look nice and polished. The problem is that the search engines see them as only one page, kind of like frame sets that have fallen out of favor for the same reason IMO. I think basic html coding is better if you want your work to be seen on the search engines in as many instances as possible. This is good if you want exposure for your work.
Mike, please don't get this wrong, but your photographs most definitely deserve a better designer. Much better desinger.
splash pages in general are just a nuissance (and tend to work against you when it comes to search engine rankings). in your particlular case, with a splash page with a picture of you, and with the next available page being your bio, the whole thing comes off as a vanity site rather than a serious artist's portfolio. if this is the intent, then it's fine, but if not then the structure is working against you.
also, i felt a little embarassed reading your statement. would you say that stuff, in that same tone, face to face with a stranger?
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