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Author Topic: BlairBunting.com ver. 2 is up!!!!!!!!&  (Read 11105 times)

Joe Hardesty

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BlairBunting.com ver. 2 is up!!!!!!!!&
« on: October 07, 2003, 03:39:23 pm »

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To my fellow members, please remember the old adage - "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all" - I suppose on a site like this, where people invite critiques, we have to bend that rule to allow constructive criticism, BUT we don't need to go out of our way to be inept and rude - just my opinion, for what it's worth
No comment.
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David Mantripp

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« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2003, 10:14:02 am »

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but hey, I'm 21... no need to conquer the world of photography yet

well there you go then - you're still in with a good chance, and I'm a curmudgeonly old git with no chance at all  :)
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victoraberdeen

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BlairBunting.com ver. 2 is up!!!!!!!!&
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2003, 01:55:03 am »

Blair, you have a good idea, I found myself wanting a bit more content, photos. Also, why is everything straight? seems a bit old school. It is a good start, take a look at the links below I hope they inspire you even more.

Oh and I think every great master had a mentor, and they were surly not immune to the barbs of criticism.

Tim Olive studio

Andy Foulds

Be good to see a few more cool sites too.
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russell a

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« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2003, 09:40:15 am »

"Your" site is about the designer's interface and not about your goals for your photography.  One of my sons designs web sites and the first thing he does is to determine if and how the site fits with the business goals of the individual or institution..
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Blair Bunting

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« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2003, 06:40:06 pm »

Well I have spent a ton of time designing a site that would in a sense beat my old site, and after countless hours at the drawing board I am done!!!  The reason I chose to post it here is because you will notice it favors Canon a ton.  With that said, please enjoy the site and tell me what you think....

here is the link:

www.BlairBunting.com
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nvanallens

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BlairBunting.com ver. 2 is up!!!!!!!!&
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2003, 03:19:24 pm »

I really like the site, I found the interface a great deal of fun - not the same old boring navigation - the Canon was a bonus (owning a 1Ds myself) - I also enjoyed the images, and will visit again soon  

To my fellow members, please remember the old adage - "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all" - I suppose on a site like this, where people invite critiques, we have to bend that rule to allow constructive criticism, BUT we don't need to go out of our way to be inept and rude - just my opinion, for what it's worth
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AWeil

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« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2003, 04:13:46 pm »

Sorry, but I don't like the design at all. Overdone, overflashed and over here. Keep to the individual pictures - organize them in a meaningfull way and you are up there.
A.Weil
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Blair Bunting

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« Reply #7 on: October 08, 2003, 08:58:30 am »

I completely respect the opinion of those who have voiced theirs, though I may not have always cared for it.  The site, myself, I didn't care for too much, but I thought it was something dissimilar from most, and my web designer wanted to do it really badly.  As for the remarks on the pictures, those hit home a little, but hey, I'm 21... no need to conquer the world of photography yet  ::
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nvanallens

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BlairBunting.com ver. 2 is up!!!!!!!!&
« Reply #8 on: October 08, 2003, 11:39:58 am »

Keep shooting, Blair.  You obviously have a lot of energy.  As for the site, I went back again to see whether I agreed with the old pros about the Flash basis, and again came away energized.  I found it very speedy, easy (and intuitive) to use - especially if you had visited Canon's similar site for the 10D - and most importantly fun.  It left me with a good feeling, which I then associated with you - surely a good thing.  Most importantly of all, when you look at the great artists, they had only one thing in common - they didn't give a flying Philadelphia f*ck about what other people thought about them or their art.  Please never forget that.  You can ask other people for technical advice about how to improve aspects of your images, but the core of the vision is your own.  And good for you for reaching out to forum members for advice and encouragement - there is undoubtedly a great deal of experience and wisdom here.  My earlier post was a little combative, but I give no quarter and ask for none.  I generally don't last long on these forums (fora?), as I have zero tolerance for posts that are rude or disrespectful, and I generally jump on it.  There are so many ways to provide productive and encouraging advice and criticism.
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Joe Hardesty

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« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2003, 12:18:29 pm »

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...but hey, I'm 21... no need to conquer the world of photography yet  ::
Hi Blair,

As you may recall, I responded with comments about your site in another forum. But now that I know you are only 21 years old, I think some additional comments are in order.

In viewing a web site, age does matter, and just for the record, I am 56. I often sit side-by-side with a young designer about your age and am constantly amazed at our unique tastes when viewing web sites. Needless to say, we do not agree on a lot of things.

Having said that, it is important for you to consider your audience above the comments you may get here and in other forums. If your visitors and prospective clients are in the 20-30 age group, your site design may be perfect.

On the other hand, if you are going to use the site to demonstrate your work to established stock agencies or publishers, then it is most likely "over the top" and needs to be throttled back in line with previous comments.

The bottom line: keep YOUR customers and clients in mind first. Those are the people you have to please and impress.
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Marshal

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BlairBunting.com ver. 2 is up!!!!!!!!&
« Reply #10 on: October 08, 2003, 05:15:11 pm »

Blair:

You have some good photos and I'm sure you had a fun time designing the website with all the Flash effects, etc.

But at the same time, it was difficult, a chore actually to navigate through all that. An unnecessary hassle. There's an old saying that "less is more" and having to bushwhack my way through fancy, flashy stuff to see the photos takes the joy out of it for the viewer, the visitor.  

Nice photos; just don't make us jump through hoops to see them.
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Rowat

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« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2003, 06:47:34 pm »

I will agree with DRM vis-a-vis the need for frank, honest assesment. If you ask for it here, you will get it. Some of it will be good, some will make you smart a little, but, oh well.

As long as we are talking about web sites, let me point toward a few invaluable (I feel) resources.

For Web structure and presentation in general, two excellent books are:

Designing with Web Standards - Jeffrey Zeldman
http://www.amazon.com/exec....ot;>
Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide - Eric A. Meyer
http://www.amazon.com/exec....ot;>

For inspiring photo sites from an interesting design (not necessarily functional) point of view, check out the links off www.linkdup.com:
http://www.linkdup.com/v1/pages/Creative_Design/Photography/
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David Mantripp

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« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2003, 05:32:55 am »

Well whilst we're at it...

I recommend "The Art & Science of web site design" by Jeffrey Veen.  Short, no free CD, but very readable and very good. You might also take a look at the essays on the Adaptive Path web site.  These people really know how to build web sites - not just corporate ones either.



Adaptive Path publications
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victoraberdeen

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« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2003, 10:24:56 pm »

A good web site serves the purpose of it's owner, from the presentation of a portfolio or enabling a commercial decision. They all have purpose, it is unusual to find a website that hold the browsers attention when it is lacking in purpose. For a commercial web site the 80/20 rule holds true, that the design is only 20% of the work. The 80% of the effort has gone into understanding and defining the purpose of the web site. When most browsers spend less than a minute on a web site and get no further than the home page you have a tremendous challenge. Even the free content of a web site has to be 'sold' or the browser passes on to the next web site until they find one that engages their attention. This is why the home page should follow the rule – less is more – and be clear what the site has to offer.

There is no right way, but many, many wrong ways. The judge is in your site statistics.
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David Mantripp

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« Reply #14 on: October 07, 2003, 05:58:06 am »

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will notice it favors Canon a ton

so ?

Well ok, here's my comments:  sites based on Flash are a complete turn-off.  Why ? Well, photo sites by nature are already bandwidth heavy, and Flash just slows it down. Flash also usually degrades usability as expected browser controls and bookmarking don't work. So it is very difficult for, say, a potential client to email a link to a colleague for comment / review before purchase. All this effort for 24(?) pictures ?

Having said that it's a nice piece of Flash if you like that sort of thing, and a great ad for Canon.

The content - well there's a lot of stock photography around. This seems to be competently shot but it isn't terribly interesting of itself.

Just my opinion, for what it's worth.
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David Mantripp

David Mantripp

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« Reply #15 on: October 08, 2003, 04:58:49 am »

Well, if you put yourself on a public pedestsal (as indeed I do) you invite criticism. Whilst my comments may not have been effusive with praise, I don't really see much point in mutual back-slapping. I prefer to make (and to receive) honest comments.  Personally I get very bored, very quickly, when people heap what I know to be undeserved praise on me.

My main point, on usability, is pretty much industry-standard. I have extensive professional experience in this area and usually charge a lot of money for it.  I repeat - it is extremely counterproductive to use an opaque medium such as Flash to construct a "shop window" on the web. This is an extremely widespread opinion - even Macromedia realised this, belatedly.  This was well-meaning advice from one who has been there and made all the mistakes (I was using Flash before it was called Flash....).

On the photography, well I've seen much harsher comments in photo magazines (European ones, not sycophantic US wastebasket fodder). Probably my comments were aggravated by the annoying interface, but see above.

And for the rest, well if you want to discuss cameras rather than photography, I suggest DPReview - you'll never run out of people happy to discuss what colour black their D1s is and other fascinating topics.
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David Mantripp

David Mantripp

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« Reply #16 on: October 08, 2003, 04:57:12 pm »

nvanallens -
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I generally don't last long on these forums (fora?), as I have zero tolerance for posts that are rude or disrespectful, and I generally jump on it

Really ? I didn't realise there were that many rude or disrespectful posts here. Sure you don't mean dpreview ? Anyway, it's great to know you're around to jump on us, er, me. Heavens knows we need discipline (is there an emoticon which indicates I'm adopting a John Cleese / stuck-up Brit / Basil Fawlty posture ?)

Perhaps I'm too terse, perhaps I should use many more emoticons, but personally I only bother contributing if I've got a point to make.  The core of my point, if you forget my personal opinion about Blair's photographs, which I'm the first to admit count for nothing, is that he's making an awful amount of effort to publicise Canon rather than himelf. Personally I pay money to Canon rather than the other way around, and I don't tend to feel the need to give them free publicity.

As for the camera navigation, yes, agreed, it is fun - the first time. But an editor in a hurry who is looking for stock photography (by the way that isn't meant to be derogatory, and from what I can see Blair's images are comfortably on the level of top commercial stock sites such as PhotoDisc) is going to find it irritating to have to click 22 times to get back to the image he wants, and even more irritated that he can't bookmark it. He'll go elsewhere. I've been in that position many times.

So, nvanallens, you may be a much nicer person than me, but I don't think you do Blair much of a service by just being nice. Ok, he'll like you more than me, but that wasn't the point.

Finally (and this is even more tongue in cheek), if I stick a floating layer with a Canon 1Ds over my web site, will it make the photos better ? I'll try anything, I'm desperate enough...

oh, and even more finally, I've got a bad cold and I've had a g*dawful day at the office, so I'm probably taking it out on everybody. I'm sorry.
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David Mantripp

victoraberdeen

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« Reply #17 on: October 12, 2003, 01:33:14 am »

Web Page Design for Designers
Joe Gillespie, a graphic designer based in London, UK, started this site in August 1996 with the intention of helping other graphic designers make the transition from print to Web page design. In the first year, it had almost a quarter of a million visits and is now recommended or required reading in many colleges, universities, government departments and businesses throughout the world. It is aimed at people already involved with design and typography for conventional print and want to explore the possibilities of the Web. They are probably already using page layout tools like QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Freehand and Illustrator and have discovered that designing web pages is something quite different.

http://www.wpdfd.com/

Review from TuDogs - cool software review site
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