Creating a new website

<p>I never realized how much work is involved in creating a website. For the past 6 weeks I have been gathering up over 60 years of photographs (many have beeen scanned from color slides) and placing them into different Lightroom catalogs to be set up into many galleries in my website. I had to re-name each one with a descriptive name. Then I had to write a biography about the over 80 years in photography, as I am 95 years old. The website has several sections including a blog section, where I will tell about the olden days in photography. If you want to see the finished website go to: <a href="http://www.arnoldkaplanphotography.com">www.arnoldkaplanphotography.com</a><br>

Let me know what you think about it. Thanks.<br>

Arnold John Kaplan, APSA-AFFIAP</p><div>[ATTACH=full]544047[/ATTACH]</div>

<p>I enjoyed viewing all of the galleries, but the Black and White gallery was most rewarding. I was pleasantly surprised with the two versions of the "Vatican Lady", the new version which you've posted here, and was happy to see the original. It's a beautiful image. It's a great looking website. Thank you for sharing.</p>

<p>Nicely done, Arnold. Well organized but simple and easy to navigate. A nice way to document a lifetime of dedication to your photography. I also enjoyed your blog and found it very instructive. I have bookmarked your site to re-visit for inspiration. Thanks for sharing your website and your photography.</p>

<p>Wow, great work. The history of photography all on one site :)<br>

I also bookmarked your website.</p>

 

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<p>I never realized how much work is involved in creating a website.</p>

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<p>You did well, and your site looks good overall. A few comments, which may lead to more work :-)</p>

<p>From my WinXP, Firefox, 21" crt and full screen window.</p>

<p>- For me, the design of a gallery is *the* most important part of a photo site. My following comments are for a few other galleries here. Some are applicable to yours as well.</p>

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<p>There is no image count for a gallery or portfolio, before and after entering one. Once in a gallery or portfolio, there are no thumbnails, and no way to skip forward or backward. Designing a gallery this way is like handing someone a book and expecting him to read from cover to cover sequentially, without knowing how many pages and unable to flip forward or backward. Yes, my ego wants everyone to view every image in my gallery sequentially. But that's not typically how a gallery visitor behaves.</p>

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<p>I will also add that:</p>

<p>- The thumbnails are on a separate sheet from an enlargement. After an enlargement is displayed, the thumbnails are grayed out. A viewer has to close an enlargement, select a different non sequential thumbnail to enlarge it.</p>

<p>- Once an image in a gallery is enlarged and displayed, the top navigation menu is grayed out. It takes an extra click to close the enlargement in order to use the menu.</p>

<p>- On an enlargement, to the left of the close button is a button that is always grayed out. What is it, and why is it there?</p>

<p>Lastly,</p>

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<p>Testing a site is an important and integral step before paying and launching. Yet it is often overlooked and seldom done extensively across different platforms, browsers, window sizes, etc.<br /> The tools/sites referenced here can be of great help:<br /> <br /> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=41252" target="_blank">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=41252</a></p>

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<p>Nice website. It's very well organized so I'll give it a A+ for information architecture. I think the galleries are nicely laid out and the enlargement pop-up works well also. This type of lightbox popup is very common in website design. It's a very convenient way of showing large images without exiting the main page, so a click to close is ok. And to answer Robert K:</p>

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<p>- On an enlargement, to the left of the close button is a button that is always grayed out. What is it, and why is it there?</p>

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<p>This is because the pop-up navigation allows for a full-screen view, however the image is probably sized to the max. This is a functionality for high-res images. Not the case here I presume.<br>

But overall great work with the site and beautiful images!</p>