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07/25/2012 10:16:51 PM · #1
ok, so im still putting the finishing touches on my new site, this isn't live yet, my old one still is.

you can access the new one here.

//69.89.31.108/~ichaela8/site/index.html

please comment as you wish on any content.

i need some help getting the contact from to work, also on the "Folio" page there is something up with the code that inst displaying the "Couples" gallery properly, its should be a nice 3 column setup, maybe i need to move the portrait crops to the end. suggestions on how to fix it are appreciated.

anyway, rip it apart, i need to know its flaws.

07/25/2012 10:31:55 PM · #2
Small type on third paragraph about you. You left out a "to" when talking about showing images to the customer.
07/25/2012 10:35:36 PM · #3
fixed thanks.
07/25/2012 11:03:27 PM · #4
Contact Form:

//www.html-form-guide.com/contact-form/php-contact-form-tutorial.html

Lemme know if you need some help making it all work.

ETA: I like the site.

Message edited by author 2012-07-25 23:05:17.
07/25/2012 11:03:32 PM · #5
update your testimonials. They are currently in Latin. I assume from the template you used.
07/25/2012 11:24:47 PM · #6
I am not sure if would be good from a user experience perpective because when I open your website in 13.3 inch macbook pro with highest resolution the lightbox images are too big and I see partial images. I have to move screen up and down to see full image.

Overall site is neat and clean and very catchy!


Message edited by author 2012-07-25 23:25:13.
07/25/2012 11:37:19 PM · #7
Love the layout and the scheme. Nice logo and very easily navigable. Cons include a slow Gallery (viewed on IPad). Some of the gallery thumbnails seemed to be c lustered together tightly. Don't know if that is intentional. Also, why a miscellaneous gallery? Your services are clearly spelled out but your galleries don't match your services. The girl with the horse is clearly part of your individual portrait services and you have a usiness headshot in the individual gallery. I woul change the miscellaneous gallery to headsets and switch the images mentioned above respectively.

Overall I liked it, it was clean, didn't suffer from information overload, and was to the point.
07/26/2012 07:20:43 AM · #8
thanks for the replies.

yes it was from a template and im waiting on some testimonials to switch those out.

the light box images are only 875px long edge do you think that's is too large? that what the original template used.

i know the images are bunched in the gallery, that's an issue i need to work out, not sure what is messed up in the code to cause that. i mentioned earlier it might be the portrait images.

i'll consider moving the images around. at the moment I dont have many individuals to make a solid gallery from. so i through i'd create the impression of more by breaking it up. maybe I'll switch the the pics to head shots and put the horse images in the individuals as suggested.

how does the content look, do it get the pint across, does anything stand out as unprofessional or not clear? should i add pad any content so it doesn't seem so brief?

not sure how to speed up the content for the ipad. maybe its the javascript slowing this down? are you on wifi or cellular? it runs well at home on my pc, but here at the office this morning its slow, but we only have a shared 1.5mps T1 line. everything is slow here...

Message edited by author 2012-07-26 07:25:17.
07/26/2012 07:39:45 AM · #9
fwiw, my laptop screen resolution is 1366x768, which means i have to scroll to get to the meat & potatoes of your home page and your folio page.

i wouldn't worry about adding verbiage to pad the site; after all, you're selling images, not words. you might want to get someone to help you polish your verbiage, though, for grammar and phrasing. your basic ideas are there; you just might want to have them smoothed out a bit.

i'm accessing the site via wifi and it's fairly responsive. the galleries load quick enough and the image navigation doesn't give me any pause.

you might consider juicebox for your galleries. it will give you pretty much the same gallery presentation you saw a bigblackbag, and it has a wordpress plug-in. the free one has some limitations, the pro version is only $100.
07/26/2012 07:47:10 AM · #10
Originally posted by Skip:

fwiw, my laptop screen resolution is 1366x768, which means i have to scroll to get to the meat & potatoes of your home page and your folio page.


do you think that's an issue? should i try to tighten it up a bit? i dont think scrolling is bad, but one needs to know they have to scroll.

and yeah, im not a writer. as most people leaned here i know what i want to say but have trouble getting that point across.

Message edited by author 2012-07-26 07:48:41.
07/26/2012 09:25:30 AM · #11
First of all, the site looks great, and you made it look quite professional.
The text is thoughtful, short and to the point, and goes just far enough, this is a photo site essentially,
not an advertisement to write someone's memoirs...

I moved around the site I bit before I realized that you could click on the first three pics and change them. If its available, I would
consider using the technology where the image changes or the link gets bigger when you run your mouse cursor over it.

Also, this may just be a matter of style, but in the "What I Do" section you ask questions,
but each ends with an ellipse (...) instead of a question mark.
I would consider putting a (?) there or, changing the tone of the sentences from, for example

"are you looking for high quality pictures to update your portfolio?"

to "I provide High quality images for those updating their portfolios"

or change Engagement sessions "Did you just get engaged and want to capture the moment?"

to

I can provide high quality photographs as cherished and lasting as the special occasion you are celebrating"

anyway, just some thoughts, overall its quite good.

Message edited by author 2012-07-26 09:26:30.
07/26/2012 09:49:50 AM · #12
good thoughts, i used ellipses becuase i wanted to elude that there was more and to encourage folks to click through to find more.

thanks to Google analytics i know my old site suffered from not enough browsing time. people dont spend time looking around, they watch the first slideshow and either go to the contact page or leave.

im trying to draw people in and encourage them to spend time browsing the site and looking at the pictures. that why i chose this layout, create enough of a tease to draw them in and not give them reason to leave right away.

i also noticed that i need to link the categorizes under "what i do" to the albums so people can jump right there.

Message edited by author 2012-07-26 09:50:03.
07/26/2012 05:08:12 PM · #13
That's looking good Mike. I like that kind of blog-style design. The images do seem to load a bit slow on my Mac (safari) and seem to get a bit jumbled on an iPad.
07/26/2012 05:58:28 PM · #14
Looks really good.

Rather than worrying about who needs to scroll or not, I would focus on making it a liquid layout. That way it will be view-able no matter what resolution someone uses, even a smartphone.

One small bug is that the only way to close an image once you've opened it is by pressing escape. There is no close button to click on. A computer illiterate person might not know how to get out of there.
07/26/2012 06:05:33 PM · #15
Originally posted by mike_311:

also on the "Folio" page there is something up with the code that inst displaying the "Couples" gallery properly, its should be a nice 3 column setup, maybe i need to move the portrait crops to the end. suggestions on how to fix it are appreciated.


I had this same issue on my site. The fix is pretty simple.

Make all the images the same height and they will line up properly. Right now they are all 200 x 143 or 143 x 200. Either make the portraits smaller (143 x 102) or else the landscapes larger (280 x 200) Then they are all the same height 280 x 200 for landscape, 143 x 200 for portrait OR 200 x 143 for landscape and 102 x 143 for portrait.
07/26/2012 06:38:44 PM · #16
thanks, oh and to get out of the lightbox just click out, no need to push escape.
07/26/2012 06:53:10 PM · #17
No problem.

On Chrome browser I see no "out" button.
07/26/2012 07:08:12 PM · #18
Originally posted by jadin:

No problem.

On Chrome browser I see no "out" button.


no just click outside the image.
07/26/2012 07:17:21 PM · #19
Originally posted by mike_311:

no just click outside the image.


Ah! Okay that works. Well you might want to consider a close button for people like me then. ;D
07/26/2012 07:24:54 PM · #20
Originally posted by IAmEliKatz:

Contact Form:

//www.html-form-guide.com/contact-form/php-contact-form-tutorial.html

Lemme know if you need some help making it all work.

ETA: I like the site.


the site already has a contact form coded into it, i just cant get it to work. the buttons are dead, what do i code to them?
08/01/2012 02:03:13 PM · #21
im having another issue with my site, that i cant seem to get worked out, last bug hopefully.

anyone care to lend a hand? it contains a possible challenge entry so not posting the link. I'll send it to you pm if you care to have a look.

when my portfolio page loads, its tarts on the individual portfolio and i can switch to any other well enough, but when i choose individuals again the thumbnails wont load. if i reload the page i can see the individuals thumbnails but when i change the problem starts all over.

i can easily switch between all the other categories, just the individuals wont show up.

Message edited by author 2012-08-01 14:16:44.
08/01/2012 02:09:18 PM · #22
also the site loads well enough in Firefox, but is painfully slow in IE.

edit maybe its just my work pc, because it fires up lightning fast on my phone, which is wp7 and uses ie7, i believe.

but every browser still has the issue with the individuals portfolio not reloading the thumbnails.

Message edited by author 2012-08-01 14:15:07.
08/01/2012 03:45:10 PM · #23
If I'm looking at this correctly the website is using javascript or another client side script to hide or display a group of photos. So the entire webpage is being loaded, and then it only displays the category that is actually selected.

So you should check the code for the individual section, and make sure all of the labels names and IDs are set correctly. My guess would be you mistyped "individuals"* in one of the lines of code.

*or whatever you named the group
08/01/2012 03:48:43 PM · #24
Bingo.

Individuals

IndiviVIdual
08/01/2012 05:28:57 PM · #25
Thank you very much. This is why I dont code, for one I can't type.
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