one...more...website c/c please

[nez]

So my girl finaly put together our new site, its still very early and many updates to come.

let me know what what you guys think, and what you would change
thanks in advanced :)

-Nez

edit: so tired from work i forgot to put the site :p
www.kdphotographs.com

[SOK]

Hi,

First things first, I like the simple layout, and the fact I didn't have to sit though a Flash loading sequence. I'm no design guru, but a few things to consider;


The font for your menu is a little hard to read
I'm not convinced you've picked your best shots for your Home page. The one of the dog is...bizarre (mainly due to the wild angle).
Some of your shots in your gallery appear to be resized beyond their resolution limit...
I would cull 90% of the 'About Us' content. As a customer, I want to find out basic details like name, location, particular interests (in terms of photographic subjects)...not your entire life's story. Personally, I think that divulging things like how many P&Ss you've owned, and how much you paid for your first XT is irrelevant, and generally unprofessional. Highlight the fact that one of you does have 4 years portrait experience with LifeTouch...it's probably your biggest selling point! I'd imagine you don't want to keep having to update an 'About' page, so reconsider mentioning future bookings here...it might be better suited to a blog?

[rumplepigskin]

agreed... some of the shots have been stretched way to far... blurry and not very professional looking... jmho

[nez]

sok: thanks for your input, its much apreciated. We'll work to adress all your points since i agree and they make sence.

rumplepigskin: thanks for the input

-Nez

[Faolan]

I would rethink the design. There's no real structure to the site and the elements feel randomly placed on the page. If you need help in how to design do a Google for Design by Grid. This is really 101 for a designer of any calibre.

You've got no company branding, that should be the header/masthead of your site and a key part of your navigation.

You're using tables, ideally if you're creating a new site you should be using CSS/XHTML coding.

Lose the JavaScript menu system, it's bad design. If you need a rollover use CSS, it's far more elegant and less likely to break.

I would host your galleries on your own site, and lose the Flickr Stream as it's not working properly here. I'm left with a overlay on all your images.

Details? Details of what, I would rename this section to services or products. also fill it out more, you're selling a product do so!

Contact sheet should be built using forms. If you want to know why read my FAQ. Also it's considered to be highly unprofessional to use non-domain name emails.

The biggest issue I have is that the font for both the menu and the content is tiring on the eyes. The menu is barely legible as it's a calligraphic font.

There are other issues, but that's the highlights I found...

[gravy graffix]

what kind of photographer are you? i see a bachelor party, sports, and a bird on a wire.
pick a area and design your site around that. if you have other work to show off then set up a blog and do it there as its more of a casual fun environment.

you say:
Portraits
Group/Family Photos
Events
Weddings
Engagement Photos
Sports
Pet Photos
Motor Sports
Child Portraits
Glamour Shots
and more...

what else is there???? ;)
if you say portraits you dont need "child portraits and glamor"
thin it down... if you working to make this a place for clients to come and show off why they should hire you, then dont make their head spin. ask youself...what is it you want to shoot and make money at? Lets say portraits for example, build your site ALL about portrait work. no racing or sports. Also make sure grandma wouldn't find any thing she wouldn't like.

The About Me section... Please rethink that.
A its too long
B I dont wanna know your shooting with a 100 dollar used camera.
C stop at the degree for web design, no need to say only 1 so far...
D as you keep working on your site, make it look like you got a degree...:) showcase it baby!
E Dave you can leave out that you just decided last month to jump into the pool of photography, change your pic, no camera just have Katrina take a nice casual pic of you.

F Katrina tells more about her point and shoot... ditch all of that. Also she say she "needed" to take a elective and decided to make it photography... that comes across as "ugh all you got is photography"? ok... it sounded like it was a compromise. reword it.

G just say 4 years for life touch yadayada , dont need to know it was in a mall.

H make that front page SHINE!!!!! knock it down to 1 image and make it strong. I'd use one of the last 8 or so in the gallery. the 3 on the front page shows your inconsistency and look snap shot-ish with a easy share.

Here is something more like what hers should be.
My name is Katrina Stephanie Gabriel, from South Jersey. I was born in the Davao City , Philippines on May 13th 1983 and moved to the United States on April of 1996. I graduated college in May 2008 and received my Associate Degree in Web Design for E-commerce, as for photography, I have been interested in it since 2003. I worked for LifeTouch Studios for 4 years and enjoyed taking portraits of families and children.

feel free to use that...

I hope you can take this as constructive... I have lots of good help from here and from watching zack arias web critiques. http://www.zarias.com/?cat=82 and would like to pay it forward to help.

[jp4995]

Please make sure there are no spelling errors, you misspelled "appointment" on the home page.

[nez]

gravy graffix: thanks for your comments as well as the site, watched a couple of videos and learned a lot along with all the responses here, new site coming sood :)