Pixtus - Photography Forum, Photographers, Photo Tips

monique_evette · **www.MMperspectives.com -** 12-08-2006, 02:45 AM

Ok so here it is! Let me know what you think!

www.MMperspectives.com

I just want to thank Mr. Bates for being a doll. Oh and please ignore the gallery, half the pictures (well more than half) are of his doing.

Anyway.... thoughts?

Jeff · 12-08-2006, 02:49 AM

Nice looking site. Very clean and well organized.

monique_evette · 12-08-2006, 02:09 PM

Yeah, Daniel did a good job.

ndsimm · 12-08-2006, 04:09 PM

I already gave my thoughts...great job!
I wonder what kind of discount Mr Daniel will give me for offering him a "scholarship"

Daniel Bates · 12-08-2006, 04:30 PM

A deep one... a very deep one...

Thanks for y'alls comments so far! Keep them coming!

metagore · 12-08-2006, 08:22 PM

Good job, very attractive site! :)

HotHolly · 12-09-2006, 12:04 AM

Hi Monique!

Very nice site - I like how clean it is - and seems to be free of tech issues (as far as I can tell). I see Daniel made it - that would be why! He's good like that.

One suggestion I would make is on your about page - you might want to write it in 3rd person, like someone is writing about you.

eg: Monique Montaya of Perspectives Photography studied photography at Sam Houston State University (I'd ditch this part -->and graduated with an Accounting major and Photography minor<-- Many people dont get the difference b/t majors and minors, except that it means you arent as good/ dedicated to the minor - not the case here). There she learned the different styles and methods of photography. The darkroom is her sanctuary. Getting lost in the world of black and white photography will always be her true piece of paradise. Monique is also loves digital photography and its countlessless possibilities.

I don't know, maybe its a silly suggestion, but writing in the 1st person usually strikes me as less than pro - unless it was done for effect. In this case, you want people to know about you. I would say write it as if your friend were telling about Monique and it will sound like that to potential clients too.

Also - a Google tip:

Name your pages with inidividual titles (eg. MMPerspectives/ Photog by MM....Prices)
Add some Meta Tags (use words that will help google log you - weddings,wedding,senior,baby,etc)
Add Content: Google LOVES to rate/ track CONTENT - which stinks for photogs. Since your home page is flash, it has VERY little content. You might want to add some white on white for google to find you or put it in meta tags - like a detailed description).
If you havent entered your site yet - you can do it here.

Those are little things that will help Google log your site and keep it. It could also boost your site up to a 2-3/10, depending on how many people are searching for a photog in your area. So it helps for those looking for you on the web.

Here's a whole thread on Google. I'm an artist 1st and a techie 2nd - okay, more like 4th...but that boring thread will help you move UP the map. These little tips will get you ON the map.

I'm guessing I jumped ahead of the horse...

ITS PRETTY!!!! AND I LOVE THAT WEDDING YOU SHOT!!! GOOD START!!!

monique_evette · 12-09-2006, 12:45 AM

Thanks Holly for the great tips! Your always soo informative, I truly appreciate that.

And I understand what you are saying about the major/minor thing, I never really thought about it that way, but I can see where it could be misunderstood.

JohnT · 12-09-2006, 01:10 AM

Nice site, but I would remove the price page and the link until you have that page completed. "Coming Soon" pages are somewhat of a no-no in good web design.

monique_evette · 12-09-2006, 02:43 AM

Yeah... I will have that finished by next week. Nobody knows I have this site except you guys. So until I can actually put pictures in the galleries (that are mine) and get my pricing set up I'm going to try and keep it under the radar.

Daniel Bates · 12-09-2006, 02:56 AM

And I'll work on the meta tags and keywords... maybe a sitemap, even. Individual page titles might be hard because it's PHP and has a common header...

hookem · 12-09-2006, 06:41 AM

Very nice Supa Dupa. I may be calling you someday.

SaundraU · 12-09-2006, 07:19 AM

It looks really good, the one thing I noticed and yes I know these are just photos in there for now but something to watch when you put the real ones in there is that the 5th photo on the senior page and the 1st on the family page the proof photo the heads are cut off. It's a little thing but can make a huge difference. When you go to the actual photo of course they are fine.

KingPhilip · 12-13-2006, 11:27 AM

I would add a pre-loader in the flash intro. I noticed when it was switching the photos, the whole page got laggy and I couldn't move mouse over to change the page.

I'm not sure what other PHP scripts you have running, but if you want to add headers, just include a page with headers in the head section of the files.

like
<html><head>
<? include 'metatags.php'; ?>
etc...

and put your PHP scripts above all the <html> tags (if you are doing header(); tags) or use ob_start/flush

Daniel Bates · 12-13-2006, 11:30 AM

That's actually a CSS rotator slideshow, not a flash slideshow.