Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

FM Forum Rules
Wedding Resource List
  

FM Forums | Wedding Photographer | Join Upload & Sell

1
       2       end
  

Archive 2015 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?

  
 
rondphoto
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


I just released a new website design and am debating having a portfolio section. I am thinking of doing a wedding port, engagement port and a personal port.

I've always been up in the air about portfolio sections. They give me a chance to showcase signiture images....but I also don't want to be showing the same images that are in my blog. AND...I don't want to repeat some of the rotating images I have on my landing page.

I'm also a believer that my wedding business should be limited to just that...but I think showing personal film work and portraiture that I do may help me find common ground with clients/potential clients.

Thoughts?

If you think the answer is site-specific, you can check out my site here: http://www.rondillonphotography.com/



Jan 15, 2015 at 01:17 AM
Nikon_14
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Having a portrait portfolio along w/ a wedding website makes sense to me, because the 2 fields are so closely related.

Making a blog post out of a personal interest (cultural event, outdoorsy stuff or a sports event)- maybe that makes sense. But IMHO, devoting an entire personal interest port gallery doesn't add, so it subtracts.

YMMV- I won't be a hater if you disagree.



Jan 15, 2015 at 07:06 AM
ricardovaste
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Whatever you do, there needs to be a reason for your business, your work, your brand.

You can do one or the other, or a combination of many things, and different people obviously do. Some will just copy or guess their way through it, which is fine I guess, but there is no harm in thinking about what your website is for your business in particular.

A couple of examples:

(1) Someone who blogs extensively, writes a lot, and posts a lot of images in every blog post. They may be hooking people in with the story they have to tell and show and for them this may work best as a blog. So much so, that seeing a separate portfolio is redundant (maybe even detrimental).

(2) The long established pro with 20-30 years experience. They may have a lot of big names that speak of them. Their reputation is very high. 'Everyone' knows about them. A portfolio demonstrating their work may be the quickest and easiest way. Assuming they even need a portfolio at all.

As for your mini dilemma of showing your personal work. Just think about the above, if this is going to add value to what you offer and make people contact you.

Good luck.

p.s. lol at us using the same quote



Jan 15, 2015 at 07:26 AM
D. Diggler
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Where's the option for a wedding portfolio and no blog?


Jan 15, 2015 at 07:39 AM
Mark_L
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


No idea why anyone would want just a blog, that puts 100% of your first impression your last wedding. I'd love to have no blog at all but I think it is good to show you are working and active. I'll never understand when people post 60 images from one wedding on them though.

I have personal work in an area of my site since it shows a bit more about me since I’m not constrained to weddings. I have booked because of my work shown there.



Jan 15, 2015 at 07:50 AM
Nikon_14
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Mark_L wrote

I have personal work in an area of my site since it shows a bit more about me since I’m not constrained to weddings. I have booked because of my work shown there.



I mean this seriously, not as an insult- this is an insightful comment. Could you elaborate? PM me if that works better for you.



Jan 15, 2015 at 08:13 AM
sherijohnson
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


I think it makes sense for the same images in the portfolio to also be on the blog, what if they only land on one or the other? You want to show your best work on both.


Jan 15, 2015 at 08:44 AM
canerino
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Sure. Why not highlight your best work that clients can access in a single click?

I just viewed your website. I have a question...do you shoot film?



Jan 15, 2015 at 08:47 AM
ricardovaste
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


sherijohnson wrote:
I think it makes sense for the same images in the portfolio to also be on the blog, what if they only land on one or the other? You want to show your best work on both.


Just to add to this: I have one image on my site which is on my homepage slideshow, my portfolio, and then also an additional page in the main menu.

Others photographers say "I'm not sure about that one, it's more of a photographers photo".

Yet my clients repeatedly and specifically mention it. They talk about it and tell me why they like it and relate it to their own lives. It works. It says a lot about what I do and why they should choose me.

So I wouldn't assume seeing the same image is necessarily bad. Unless you're just starting and only have a handful of weddings to choose from, enforcing a message can be a good thing.

Unless they hate the photo



Jan 15, 2015 at 08:56 AM
carriedaway
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


I keep personal work/anything non-related to weddings on my blog (not that I keep up with my blog, though). I only want to shoot weddings and engagements, so that's what I showcase. I only do family shoots for past wedding clients, so I put that on my blog so it's in the back of their head in the future when they have babies.


Jan 15, 2015 at 09:48 AM
fabiano
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


I just have a blog, and i blog only a few of my weddings, mainly the ones i like the images or the people in it. I think is enough for people to get a grasp of what i do. I live in a somewhat small town (150.000), and my goal is to shoot one wedding a month, maybe two. I help my wife in our second job doing decoration of birthdays parties (like first birthday, baby shower, things like that). Her goal is to make one or two events per month. Sometimes we have back to back events followed by a slow month, but so far so good. We share agendas so we take what we can get done. How about that for deviating from the point in question? 😁


Jan 15, 2015 at 10:13 AM
BSPhotog
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Interesting discussion. I am doing an update to my website over the next month or two (new WP theme, some reorganizing) and I was thinking about a landing page with navigation for my subsections (i.e. - wedding, engagement, family, etc.). I am not a fan of portfolio and blog most of the time as I feel that the navigation gets muddy and users get lost. I prefer to have it all in one place so that people don't wander into one and not see the other.

I may not even do that, though. I really prefer to have clients look at full sets of weddings (30-60 images) to see a narrative. This gives them a better idea of what to expect from me and how I work.



Jan 15, 2015 at 10:52 AM
rondphoto
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?



canerino wrote:
Sure. Why not highlight your best work that clients can access in a single click?

I just viewed your website. I have a question...do you shoot film?


Yes. Only medium format tHese days though. Also not exclusively or at every wedding. Are you referring to my logo?



Jan 15, 2015 at 11:09 AM
canerino
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


I was. I thought it was a good logo for a film shooter to say 'i shoot film at my weddings' without having to say 'i shoot film at my weddings'.


Jan 15, 2015 at 11:40 AM
fstopperdown
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Your strength is obviously your beautiful images.

Why bury them in a blog?

If I were shopping for a wedding/engagement I want to see a portfolio including options for recent weddings/enagements.

The blog has way too many images.

The blog could fill the recent highlights and personal stuff.

Looks kinda bassackwards and confusing.




Jan 15, 2015 at 12:21 PM
rondphoto
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?




fstopperdown wrote:
Your strength is obviously your beautiful images.

Why bury them in a blog?

If I were shopping for a wedding/engagement I want to see a portfolio including options for recent weddings/enagements.

The blog has way too many images.

The blog could fill the recent highlights and personal stuff.

Looks kinda bassackwards and confusing.



Was that directed at me or were you speaking in general? I'm not insulted just curious hahaha



Jan 15, 2015 at 12:28 PM
IrishDino
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


I only blog with no "best of" section. It's a more honest representation of my work. And I don't find out of context photos to be that worthwhile (IMO).

If you can't make up your mind to contact me after going through a few blog posts, then you're not my client.



Jan 15, 2015 at 12:32 PM
Mark_L
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Nikon_14 wrote:
I mean this seriously, not as an insult- this is an insightful comment. Could you elaborate? PM me if that works better for you.


Sure but won't post my site because this forum is public and my clients tend to be quite private.

For personal work I take pictures of small things that catch my eye day-to-day and street photography - just generally the things I notice and am drawn to enough to photograph and keep.

What I realised that people that viewed it either didn’t get it at all or raved about it and the people that liked it were the types of people I got on with best because I could take a picture of *anything* with no constraints everything there was 100% me. I decided to have other people who knew me well edit down all this and the ones chosen were the ones where they reacted ‘omg that picture is so you’. Then I put it in a personal work part of my wedding website because the paid wedding work couldn’t show what I wanted to or represent who I was enough. I should also stress that my website’s blog is mostly my thoughts about creativity, what makes it hard, what I like about it and slightly philosophical in that sense so this work sits alongside that. I think these things connect with people because I regularly hear people mention that over the actual wedding pictures and often they are the ones I get on with straight away.

Things I should point out:
I think photography is about sharing the world from my point of view. I am big advocate of personal work and have banged on about wedding photogs rarely doing any personal work. If others can totally express themselves through their paid weddings work though more power to them - I can’t. I buy into the fashion world’s way of working where your personal work is vital and your marketing to get paying work.

I am not full time - I can take bigger risks/take less weddings.

I’ll leave you with this from here: http://jeremycowart.com/2014/07/the-meeting/. It is odd why some people decide to hire you when what you show them is unrelated to what they will pay you for.

He said “This is Jeremy Cowart. He’s an idea guy. He thinks like an art director and he’s not just another photographer with pretty images. I want to work with him.” My nice images are just nice images. But my mind, my heart and my ideas are another force all together that are infinitely more powerful than a pretty portfolio. That line of thinking changed everything for me.



Jan 15, 2015 at 01:37 PM
rondphoto
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


canerino wrote:
I was. I thought it was a good logo for a film shooter to say 'i shoot film at my weddings' without having to say 'i shoot film at my weddings'.


Haha..thanks. I had a really great logo...then a photographer with a similar name to myself did a rebrand and basically released the same logo as me. Instead of fight about it I did another rebrand and came up with the logo you see. I wanted something that said "photos" without using a camera or aperture blades. I wanted something that was very pop-art that I could use with or without my name and I came up with the 35mm film roll.



Jan 15, 2015 at 01:43 PM
Nikon_14
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Do you have a portfolio section on your website?


Mark_L wrote:
Sure but won't post my site because this forum is public and my clients tend to be quite private.

For personal work I take pictures of small things that catch my eye day-to-day and street photography - just generally the things I notice and am drawn to enough to photograph and keep.

What I realised that people that viewed it either didn’t get it at all or raved about it and the people that liked it were the types of people I got on with best because I could take a picture of *anything* with no constraints everything there was 100% me.
...Show more


That's interesting... hadn't considered that angle.



Jan 15, 2015 at 02:42 PM
1
       2       end




FM Forums | Wedding Photographer | Join Upload & Sell

1
       2       end
    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.