Medium Format Images Web Site

[david_henderson]

I've been hanging around here for a few years now without ever posting

an image. For anyone who'se interested, I've been working with a web

developer to construct a site which is now accessible at:-

 

www.photography001.com

 

Any feedback you are able to give regarding the site or how the

photographs look will be much appreciated. I must say that I found the

task of preparing the images difficult, especially those with lots of

fine detail. I'd be particularly keen to find any quirks or oddities

that appear on your browsers. Clearly things look and work ok to me

on my iMac and the versions of Navigator and IE that I use but I'm a

bit apprehensive about how things might be on other systems/monitors.

 

Thanks

[allan_jamieson2]

Nice work David, no problem in viewing your website, mind you I've got an

iMac too. Hopefully, it will be viewable on other systems too.

[struan_gray]

Looks great using IE on my Mac and lab PC. My only nit would

be that the IE-provided drop down gallery menu on the home

page looks out of place beside the rest of your carefully crafted

design.

 

Lovely work. Bang on my taste, both in subject matter and

presentation. Anyone with a picture of the mud in Poole harbour

can't be doing much wrong.

[wim_van_velzen]

David,

<p>

Very good work! I like the lay out and the pictures are super!! I browsed quickly through your Scotland gallery - makes me homesick, even when I never lived there.

<p>

It looks fine on my PC (800x600), but especially the thumbnails load slow (i have got a 56K). I think they could be reduced in size further without loss of quality.

<p>

Hope to browse further when I am back from Ireland (leaving tomorrow),<br />

<a href='http://www.fotografiewimvanvelzen.nl'>Wim</a>

[WAn]

David,

 

beautiful images, thanks a lot for sharing!

[derry_bryson]

Great pictures and the website looks great. Looks fine on my PC w/IE 6.0.something. Only two things: 1) the thumbnails would download much faster (3 to 4 times) if they were actually 115x115 (of course, you might be trying different sizes...) and 2) I always love when the photographer puts technical details along with the pictures.

[brian_kennedy]

David, I was very impressed both with the quality of the work and the overall presentation. Wonderful shots you chose, all of them. It looks good to me, with both IE and Opera.

[marklcooper]

David,

 

Fantastic images!

 

But, what is the purpose of the site? Are you trying to sell prints? Is the site a portfolio to 'present' to future clients? Are you just 'sharing' your images with the rest of the world?

 

Why do you want me (or anyone else) to come to your site?

 

 

 

I like the overall design, but I think the gallery drop-down menu clashes in a big way with that design. It just doesn't fit your scheme.

 

Also, I went to the 'About' page first (from the home page). No problem. On that page I clicked on the Gallery link at the bottom of the page. It took forever!! for the 36 thumbnails to load. 36 x approx 25K per image is 900 KB... way to much. (for 56K dial-up)

 

HTH and good luck

[allan_jamieson2]

I didn't notice any delay in the images downloading when I looked at the

website; but, I do have a broadband connection, which does help speed

things up a fair bit.

[keith_laban]

Excellent David! My only concern is the file size of your thumbnails. 25K each is very slow loading for dialup viewers. My own site was criticised for having 12K thumbnails.

[dave_t]

Works fine on Linux/Mozilla. Lovely images, some perhaps a touch oversharpened. Very nice layout also. Well done.

[robin_barnes]

Very nice images and a well designed site - everything worked for me. Having seen a small selection of your photographs on the Robert White site I admit to previously having been surprised that you did not have your own site.

 

As someone above mentioned I would have expected you to include a section on how to buy prints but perhaps you intend to do that in the next phase of construction. Also, again like others, I didn't see the need for the drop down gallery menu on the home page although having it on individual gallery pages to facilitate swift movement from one gallery to another seems sensible.

 

I wonder have you considered running the contents list on the home page horizontally just below the main title. This would then give you sufficient space to have up to three images on this page which would give the viewer an indication of the wide variety of work within and encourage him/her to enter.

[david_henderson]

Thank you all very much for the comments - and the compliments -so far. From one or two of the points made to date it's apparent that I should have included some information about the purpose of the site.

 

The site is essentially a brochure. I don't expect to sell prints directly from the site, and I expect that most viewers will be there because they have been referred to it by me. I don't really expect people to find it by accident or through a search engine, and I think this does influence the design brief somewhat.

 

The primary target audience is defined senior managers in large multinational or multilocal enterprises. I expect them to have fast internet access, so didn't believe that the thumbnail size/download time would be a big issue and I do need these to be distinct. I also wanted to provide a "fast track" way of entering a specific gallery from any of the main pages. Your comments have helped me realise that there might be more elegant ways of achieving that.

 

The secondary target audience is gallery owners/managers; the third priority is fellow photographers, family and friends.

 

Sorry for omitting this.

[todd frederick]

Very beautiful landscapes and it is good to see someone working with a full square format...something I find difficult to do. Most impressive.