Neat idea

Karen Cardinal — Tue, 08 Jan 2002 03:47:34 +0000

I enjoyed the clean simplicity of your site.
Nothing jumping and nothing to get in the way of the photographs... After all that's what the site is about.

My main beef is in the lack of pictures in the portfolio.

If I'm going to a site about photography, I have an expectation of seeing photographs.
The ones there are wonderful! I just wish there were more on the site.

I have been working with artist for a couple years and have found that the best copy protection to posting artwork on the internet is to make sure the artist name is on the picture somehow. (Sometimes you can do this with a watermark) and to only post the picture at 72 dpi. That way it would never look good printed out any larger than the print size you post it at.

btw: Right click protection doesn't work if the person who wants to copy the picture is using a Mac computer (like I do)

I hope you can talk your father into putting his photograph in his website portfolio.
I can forgive a lot of web-author mistakes if the site has substance, but a portfolio without pictures is really kind of.... well, you get the idea.

All that aside, I do like what you're doing with the site.
I'll be interested to see how the final version comes out.

Karen

jagf — Sun, 06 Jan 2002 04:04:35 +0000

The big bill would be a good idea but my father, the client, probably would disown me.

Busy — Sat, 05 Jan 2002 20:49:18 +0000

How about (if you have the time), make a version of the site the way they want it, then make another version of things you know and that we have suggested to use and put them both to them, let them decided?
Could give you brownie points for being creative and could open their eyes at your talents

If all else fails, just give them a really big bill hehe j/k

contrast

andyn20 — Sat, 05 Jan 2002 14:49:10 +0000

On the front page, the issue for me was contrast. Using my notebook, the light blue text ("an owner operated.....") was really tough to read against the white background. On the desktop it was better but I imagine other TFT slaves saw the same as I did.

Andrew

jagf — Sat, 05 Jan 2002 05:04:23 +0000

Perhaps I will put images on these bare spots or change the bar to make it more alluring. I'm not sure until the client makes up his mind about displaying his photography.

I will probably change the nav bar text as you mentioned. Good idea about the blue but I don't know how well it will go over.

Anyways thanks for the feedback.

The Webmistress — Fri, 04 Jan 2002 10:38:08 +0000

I think most of it's been said and you have replied that the clients wants this & that or it's their logo, but to me the site is way to grey & boring and the fonts don't do much for me at all, especially the links on the inner pages which actually become hard to read and I think the drop shadows are just too much and don't help the dull feeling. The ones that say home & contact, I think look better.

I would change the general font to something like Ariel or Veranda as this would make the text cleaner looking and easier to read.

The grey bar thingy, does it have to be grey? Maybe change it to the blue of the butterfly to give the site a bit of colour. Are you going to put images on each page on this bar?

Megan — Fri, 04 Jan 2002 01:45:24 +0000

Quote: Originally posted by jagf

megan- the main pic on the opening page is a collage and hence is meant to be more complex than just a plain image

I realize that - what I was saying was that IMHO it's too complex especially when compared to the rest of the design. Maybe if you just faded out that text some... I think there needs to be more of a balance between complex graphics and simple design...

Quote: Originally posted by jagf

megan-the circular graphic is a logo(all six repetitions included), not allowed to change

It looks fine on the main pages - the lens with the butterfly image.. oh, I see, the text has to be part of that. Too bad. I also said, though, that the positioning could be better on the body pages - seems kind of lost over there by itself.

Quote: Originally posted by jagf

megan-artistic licence allows me to add more things to a web page that what is "needed"

I don't know where this is coming from - I was trying to say that there should be a little more in the body of the site - more images to really show off what the photographer is capable of and give people a stronger idea of what they can get from him.

I'm sorry you did not appreciate my comments. I will refrain from commenting further on your work.

jagf — Fri, 04 Jan 2002 01:19:04 +0000

yes, thanks

taff — Fri, 04 Jan 2002 00:05:40 +0000

Quote: Originally posted by jagf
taff & megan- not sure why you are referring to it as a splash page?

Figure of speech for a site intro page that is more style than substance. I'm a big defender of splash pages, others consider them a waste of time and bandwidth.

Yes I checked the thumbnails. Are you are aware that the portrait is inverted?

jagf — Thu, 03 Jan 2002 23:26:30 +0000

taff & megan- not sure why you are referring to it as a splash page?

megan- the main pic on the opening page is a collage and hence is meant to be more complex than just a plain image

taff- true about the search engine, however, my point implied that someone searching for a photographer in general won't use the specific name of the photographer and hence the 8 times 'the fraser image' is listed wasn't an attempt to raise the standing of the page in search engines as implied by 'busy'

taff- I agree, something has to be done with the nav bar's clarity

megan-the circular graphic is a logo(all six repetitions included), not allowed to change

megan-artistic licence allows me to add more things to a web page that what is "needed"

general-did you guys follow through the thumbnails on the services page to the larger images? Wanted to know if it was obvious or if I should place a note somewhere.

Thanks

John