New Website

gazza1201 wrote in post #8380068
Good job

Thanks.

looks very nice, but me PERSONALLY. I would remove the music. not that I find it bad, but others may not be into that music etc.

but thats my own opinion

I personally enjoy the music, and I'm sure others do as well. It brings something to the website and also is another outlet for the photographers personality in my opinion. Overall, I enjoy the site. Some of the pictures in the portfolio were a little plain compared to others, but not bad by an means.

I have a long and proud history of responding to these types of posts with a bunch of critiques and suggestions, but I'll have to say I really, really, like your site. It's smooth, elegant, doesn't smack of self-indulgence; I'd love something like this for myself.

My only suggestions is to consider your text color. On my office monitor (which is an uncalibrated LCD), the blue text is very dark, the orange text is almost unreadable.

Peacefield wrote in post #8389662
I have a long and proud history of responding to these types of posts with a bunch of critiques and suggestions, but I'll have to say I really, really, like your site. It's smooth, elegant, doesn't smack of self-indulgence; I'd love something like this for myself.

My only suggestions is to consider your text color. On my office monitor (which is an uncalibrated LCD), the blue text is very dark, the orange text is almost unreadable.

Thank you for the comment, It took a while to get it the way we wanted. We have recently been trying not to let go of the text color since it goes with the site feel, but that is the main comment comming up so I will be looking for another text color. Besides how many potential brides calibrate their monitor before looking for a photographer...I'm sure just as many don't look at the office.

Thanks again.

RyanK wrote in post #8386747
I personally enjoy the music, and I'm sure others do as well. It brings something to the website and also is another outlet for the photographers personality in my opinion. Overall, I enjoy the site. Some of the pictures in the portfolio were a little plain compared to others, but not bad by an means.

smachin: I appreciate you comments abouthte music, and we even toyed with adding a link on the front page to go in with no music. I agree, some one could be turned off by the music and leave right then. But if that's all it takes to turn them off then I question if it's really about the photographer and his/her work. You bring up a good point, hopefully I won't loose too many and if they don't line the music they will just turn it off. Thanks.

RyanK: Thanks for your comments too Ryan, going back through the galleries there are a few images that can use a little boost so they don't look flat compared to others. (Problem with looking at your own images for too long) Glad you enjoyed the site, always feels good to put a product out that people enjoy. Thanks!

I absolutely love it. Text color and all. I wouldn't change a thing.

The music is easy to turn off...and I think it adds a nice touch.

Lovely site only gripe i have is the color of the text espically when you click on portfolio its kinda a hard to read the text in the drop down menu that appears other thank that great site dude

jenchfoto wrote in post #8399749
I absolutely love it. Text color and all. I wouldn't change a thing.

The music is easy to turn off...and I think it adds a nice touch.

Thanks for the comments! I really appreciate it!

Stevie@JC wrote in post #8399801
Lovely site only gripe i have is the color of the text espically when you click on portfolio its kinda a hard to read the text in the drop down menu that appears other thank that great site dude

I'm checking out some options I'll let you know when I make a change. Thanks,
Brian

Hey, Brian. I'm impressed enough with what you've done to consider working with flashpallete myself. How have you found the experience, both working with them and their tool as well as getting the whole thing hosted and hooking in e-mail?

I know nothing of Flash, but this does seem to be an appealing solution. My only real apprehension is the Flash thing and the elements I can't control. For one thing, I consider the labels they have for the e-mail form to be a little clunky. I asked about just relabeling the fields and got what I'm sure is their standard "$50/hour" message. Any experience with customizations? Thanks.

Peacefield wrote in post #8409443
Hey, Brian. I'm impressed enough with what you've done to consider working with flashpallete myself. How have you found the experience, both working with them and their tool as well as getting the whole thing hosted and hooking in e-mail?

I know nothing of Flash, but this does seem to be an appealing solution. My only real apprehension is the Flash thing and the elements I can't control. For one thing, I consider the labels they have for the e-mail form to be a little clunky. I asked about just relabeling the fields and got what I'm sure is their standard "$50/hour" message. Any experience with customizations? Thanks.

I found the application very easy to use, no issues what so ever, the good thing about their product is that you can download the template and start customizing it before you start using it, even upload it to your server before hand and verify it's working the way you expect. Although there is a preview button that will let you view the site locally.

Hosting was very easy as they only sell the site (not sure how they make more money year over year besides new customers and upgrades) they do not do hosting. I went through GoDaddy, give you a free email address. All you do is upload (FTP) the files on your PC to the Host server and you up and ready to go. If you make changes to the site you just need to make sure you re-upload the XML folder with your changes.

Hooking in email was not a problem either, just put your email address in the text field in the site application and you can have multiple email addresses, currently mine sends out 3 emails when people submit the form.

I think you maybe able to customize the form text in the XML data, I'll look at it tonight and let you know (I have experience with that from Java).

Brian.

So do you like flashpalatte? I think I'm gonna go that route when my business is in full swing. Right now I'm using a blog template. Great stuff!

sweetypie925 wrote in post #8410282
So do you like flashpalatte? I think I'm gonna go that route when my business is in full swing. Right now I'm using a blog template. Great stuff!

I like them a lot, it's a good option to start with since you can download and customize before you buy the product. Not many other sites let you do that, I would recommend them.

Everything has been said that I wanted to say, except I really like the Polaroid shots, gave me a few ideas.

Steve