Just a little background, I don't rely on photography to pay the bills. I work for a small family owned company that specializes in anything water related. Most pump work, irrigation, filtration, etc. etc. We are in the middle of great farmland with many berry farms and vineyards. I do the landscape irrigation design and such. But I enjoy photography and would like to use it to supplement my income. Having a wife who doesn't work cause she's in school and 4 kids is hard on one income.
I live in a small town with one high school with a graduating class of about 50-70 each year. We have one small store, 2 gas stations, and like 5 churches in our town.
With that being said, I am mainly interested in local work doing senior pictures and such. I am confident enough to do weddings, just don't have interest in doing big production ones. I like the smaller intimate ones.
So please take a look and let me know what you think. Good, bad, or indifferent I love to hear.
The black and white image of the woman in the spotty dress isn't your best image - I would move it about or replace it completely, at least so it isn't the first impression when opening the gallery.
There is a little bit too much blank space underneath the text on the opening page. This will vary depending on what text size people have set in their browsers, but overall not many will have it set to massive.
Aidan Dunbar wrote:
The black and white image of the woman in the spotty dress isn't your best image - I would move it about or replace it completely, at least so it isn't the first impression when opening the gallery.
There is a little bit too much blank space underneath the text on the opening page. This will vary depending on what text size people have set in their browsers, but overall not many will have it set to massive.
Overall though it looks pretty good.
Thank you for the input.
Several people have suggested moving that photo so I may do so. Even if I look past the fact I'm married to the subject I still really like that photo.
I'm thinking of changing the updates page into a small FAQ and just making a small window of very recent updates on the main page to fill the gap. We'll see.
I tend to agree with Aidan (sorry ) regarding the image. Images taken from above looking down always have a distorted effect which is unflattering, IMHO, to the subject. Other than that, the site looks fine. Nice image of the tulips.
JCurtis nailed it...seems a tad dis-organized, agree with multi-galleries, each with more photos; more B & W. Not sure what you are selling - If the message you are conveying is senior portraits, or weddings, then have a section for them too. If you sell Sr Port. 'packages', show an example of one. Agree with dropping the non relevant images like landscape.
I can really only echo what has only been said, but I will say it anyway.
From a design aspect, it's perfectly fine. Easy navigation, clean design. Good work there.
Agree about the galleries. Need to be broken up and only include what needs to be included. In other words, if you want to focus on weddings, portraits only include those. Landscapes don't help you sell wedding packages.
Aidan Dunbar wrote:
The black and white image of the woman in the spotty dress isn't your best image - I would move it about or replace it completely, at least so it isn't the first impression when opening the gallery.
I have to agree... Open your gallery on a strong photo!
You have some great shots! Congrats!!
Thank you all for the input. Just wanted to drop in and say I'm not ignoring the suggestions but working on them slowly.
My reasoning for having the landscape shots is that those seem to be the ones that get peoples attention. I personally like some of the portraits best but people always pause and comment on the landscape ones. Kind of an attention getter.
While I'd like to focus on portraits I am open to whatever potential clients would like. Maybe I'll just minimize the landscapes to one or two. I still need to stare at them some and kind of feel what works out I guess.
I've pretty much decided the "update" page will be turning into a FAQ that is pretty short and to the point. I just need to figure out what to have in there and try to keep it from getting long winded.
I will also change the order of the photo's in my gallery. Guess I need to figure out which I like better than the BW of my wife.
Keep in mind I am basically just starting out. I am not an established photographer yet but hope to be someday. I don't have a huge portfolio of great shots but I think the ones I have chosen are better than average.
I am also the type of person who is always afraid I am asking too much money. I have received several comments that my pricing is a bit on the low side. I actually debated on pricing for a long time and as a new photographer to the game I haven't really figured out what my time is worth. Something I am sure I will be working out over time. I definatly want to make anything I do worth my time, don't want to be the guy undercutting others, just don't know what to charge just yet.
Twistedimg wrote:
Thank you all for the input. Just wanted to drop in and say I'm not ignoring the suggestions but working on them slowly.
My reasoning for having the landscape shots is that those seem to be the ones that get peoples attention. I personally like some of the portraits best but people always pause and comment on the landscape ones. Kind of an attention getter.
While I'd like to focus on portraits I am open to whatever potential clients would like. Maybe I'll just minimize the landscapes to one or two. I still need to stare at them some and kind of feel what works out I guess. ...Show more →
As I said above....if you want to do some landscape work and sell some fine art landscape shots than including them in your portfolio/website is perfectly fine. Just depends on what you want to shoot and focus on. Only show what you want to sell.
And it sounds like people like your landscapes a lot. Why not just stick to that?
david debalko wrote:
Page doesn't load for me, I'm on a Mac
I've had a few mac users tell me the same. I've also had several mac users tell me it loads fine. I know next to nothing about macs so I don't know what could be wrong but I'd love to figure it out.
) regarding the image. Images taken from above looking down always have a distorted effect which is unflattering, IMHO, to the subject. Other than that, the site looks fine. Nice image of the tulips.