Can anyone tell me what engine is driving this site?

Yeah, I noticed that and posted on his critique page. But wait...did you notice what was burying them?! Oh yeah...a Flash animation! (Couldn't resist)

P.S. I think we are so far off topic now that we have scared the OP off...come back! Reclaim your rightful thread!

Scared? Hell NO!!!!

CDI was taking all comers, and I was just watching and smiling.

I am beginning the though process of "what comes after smugmug" which has proven valuable for soliciting photos for sale on an event by event basis, but is seemlingly useless as a business marketing tool.

Having a conversation with a prospect client and sending them to smugmug doesn't seem to be getting it for me.

I seek easy solutions. My question is would your normal "Hey, come take my portrait" kind of customer be impressed or depressed by a bludomain site? I understand all of CDI's points, but he is very unlikely to hire me to take pics for him -- he isn't my audience.

Yeah, they'll be impressed by a flash site up to a certain point. The only problem with flash is if you get a possible client who is still using dial-up (yes, they are still out there).

Just remember, you can have the best site out there and it won't matter if your work doesn't grab them.

The biggest debate out there right now is whether to put music on it or not. If you do, make sure you have an off button or design it so it loads with the music off and then let the user decide.

Personally, I like BigFolio templates better. The downside is they are more expensive. BigFolio also has a custom design team so you can hire them to design one for you if you don't want a pre-made design. I believe LiveBooks does this too.

Just a few of the big flash site design companies:
BigFolio
BluDomain
FloSites
Into The Darkroom
Flash Palette
LiveBooks
Photo Identities
Tafota
Winklet Web Design
Creative Motion Design


Here are some of the ones that Big Folio has custom designed...

(some of the best photographers in the world)

Joe Buissink
Jeff Ascough
Bambi Cantrell
David Beckstead

There are literally thousands of web designers. If you google for them you will have no shortage of choices. Flash or html, or any other format you like. You can even find many of them are free. Sure they are nothing overly "WOW", but you will find many that get the job done. TIll you know what you want permenamtly. That is where I am right now. I have a free template up that I have edited for me. But at the most It will only be up till fall. By then I hope to have a final site finished. My site us ugly at the moment,I only put something up as a temp place marker.

cdifoto wrote in post #5915599
I wish you would let the links be links so we could click instead of copy-paste.

But flash can and does have links that open in same page and in new pages... Harder to do it now because adobe decided to beef up security at the cost of destroying massive amounts of flash files (mine included.. used to work fine, now the damn thing only works when there's www. in front of the address...). And flash can have an actual address for each page, just requires the use of javascript and possibly some server side scripting too... just too much of a pain for most people to deal with.

As for the site being a template... shame on that photog... If you claim to be creative, at least do something original, not a copy-paste job...

basroil wrote in post #5917713
But flash can and does have links that open in same page and in new pages... Harder to do it now because adobe decided to beef up security at the cost of destroying massive amounts of flash files (mine included.. used to work fine, now the damn thing only works when there's www. in front of the address...). And flash can have an actual address for each page, just requires the use of javascript and possibly some server side scripting too... just too much of a pain for most people to deal with.

As for the site being a template... shame on that photog... If you claim to be creative, at least do something original, not a copy-paste job...

I was referring to the thread post above mine (not flash itself). The URLS mentioned weren't clickable at the time.

basroil wrote in post #5917713
As for the site being a template... shame on that photog... If you claim to be creative, at least do something original, not a copy-paste job...

Here's the thing that bothers me with that...

You really think that because you're a photographer you are also supposed to know how to use flash, php, or html?

Just because someone is creative doesn't mean they are creative in all things, there are tons of pros out there using templates. Why? They don't know all things about websites so they buy a template so they can get their work in front of people and get their name out.

If you've got the money, then you hire someone to do it for you and not worry about it. You know darn well that people like Joe Buissink and Yervant didn't go out and learn how to make a website just so they could satisfy their photographic peers. They plopped down a grand or two and said "Here, do this for me would ya?"

Besides, do you really think that the pros out there have the time to learn flash and php?

Flash is not the easiest thing in the world to learn.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be original, I'm saying not all photogs can be all things creative.

Mike30D wrote in post #5917904
Here's the thing that bothers me with that...

You really think that because you're a photographer you are also supposed to know how to use flash, php, or html?

Just because someone is creative doesn't mean they are creative in all things, there are tons of pros out there using templates. Why? They don't know all things about websites so they buy a template so they can get their work in front of people and get their name out.

If you've got the money, then you hire someone to do it for you and not worry about it. You know darn well that people like Joe Buissink and Yervant didn't go out and learn how to make a website just so they could satisfy their photographic peers. They plopped down a grand or two and said "Here, do this for me would ya?"

Besides, do you really think that the pros out there have the time to learn flash and php?

Flash is not the easiest thing in the world to learn.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be original, I'm saying not all photogs can be all things creative.

Not saying that at all. I just simply mean that they should have thought about the website image more carefully. Like I said earlier, a creative contract job would have been good. Just because you don't know how to use flash doesn't mean there aren't people who have a hobby in flash page design... much like photographers can be hobbiest or pro. Never said it was the photographer's job to make a website, just his job to have it reflect him rather than just another template. Most templates can also be customized enough so you don't know what the original template was, and free flash code is available in many places too. Bit of guess and check, copy and paste, screw up and try again.

basroil wrote in post #5918628
Not saying that at all. I just simply mean that they should have thought about the website image more carefully. Like I said earlier, a creative contract job would have been good. Just because you don't know how to use flash doesn't mean there aren't people who have a hobby in flash page design... much like photographers can be hobbiest or pro. Never said it was the photographer's job to make a website, just his job to have it reflect him rather than just another template. Most templates can also be customized enough so you don't know what the original template was, and free flash code is available in many places too. Bit of guess and check, copy and paste, screw up and try again.

Well, I should hope that if a photographer buys a template that he/she would at least customize it as much as they can. That would be just silly....

I think a lot of people (myself included) start with a template and as soon as the business gets off the ground then they look to have a site designed. Not always true though...

What engine? I think it's a hamster on a wheel.

Gatorboy wrote in post #5920289
What engine? I think it's a hamster on a wheel.

Gerbil. People always confuse the two.