Posted by Momo Vuyisich on September 21, 2006 at 3:32 PM
Hi all.
I know everyone is excited about fall colors, but if you have time and interest, I would really appreciate any comments on my new website. It is:
www.wildwestgallery.com
I will be adding a few more galleries for several Western States (I think my best pics are from Colorado and Utah), but all I have for now is New Mexico. Thank you for your time.
Posted by Adam Schallau on September 21, 2006 at 3:50 PM
Clean, simple, and easy on the eyes. I would like to see some info about the images such as location or a title, but that is a minor nit. I look forward to the other galleries and congrats on getting a site up.
Posted by Brent Murphy on September 21, 2006 at 4:02 PM
Looks like a good start, but I'd be able to offer some more comments if there was a little more content. For now, here are some quick thoughts. And please take these as suggestions, not criticisms in any way:
- It seems like your image at the top of the page is pretty wide. I usually don't like to have my browser window open that wide, even with my 1280x1024 resolution. Just a preference though. It would be nice if that image would shrink to fit the browser width if necessary. I'm guessing now, but it seems like you might need to open your browser to it's maximum width to see the full image at 1024x768.
- Personally, I'm not a big fan of textured backgrounds. I've grown to like solid colors instead. Using a solid color also helps when you are trying to make graphics blend in with the background, because you can easily set your page background color as your image background in Photoshop when editing your images. The header image on my site is not the best example, but it's an example nonetheless.
- I would recommend putting more thought into the design of the navigation buttons. These look like they were probably a default button with your web design software. Try to get the buttons to work with the overall site design. And the text on these buttons can be quite a bit smaller.
- I would recommend using CSS to change the default link appearance. The default color for a regular link is blue, a "visited" link is purple. Using CSS, you can change these so that the colors appear the way you want them, to work with your overall site design, instead of the browser default.
- I like the black border around the thumbnails.
- I definitely don't like the "wildwestgallery.com" text on your large images. I have no problem with the concept, but I would recommend toning down the effect quite a bit. As you currently show it, it's very distracting. If you are doing this for image protection, I would recommend doing something on a separate layer in Photoshop, then setting that layer to 10% transparency or something. You will still get the same effect of protecting the image, but it won't distract as much while viewing the image.
- A good way to not worry about people stealing your images is to use smaller images. Your photos are great, but they are huge. Actually, your vertical images may be a little big, but your horizontal images are much larger. Looks like you used the same vertical dimension for both horizontal and vertical images, making the horizontals much larger. Maybe decide that the long dimension of either horizontal or vertical images will be 800 pixels, for example.
- I assume you just haven't gotten around to this yet, but you really need some info about each image. Title/description, etc.
I am guessing that others will have replied by the time I finally send my response. Interested to hear what others have to say...
Posted by Scott Bacon on September 21, 2006 at 4:36 PM
In addition to what's been said, I'd like to see navigation buttons on individual image pages that would allow me to go from one image to the next without returning to the thumbnail gallery each time.
Try to think about "ease of use." The easier it is for visitors to cruise around your site, the longer they'll stay. Your images are excellent and deserve an equally good home.
Posted by Guy Tal on September 21, 2006 at 5:20 PM
I agree with the above, just wanted to add that the images are top notch and that's really the 80% "there".
Guy
Posted by Grant Collier on September 21, 2006 at 5:26 PM
I like how you can go right to the images, rather than have to wade through intro pages or look for a link for them. The large images seem a bit big, as you can't view the full image and the frame on the screen with standard browser settings. I always try and view my web page at 800x600 to make sure it still works at that browser resolution. Of course, fewer and fewer people will be using this resolution in the future, but I'd definitely make sure it works for 1024 x 768. And I agree with Brent about not liking the text on the images. I'd much rather risk a few people stealing small scans than risk losing a sale because the watermark is so distracting to the shot. Otherwise, it's a good start.
Posted by Rick Dunn on September 21, 2006 at 6:01 PM
Nice start, Momo. As Guy said, the images are the most imporant and in that regard, you've got a solid portfolio.
A more subtle watermark/copyright is a must. You've got strong images, but the watermark really undermines the viewing experience. I do like the large images, but if you're concerned about theft, I'd suggest going for smaller images and a more subtle watermark.
With regards to graphics, buttons, etc., I agree that making them a little smaller will make for a more pleasing design. If you can avoid scrolling, that's great. Having to scroll down isn't a big deal, imo. But it would be best to not have to scroll across and down.
Ditto Scott's comment: having a way to get from image to image, and back to the thumbnail page from the image page, would be very helpful.
After I clicked on the New Mexico gallery, when I went back to the home page, the link/text color had changed, but it changed to a color that is very difficult to see against the grey background (it was a gold color).
Please hurry up and remove the watermark - I want to print some of those!
Posted by Momo Vuyisich on September 21, 2006 at 7:33 PM
Rick, that was very funny!
To all: THANKS THANKS THANKS! I am very humbled by all your help. It also looks like I have a lot of work to do. I agree with a lot of the suggestions and will do my best to implement them.
Thanks again.
Momo
Posted by James H Egbert on September 22, 2006 at 4:15 PM
Nice looking so far Momo!
Posted by Stacy Egan on September 22, 2006 at 9:09 PM
You have beautiful images, Momo! I think you've received some good advice that makes sense to me. One think I'll add: the use of the gray color scheme works well to contrast with your very colorful photos, making them stand out better.
Discussion
9 repliesI know everyone is excited about fall colors, but if you have time and interest, I would really appreciate any comments on my new website. It is:
www.wildwestgallery.com
I will be adding a few more galleries for several Western States (I think my best pics are from Colorado and Utah), but all I have for now is New Mexico. Thank you for your time.
- It seems like your image at the top of the page is pretty wide. I usually don't like to have my browser window open that wide, even with my 1280x1024 resolution. Just a preference though. It would be nice if that image would shrink to fit the browser width if necessary. I'm guessing now, but it seems like you might need to open your browser to it's maximum width to see the full image at 1024x768.
- Personally, I'm not a big fan of textured backgrounds. I've grown to like solid colors instead. Using a solid color also helps when you are trying to make graphics blend in with the background, because you can easily set your page background color as your image background in Photoshop when editing your images. The header image on my site is not the best example, but it's an example nonetheless.
- I would recommend putting more thought into the design of the navigation buttons. These look like they were probably a default button with your web design software. Try to get the buttons to work with the overall site design. And the text on these buttons can be quite a bit smaller.
- I would recommend using CSS to change the default link appearance. The default color for a regular link is blue, a "visited" link is purple. Using CSS, you can change these so that the colors appear the way you want them, to work with your overall site design, instead of the browser default.
- I like the black border around the thumbnails.
- I definitely don't like the "wildwestgallery.com" text on your large images. I have no problem with the concept, but I would recommend toning down the effect quite a bit. As you currently show it, it's very distracting. If you are doing this for image protection, I would recommend doing something on a separate layer in Photoshop, then setting that layer to 10% transparency or something. You will still get the same effect of protecting the image, but it won't distract as much while viewing the image.
- A good way to not worry about people stealing your images is to use smaller images. Your photos are great, but they are huge. Actually, your vertical images may be a little big, but your horizontal images are much larger. Looks like you used the same vertical dimension for both horizontal and vertical images, making the horizontals much larger. Maybe decide that the long dimension of either horizontal or vertical images will be 800 pixels, for example.
- I assume you just haven't gotten around to this yet, but you really need some info about each image. Title/description, etc.
I am guessing that others will have replied by the time I finally send my response. Interested to hear what others have to say...
Try to think about "ease of use." The easier it is for visitors to cruise around your site, the longer they'll stay. Your images are excellent and deserve an equally good home.
Guy
A more subtle watermark/copyright is a must. You've got strong images, but the watermark really undermines the viewing experience. I do like the large images, but if you're concerned about theft, I'd suggest going for smaller images and a more subtle watermark.
With regards to graphics, buttons, etc., I agree that making them a little smaller will make for a more pleasing design. If you can avoid scrolling, that's great. Having to scroll down isn't a big deal, imo. But it would be best to not have to scroll across and down.
Ditto Scott's comment: having a way to get from image to image, and back to the thumbnail page from the image page, would be very helpful.
After I clicked on the New Mexico gallery, when I went back to the home page, the link/text color had changed, but it changed to a color that is very difficult to see against the grey background (it was a gold color).
Please hurry up and remove the watermark - I want to print some of those!
To all: THANKS THANKS THANKS! I am very humbled by all your help. It also looks like I have a lot of work to do. I agree with a lot of the suggestions and will do my best to implement them.
Thanks again.
Momo