Alternatives to bigblackbag (web templates for photographers)

[ekovisions]

Hi All,

 

After too many hours sitting in front of my computer trying to write my website

(using iview for galleries), I've decided that some of the pre-made hosting

templates may be the way to go. I've checked out bigblackbag.com, which I

really like--except the photos on their templates are pretty small. Does

anybody have any other recommendations for easy-to-use template/hosting sites?

I need gallery space for 200+ photos and my budget is limited to about $300.

I'd also like to include a blog, ordering capabilities, and a few other pages of

links, FAQ, etc. Thoughts?

 

Thanks,

Kelly

[eugene_scherba]

<p>I looked at the BigBlackBag templates, and found them to be

pretty much the steamiest pile of web excrement I have seen so far.

They are way overdesigned and sometimes plain gaudy, which is

unacceptable for a serous artist.</p>

 

<p>This was just a complaint about the design. I cannot name any

specific solutions to your question; and in fact have only two

recommendations: either increase your budget and hire a professional

web designer with a decent portfolio or learn to code yourself. HTML

is really easy. For inspiration, look at these sites: <a

href="http://www.vanderoer.com/">site 1</a>, <a

href="http://homepage.mac.com/szetsungleong/">site 2</a>, <a

href="http://www.davidmaisel.com/">site 3</a>, <a

href="http://www.adambbell.com/">site 4</a>, <a

href="http://alainastruc.com/">site 5</a>, <a

href="http://www.arunkuplas.com/">site 6</a>.</p>

[trunfio]

well, personally i don't like any of those sites... my idea of a good site is probably antithesis of what others generally believe. every photographer (practically) now has a flash-driven site. these drive me nuts. and there are like 10 words total on each site with no information, just pictures.. maybe this is a marketing strategy that works, but it's just not for me. learn some basic html and you're all set.

[eugene_scherba]

Paul, if you were referring to the sites I listed, then you may want to look again: absolutely no

one of them

uses Flash. I specifically selected well-designed sites coded in HTML for my comment

above.

[trunfio]

you are SO correct Eugene. Those sites were simple and clean and no flash. I was referring to almost all the photographer sites I have in my bookmarks which are all flash. But, don't sell a product or service. They're just good photo content layouts.

 

Something with content, that probably doesn't market well is:

 

http://www.photoethnography.com/

 

One of my favorite photographer sites that tell what he sells is:

 

http://www.fotografiewimvanvelzen.nl/home.htm

 

This one is kind of like the ones you mentioned, nice simple layout, but lacks any textual content:

 

http://www.murblanc.org/

 

I'm glad we agree on the overuse of flash. I use a simpleplayer gallery viewer from Jalbum, but i'm going to revamp everything soon. personally, i love the galleries on photo.net. I'm going to try and layout something like here. .... when I have time! :)

[ekovisions]

All--for the record, I decided to go with gaudy excrement. I'm trying out bigblackbag--have been working on the site now for about 2 hours, and am loving every minute of it. In my short two hours working with it, I love it.

[eugene_scherba]

Don't worry, Kelly, I suppose you can make BigBlackBag templates to

look nicer -- it's just I haven't seen any good examples there.

[ekovisions]

Eugene, you probably won't like my site given your previous criticisms. And, truth be told, I'm OK with that.

[godfrey]

I write my own HTML and did my own website design. It's not easy to become a web

designer, but it's not *that* hard either.

 

I've seen some good flash sites, kind of admire when folks do a good job with it, but good

to me means simple, tasteful, and presenting the right information as well as a clean

environment in which to view the photographs. I can't stand the jumping, dancing BS sites

and all the heavy-handed framing and effect.

 

I've not found any pre-canned templates I really liked. I used iView for a bit, wrote my own

template for it, and that worked ok. Lightroom's simple gallery output is ok too, if a bit

overdone on the code.

 

Godfrey