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Author Topic: New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com  (Read 8962 times)

adamcbaca

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New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com
« on: May 23, 2008, 12:39:59 pm »

Hi,

This is my first time to post here (or on any forum really) but I just completed my first website and would genuinely appreciate some constructive criticism on both the site and my photography in general.  If you don't mind taking a few minutes to look it over that would be great.

Thanks.


www.bacacowphoto.com
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Colorwave

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New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2008, 04:24:32 pm »

Welcome to the LL forums.  You did a very nice job with the website.  It is clean, simple and straightforward to navigate, with the photos taking center stage nicely.   The reflections in the thumbnails are not too strong or distracting.  Did you build the site yourself?  If so, what software did you use?
-Ron H.
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-Ron H.
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adamcbaca

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« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2008, 06:11:25 pm »

Thanks for your kind words.  I used iWeb '08 for the site design, and slideshow pro via lightroom for the pictures.

--AB
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Bill Caulfeild-Browne

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New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2008, 08:02:15 pm »

Quote
Hi,

This is my first time to post here (or on any forum really) but I just completed my first website and would genuinely appreciate some constructive criticism on both the site and my photography in general.  If you don't mind taking a few minutes to look it over that would be great.

Thanks.
www.bacacowphoto.com
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=197533\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


You have some very nice work - I particularly like your style of a small part of a subject rising from its surroundings - the Canada Goose in the field, the swan in the snow and the tree from the fog, for example.

I enjoyed your site and will revisit.

Bill
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David Sutton

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New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2008, 02:32:42 am »

Oh this is really nicely done. Looking at your site on my laptop, everything loads easily, is fairly self explanatory, the colours are very good, and the photographs have style and I too will definitely revisit. Cheers, David
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Chris_T

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New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2008, 08:08:20 am »

Quote
Hi,

This is my first time to post here (or on any forum really) but I just completed my first website and would genuinely appreciate some constructive criticism on both the site and my photography in general.  If you don't mind taking a few minutes to look it over that would be great.

Thanks.
www.bacacowphoto.com
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Your gear list on the About Me page is positioned so prominently that it gives viewers an impression that you are more about gears. Are you?

The gallery pages load so slowly that I can't spend much time with them.

The enlarged images in a gallery are positioned so snuggly against their borders (i.e. header, bottom thumbnails, etc.) that they have no breathing room at all. Do you mat your prints without any borders?

The landscape oriented images are much larger than the portrait oriented ones.

The row of thumbnails appears to be duplicated three times. The bottom two are fuzzy and distracting, take up real estate, and perhaps add to loading time.

For more comments on web galleries, check out:

[a href=\"http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13890]http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=13890[/url]
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adamcbaca

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« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2008, 07:26:02 pm »

Chris_T,

Thanks for your constructive criticism.  I certainly hope I'm not more about gear than photography and I sure don't want a page on my site to suggest otherwise.  I'll look into trying to rearrange that page.  

As to the three rows of thumbnails and the slow load times, I'm wondering what the setup of your computer is.  I say this only because I'm having difficulty recreating either of those issues and would very much like to make sure I understand why it is happening so others don't run into the same troubles.

Again, thanks for your help.

--AB
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David Sutton

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« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2008, 02:16:20 am »

Hi again Adam. In general I don't like flash based websites, but curiosity overcame me. From the moment I clicked on your "wildlife" button the 19 or so images finished loading in an average of 12 seconds, and were mostly instantaneously available form then on. Compare this to a non flash based site, where on my connection it averages 2 to 5 seconds per image.
Sometimes it's helpful if people can say where they are coming from. I am happy with a web site if it doesn't make working it an intelligence test, if it has colour schemes I can see on a laptop (e.g. no purple buttons on blue backgrounds) and loads quickly. Your site fits the bill.
Your "equipment" section is way down next to "contact", and you don't list much. I think Chris T's comments about this are, um, odd. But you get that. The only thought I had about this section of your site when first reading it was that the "about me" page is written in the third person. If I were feeling picky I'd say it should read "About Adam". But I'm not in a picky mood this year. Cheers, David
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Chris_T

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« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2008, 12:37:32 pm »

Quote
Chris_T,

Thanks for your constructive criticism.  I certainly hope I'm not more about gear than photography and I sure don't want a page on my site to suggest otherwise.  I'll look into trying to rearrange that page. 

As to the three rows of thumbnails and the slow load times, I'm wondering what the setup of your computer is.  I say this only because I'm having difficulty recreating either of those issues and would very much like to make sure I understand why it is happening so others don't run into the same troubles.

Again, thanks for your help.

--AB
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=197784\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'm running WinXP and IE6 on a 21" CRT. There are actually two, not three, thumbail rows. The top one seems normal, the bottom one is right underneath it and seems to be an extact but faded (muted) copy. Never seen anything like that before. Right clicking on the thumbnail suggests "Adobe Flash Player 9".
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Chris_T

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« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2008, 12:47:09 pm »

Quote
Your "equipment" section is way down next to "contact", and you don't list much. I think Chris T's comments about this are, um, odd. But you get that. The only thought I had about this section of your site when first reading it was that the "about me" page is written in the third person. If I were feeling picky I'd say it should read "About Adam". But I'm not in a picky mood this year. Cheers, David
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=197829\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Not sure if we are talking about the same page. On the About Me page, a rather large image is at the top, and an almost equal size gear list is to its right. The text starts below them. Both the gear list (box, not number) size and its placement lead me to calling it prominent. Why do you think my comments are "odd"?

I also dislike statements written (by the first person) in third person. But many such statements are written that way. Never figured out why. Perhaps it is more artsy?
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Chris_T

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« Reply #10 on: May 25, 2008, 12:50:51 pm »

Quote
Hi again Adam. In general I don't like flash based websites, but curiosity overcame me. From the moment I clicked on your "wildlife" button the 19 or so images finished loading in an average of 12 seconds, and were mostly instantaneously available form then on. Compare this to a non flash based site, where on my connection it averages 2 to 5 seconds per image.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I also dislike flash for its slow loading speed, and for needing a plugin. See my comments here:

[a href=\"http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24821]http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=24821[/url]
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AndyS

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« Reply #11 on: May 25, 2008, 03:38:57 pm »

Hi Adam,

I really like the style of the front page of your site, and the navigation is simple and easy to understand.

I'm not a great fan of flash based galleries, but the ones you are using here look ok, and you have some great pictures.

I do find the 'about me' page a bit odd being written in the 3rd person. I know it's a small thing, but it seems a bit out of tune with the rest of the site, particularly with the link saying 'about me' (and not 'about adam').

What will the ultimate purpose of your site be? As a 'here are my pictures site' it's great, but if you wanted to use it to eventually generate sales it would need some tuning.

Cheers,
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adamcbaca

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« Reply #12 on: May 25, 2008, 11:02:59 pm »

Quote
Hi Adam,

I really like the style of the front page of your site, and the navigation is simple and easy to understand.

I'm not a great fan of flash based galleries, but the ones you are using here look ok, and you have some great pictures.

I do find the 'about me' page a bit odd being written in the 3rd person. I know it's a small thing, but it seems a bit out of tune with the rest of the site, particularly with the link saying 'about me' (and not 'about adam').

What will the ultimate purpose of your site be? As a 'here are my pictures site' it's great, but if you wanted to use it to eventually generate sales it would need some tuning.

Cheers,
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=197907\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Adam hadn't really thought about the use of the third person but completely understands.  Seriously though, what happened was I felt funny about writing about myself so I asked my wife to write the paragraphs about me.  Anyway, I completely agree with you guys and will either make it clear that my wife was the one writing or just change it to the first person.  Any thoughts on that one?  

As for the purpose of my site, that's something I've really been thinking about the last few days.  I want to use it as an outlet to show people my pictures but in time I'd like to be able to use it to try and generate some sales.  Do you have some advice on how I might be able to meld the current version with one fit for commercial purposes?  I really appreciate your feedback and help.

--AB
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LoisWakeman

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New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com
« Reply #13 on: May 28, 2008, 12:41:08 pm »

Journalistic practice is to add a few direct (possibly invented) quotes in third-person pieces, to leaven the inherent deadliness of indirect speech. Personally, I think first-person narrative is more engaging, especially on the web.

To decide how to focus your site, I have a couple of articles that might be helpful:

Hints for Arts web sites

Hints for collecting and organising the information
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jjj

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« Reply #14 on: May 28, 2008, 01:05:08 pm »

Structurally I think it works well, but as the structure is virtually identical to my updated [but not as yet uploaded] site and quite similar to my old one, I am biased.  

Some very nice shots on site and they load fast enough, but my niggle, as with all to many photographers sites is that the typography is somewhat weak and lets the site down. This is a common problem if you do not use image based text when doing web design as browsers and OSs render type somewhat variably.

A smaller point is that when you scroll down in Opera a white bar appears at bottom, but not in Safari or Firefox [on a Mac]. Not even sure why the pages even needs to scroll as page is completely visible on monitor.


Chris - Complaining about installing a Flash plugin is ridiculous, as if you want to view the web, you are limiting yourself without it as Flash is so ubiquitous.  Hence the very high installed user base. And Flash isn't slow, it's how it may be implemented that may be slow, there is a difference, HTML or CSS can also be slow if there's a lots of big images. Used correctly it can be faster than HTML.
And Flash is also very handy if you are concerned about getting typography right and the site looking the same in all browsers, which is certainly still an issue with CSS.
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Tradition is the Backbone of the Spinele

LoisWakeman

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New Website -- www.bacacowphoto.com
« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2008, 06:01:04 am »

Quote
the typography is somewhat weak and lets the site down. This is a common problem if you do not use image based text when doing web design as browsers and OSs render type somewhat variably [a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=198566\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
You are right of course: but using some intelligence when selecting typefaces and fallback alternatives in CSS will result in a much more usable, accessible and SE friendly web site for the vast majority of users, than resorting to images as text - so last century, dahling  
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