Hey there I was wondering if I could get some opinions on my site. www.midiowaphoto.com
I have not been able to check it on any windows browsers yet so any and all input would be nice to get. I have only had my account a short time and would like to have it ready for my clients soon. So if there is something not working or does not look right please let me know.
Like I said it is still not complete so not all the links are functional in the drop down but I think I'm getting there.

thanks but confused
 

I was under the imrpession that keywords was good for search engine optimization
are you talking about things like this which are underneat each image in my portfolio?
keywords: wedding lee ash schoonover asbury willows 20080816 · edit

As I mentioned I am talking about captions, not keywords.

You have changed most of the captions since my last post. However you still have a few images in your portfolio that need to be cleaned up a bit.

For example, one caption reads as "20090806Wildwood-59 Portfolio images by Reflective Photoworks LLC, NJ's Premier Event Photography".

The ""20090806Wildwood-59" should be removed. :thumb

gotcha, thanks!!!
 

i see what you mean now, thanks a lot!

I guess it is not worth commenting on?

The 'Corey' link looks a bit strange! :dunno

http://rosscollins.smugmug.com/photo...4_EvB3N-X3.jpg

Ya W.W. that is one of the pages I have not finished actually I just threw that photo in there to kind of place mark it.

Site Comment and Critique
 

[FONT=Arial]Thanks, Ryan. I'm game. My site's still a work in progress. Here's the link:

http://lci.smugmug.com/[/FONT]

Hey David - looking good so far. It's a bit rough going here at SmgMug sometimes. But, keep at it ans keep tweaking and you will learn a lot.

A few observations that are just my opinion:

• On your Prints/Products page you need a revised image that has the horizon straight.
• For galleries with one image (Prints/Products, Bio, for example) why have the slideshow button available? You can click the image to maybe see in bigger.
• I would hide the "gallery pages: 1" text, too.
• The only place your site needs the breadcrumb is in your Galleries. You might consider hiding the breadcrumb in the other pages (Prints/Products, Bio, Contact, Licensing, etc.)
• Do you really need an About page and a separate Bio page? Might the two be combined into a single page?

David -

Thank you for the feedback and your sharp eyes! I appreciate your encouragement and earlier help with other topics too.

Related questions on the above:

• On the Prints/Products page, what are you seeing about the horizon that I don't?

• How do I disable the slide show feature for an individual gallery while keeping it for others?

• What do you mean by hide the "gallery pages: 1" text?

• How do I disable breadcrumbs for particular galleries? From what I can tell, you have to choose something from the drop down menu in the gallery settings mode. How would I leave it blank?

• My reason for an About page is to describe the business in general terms; the "Bio" page is about me/the photographer. I didn't like the look of the bio on the home page, thus it got its own. Combining About and Bio is a thought too.

As for item #1: The image of Vienna on the Prints/Products page does not have a straight horizon. If you don't mind - here is a rotated version of that image showing how off the building is from being oriented correctly.
http://www.greyleafphoto.com/photos/...46_o9kF7-L.jpg

As for items #2, #3, and #4 there are a lot of threads/posts/tutorials/FAQs that show how to do this. Take a look and if you can't find them let us know.

As for #5 - I think a combined page would be better (in my opinion, of course).

David -

I see - now - what you mean. My eyes registered the slant before, but the brain did not! Thanks!

No problem - even the one I posted is still a bit slanted - that's what I get for rushing it...

Getting those kind of photos with that many lines can take some time to get straight.
If any one has any other input on my site I would appreciate it www.midiowaphoto.com

It's actually quite easy with Photoshops built in Grid and/or Ruler/Arbitrary Rotation tools.

O.k. - here's some starting information. All of this is my opinion and you may/may not agree (and others may agree/disagree, too).

My personal opinion - that whole flaming look/craggy-faced logo does not appeal to me The appearance looks so out-of-place with your galleries for portraits, weddings, etc.

Slideshow button on the About page - why? There is only one photo.

Hover text when the mouse go over that About photo (or others) needs to go away.

The transparent drop-down makes the text very difficult to read.

Loose the "coming soon" and TBA text in the menus.

The "Contact Us" text is too large when the mouse hovers over it. It spans two lines. Same goes for some of your sub-menus.

Your backgrounds are inconsistent and do not make the site flow from one page to the next. I do not mind different backgrounds, but they should all work together to make the entire viewing experience a pleasure. I personally do not like that starry-type background in the "Our Staff"
The menu option for "The Info" has a drop-down for "About Us", which is already on the menu bar. Privacy Statement and Calendar have no information.

Your About Us page - why the use of Random capital Letters? And the statement about being Debt Free and having no monthly payments is not something that clients should be really interested in. Your work should reflect your value - and your value should bring in clients. The typo "any where" in the last sentence should be "anywhere".

My First
 

Howdy new friends! I signed up over the weekend and spent my Monday learning how to do this customization thing, but not knowing all the nooks and crannies of Smugmug wanted to run this past you to see if I missed some things.

Right now my galleries are scarce but all that uploading will take place this week. Let me know what you think! Please and thanks.

(PS, Looks best in Safari/Chrome, I used a lot of CSS3 and Firefox is mostly good, just can't handle CSS3 Gradiants yet (I think), so if you want to see all the tricks check it out in a Webkit browser)

J Thomas Photography on SmugMug

You've mastered the fundamentals in double-quick time. I can only imagine what you could have achieved in a week! :D

An excellent design exuding understated elegance, which has been applied consistently across the site and which projects a professional image. The only pin-pricking suggestion I could make might be to consider reducing the space between your banner and nav bar a tad.

I like it, and I think it will attract business as it will provide confidence to prospects that you take care with your art and design, and look after the details.

Well done! :thumb

a BIG thank you very much!! Having a strong CSS background certainly helped me. AND, if you're on a Mac I HIGHLY recommend a program called CSS Edit to accomplish super detail abilities in your coding.

I'll happily help anyone out if there are questions! I know I will have questions. I plan to become a regular on here. Very excited.

Your site has a nice clean look to it, but there are a couple of things I would recommend changing.

Your footer text is barely readable in a very light gray against white. If you are going to put something on the page a viewer should be able to read it without eye strain.

I would lose the shaded boxes behind your navbar entries. I know, that's very much personal preference, but I think the shading gives your site a dated feeling.

Why are you not using stretchy galleries? Yes, I know, constraining the width of the galleries looks nice from a standing back perspective. Unfortunately it doesn't do as good of a job of highlighting your photos as stretchy does.

You have allowed access to originals. This is a sure way to have photos stolen. If you allow access to originals, why would anyone pay for a photo? Yes, you have right click protection on. I think that feature is very much mis-named. It is a right click warning, not real protection. If an image is shown on a computer it is sitting on that computer and can be easily grabbed by a hacker. So disable access to the originals (that is disabling access for online viewing only - the original is always used for printing). See http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2008/07/04/right-click-protection-and-image-security/.

--- Denise

Thank you! Those are the security things I'm still trying to figure out, I'll take a look at that gallery and fix it. I think security is off by default? Not really sure. Anyways, I appreciate the feedback!

I'll give a stretchy gallery a try, yesterday I was more trying to learn how to manipulate and customize and see how the whole process was, and now I have a solid understanding. Questions coming soon :)