Website Critique Please!

[thebeginning]

Just wanted some thoughts on this...it's a complete redirection from my past website - alot more personable and [hopefully] fun. Just finished it today, took me longer than I expected.


Please no comments on how music on websites is stupid - that's a photographer thing to say, and the music is staying per client base request :)


www.danielcolvinphotography.com

Thanks for looking!

[DoublyDan]

I love this site!
Did u do it all on your own?
Calm, elegant, and your images are what makes it fun...
I don't like the length (in time) that the preloader is visible, but that is minor...

[thebeginning]

Thanks, Daniel!

Kind of a mix, actually - I worked around a shell of sorts. The shapes and such were mostly there, but the backgrounds, grungy stuff, fonts, colors, and sizing was me. It's through Photobiz - HIGHLY recommended company. They've been terrific.


By preloader did you mean the little animation thing that shows when the site is loading?

[DoublyDan]

Yeah the preloader (flash lingo) is the animated red circle with the ball. Of course it stays up as long as the image is loading and maybe a little after (actionscript based). It's there to keep the eye engaged while something else is loading, hence the word preloader.
It may be directly editable by you in the action actionscript file or flash file or you may have to ask the company you purchased it from to alter it.
If, that is of course, you find it bothersome. I think it is only slightly distracting... but your quality of images really outweigh this little issue (if you find it an issue at all).

[dhoward]

Very nice!

[dryicerx]

Good site, just a few thoughts...

When I go in to the flash portions of the pages with the browser maximized... the flash applet shakes vigorously trying to find a max fit for some reason making it unusable. resolution: 2048x1152... but it seems to work when I resize the browser to a small size fine though. So test the flash portions on higher resolutions.

The other thing was... don't pop that alert box on right clicking... just make it silently disable right click (returning false to the onmousedown will make the right click inactive in place of the alert box)

Otherwise, good work!

[kula23]

I like it! How much does Photobiz cost you? I am trying to find a CSS I can put in the themes I like to match me for my smugmug/wordpresss blog.

[lanteik]

Nice work on the webpage and your pictures!!

I personally LOVE your music selection. I think it is fun, not too overpowering, and even has a romantic feel to it. Some other things I really liked:
- Enjoyed reading your about me section
- I liked that you have your pricing listed but also state that it is customizable. When I was a bride looking for a photographer, it frustrated me that I had to contact the photographer to find out if they were even in my price range.
- I like that your contact page has a picture on it.
- I like that you have a picture of you on your about me page. I think it makes it more personal.
- Easy to navigate

Nit picky things:
- I agree with the others that said it took a little bit of time to load in the beginning, but nothing that would cause me to exit the website.
- My philosophy section - something about the font sizes and italics looks off to me. "I love people" - I think the font size of this should be the same size as the rest of the non-emphasized words. "most precious relationships" - should this be in italics? "My philosophy on wedding photography is simple" - I think this should be the same size as the rest of the non-emphasized words. Then the last sentence - should this be in italics? I think this also needs to be the same size as your other non-emphasized words in this section. Also, the spacing between the 3rd and 4th sentences should match the spacing between the other sentences
- On the contact page, is it possible to move your wording further to the left under contact? I think that would make the white lettering easier to read. Not that it is hard; I just think it would make it easier. Also, I would put NAME before PHONE and EMAIL.
- Then menu bar, when you click a heading it then adds line by line the sub-headings. I noticed when I was going through the website looking through the different pages that I found myself having to wait for it to load. I think it would be better if you didn't have this feature, and that the sub-headings were already there.
- Subheading under portraiture "engaged, to be" - I think this should be engaged or engagement. Engaged to be sounds weird to me. Also, maybe instead of saying "married", you could say just married. You may have a character limitation though.
- In the about me section, I would left align the wording instead of having it centered.

Just my thoughts... the nit picky things are just small things I noticed. All in all I think your website and your pictures looks great :)

[Steelsun]

Originally Posted by dryicerx

The other thing was... don't pop that alert box on right clicking... just make it silently disable right click (returning false to the onmousedown will make the right click inactive in place of the alert box)

Agree, kill the noise. I know you are disabling right click to try and stop easy image theft (it's easy to work around though), but some people navigate by right clicking (I do to go back a page instead on the keyboard shortcut or having to move to the top of the page - having it disabled usually annoys me enough that I just leave a site never to go back).

Need to make the "music off" link larger - it was hard to find and click.

Overall, good job. Site flows fairly easily, good color theme, etc. It's a site to be proud of.