New Website - Built from ground up!

[Lorem]

I've been up all night for the past week design/slice/code/flash my website. All custom built from scratch. It's so difficult doing my own design for myself. Most of the website is HTML and Javascripts, only the "music/photo" slide show is flash. I think it's a little different than what's out there.

Let me know what you think about usability download speed etc. What you like and don't like etc...

http://www.lamphotography.com/

http://www.lamphotography.com/temp/new_web_site.jpg (http://www.lamphotography.com)

Thanks!

ps. The "Commercial" area is still under development.

[tim]

I like it! Definitely the best new website i've seen here for a while.

Change about to "LAM photography is made up of Lam & Carmen, a husband and wife team who shoot, create, work, and laugh together on every job we do. etc". I just want to remove "us" from the start of it. I might put a little more information about albums in there, and remove "almost all" as it makes it sounds like you carry lower quality items too. Maybe put a couple of sample albums online?

[nikonthree]

Now that is a beautiful site.. Site loaded quickly and I love that it is HTML Based

You can tell there was time involved in your design.

EXCELLENT Work!

[arikajordan]

Awesome job!

[Cujo_34]

This site looks great. It's simple yet has just the right amount of flare to look stunning.

I like the Lightroom inspired feel of it as well.

One little quibble, it's Javascript not Java -- two different languages -- call me a picky computer geek.

This site definitely shows though that with the right planning and detail your site doesn't need to be Flash to make it stand out.

[stathunter]

VERY GOOD!

[Lorem]

I like it! Definitely the best new website i've seen here for a while.

Change about to "LAM photography is made up of Lam & Carmen, a husband and wife team who shoot, create, work, and laugh together on every job we do. etc". I just want to remove "us" from the start of it. I might put a little more information about albums in there, and remove "almost all" as it makes it sounds like you carry lower quality items too. Maybe put a couple of sample albums online?


Thanks Tim, Good call. I'll make those changes.

[Lorem]

This site looks great. It's simple yet has just the right amount of flare to look stunning.

I like the Lightroom inspired feel of it as well.

One little quibble, it's Javascript not Java -- two different languages -- call me a picky computer geek.

This site definitely shows though that with the right planning and detail your site doesn't need to be Flash to make it stand out.

Yes, You're right. It's Javascript not Java :). I'm more of an HTML guru. Javascript codes... I just borrow them ;)

[Kumarian]

Great looking site. Very clean, easy to follow layout and quick loads

[Pebbs4]

Your site looks fantastic ! Great job !

[Kai]

This is a very nice site. I know nothing about web design but it looks real pro to me. I like how you have your price sheets set up. Your pictures are very nice too. Keep up the great work.

[ZekaG]

Great job. I like it.
How much do you charge? lol

[Lorem]

Great job. I like it.
How much do you charge? lol

For a one off design! You don't even want to know. :)

[Padawan Dad]

Excellent job! It is actually inspiring me to revamp my site for next year. I love the simplicity and ease of use. Good job Lorem.

[Mike]

It is actually inspiring me to revamp my site for next year

Me too!

Great site and loaded pretty quickly on dial-up. Love the look. :D

[Lorem]

Thanks everyone. I'm just about done with all my advertising for this year (Website/Print Ad/Business Cards/Online Listing/Expos/Etc...). Hopefully next year I don't have to dish out so much money because the word will get around.

Good call on the "Lightroom Inspired Look"... I didn't even notice but you're right. (Cujo43)

I had a long debate to make it black or white. I went with black because it just make the photos pop that much more. Overall goal was to keep text off the screen (hence the open and close text thingy). Keep much as I can using HTML and simple animated gif.

Homepage logo could have been flash but I exported it out as animated gif instead of *.swf.

Alt tags key words... the worx. I can't wait to see how google rank my site in the state search. Only time will tell...

Thanks All

[siejoka]

Hey Lam,

Fantastic website, if ur photo business dont work out, I think you can consider website designing as another career. =D.

Just curious, did you have any prior knowledge about flash? I'm interested in knowing ur work process. Thanks.

[Lorem]

Hey Lam,

Fantastic website, if ur photo business dont work out, I think you can consider website designing as another career. =D.

Just curious, did you have any prior knowledge about flash? I'm interested in knowing ur work process. Thanks.

My photo business WILL work out. :) - I've work too hard over the past few years to fail.

I was in the graphic design field for over 10years. Though that whole time I was always been shooting on the side. Now I'm trying to reverse that. I'm so tired of graphic design. Good thing is that alot of what I know about art / design translate so well into photography.

[asxu]

lam, just a quick something that should be mentioned -- when scrolling through the photo galleries i found that some images often 'repeated' themselves and sometimes the thumbnail files didn't match the picture that was shown. it's kind of hard to explain.

i'm using firefox v2.0.0.8 by the way -- not sure if it has any bearing on it though.

[asxu]

just noticed a spelling error on the contact page.

'I am intrested in' should be 'I am interested in'

[dsc_1972]

You have built a very very nice looking site Lorem - well done!

The language lets it down a bit though.

At a glance there are some glaring grammatical errors.

These are a particular pet hate of mine. I hope you'll get someone to proof-read the whole site for grammar - not just spelling!

A couple that stick out at a first look in your portrait tips section:-
"Please bring with your child's favorite toys", for example. oh dear!
and
"You are welcome to bring your pet, but please bring them on a leash."

And what do you mean by:-
"My main aim in my photography is to capture pictures illustrating creativity."?
Eh?... your aim, in your photography... (as opposed to someone else's), is to take pictures of people being creative?

No, I reckon you probably meant something like 'my main focus is to capture <images> in a way that applies my own unique creativity'. Substitute <emotions> <special moments> etc! OK perhaps don't use the word 'focus' - is that too cheesy?!

You really have put a lot of great work into the site. Please don't let poor grammar spoil it!
:)

[Lorem]

DSC / ASXU, Thanks for picking up on those details. I'll get that corrected asap!

[david888lee]

wow very nice

[Mikester]

Is the song you use "over the rainbow" royalty free music? I see you are using it in your wedding demo and I was thinking of using it also but was worried about copyrights?

[kato1]

What a nice, simple and effective site. Well done.

[Faolan]

Great looking site. Some design issues.

Front page: Who and what are you? This is not immediately obvious... Yes you have images but what does that mean? Secondly the sub header text is too dark to read against the backdrop. Even on a calibrated monitor.

Contact form: Add user feedback when they roll over the forms. Also the image on the left hand side feels tack on and not part of the design. Also there is a debate about whether clear form should be there these days, the consensus seems to be that it's not necessary it allows for people to hit the wrong button too easily.

Proofs totally breaks the design and navigation. It also opens in a new window. These are major design flaws in the site. It stops the user going back to the main site and encourages them to leave. It also confuses the user for a few seconds whilst they get comfortable with the new interface.

Finally code this is the biggest problem of your site. Your coding is considered deprecated. You should ideally be using CSS and layers for the design. Most of your site can easily be done with modern browsers. Also you have way too much JS in the code. Consider moving the commonly used elements to a external container. At the moment the pages are bloated and could do with trimming. Especially if people are on slow connections and/or using mobile devices.

However apart from these niggles it's a great design.

[Lorem]

Great looking site. Some design issues.

Front page: Who and what are you? This is not immediately obvious... Yes you have images but what does that mean? Secondly the sub header text is too dark to read against the backdrop. Even on a calibrated monitor.

Contact form: Add user feedback when they roll over the forms. Also the image on the left hand side feels tack on and not part of the design. Also there is a debate about whether clear form should be there these days, the consensus seems to be that it's not necessary it allows for people to hit the wrong button too easily.

Proofs totally breaks the design and navigation. It also opens in a new window. These are major design flaws in the site. It stops the user going back to the main site and encourages them to leave. It also confuses the user for a few seconds whilst they get comfortable with the new interface.

Finally code this is the biggest problem of your site. Your coding is considered deprecated. You should ideally be using CSS and layers for the design. Most of your site can easily be done with modern browsers. Also you have way too much JS in the code. Consider moving the commonly used elements to a external container. At the moment the pages are bloated and could do with trimming. Especially if people are on slow connections and/or using mobile devices.

However apart from these niggles it's a great design.

Thanks for your professional feedback. I'll look into getting a few of these issues resolved.

[g-money]

Lorem, Looks really nice. Even loaded fast on our slow network here at work. Very nice images as well. One thing I did notice was on you contract. I am looking to make one myself so took at look at yours. It seems this section reads funny or is missing some text. What happens if that date is booked by another client? ;)

3) Cancellation
If the Client should cancel the event, for any reason, the deposit shall not be refunded. The deposit can be applied to a future wedding date (if date is available), if the date which the Client cancelled is booked by another client.

Nice Job
Greg

[Lorem]

Lorem, Looks really nice. Even loaded fast on our slow network here at work. Very nice images as well. One thing I did notice was on you contract. I am looking to make one myself so took at look at yours. It seems this section reads funny or is missing some text. What happens if that date is booked by another client? ;)

3) Cancellation
If the Client should cancel the event, for any reason, the deposit shall not be refunded. The deposit can be applied to a future wedding date (if date is available), if the date which the Client cancelled is booked by another client.

Nice Job
Greg

Zup Greg, I'm still trying to figure out the whole contact thing. This past year of low budget shoots / advertising has been exhausting. I'm laying low for a little while and will be fixing details of my website and marketing soon.

Thanks for looking at the site thoroughly.