Posted by Rob Coomer on April 23, 2007 at 12:12 AM
I've been rebuilding my website since the beginning of the year, and after 3 or 4 restarts, I have finally got it close to final. I still need to add images to the gallery, but otherwise the framework is complete and operational. The main thing I have done is to add in a blog to allow easier updates and to allow me to post insights on new and past images. I think this will also clean the site up and add organization and archivability for old information.
I'm also torn between a portfolio of only a select few images vs a much larger catalog of images. I'm not really thinking stock, more for the gallery that carries my work and keeps asking me for more images to show clients.
I'm also still chasing down some technical bugs. I noticed on a PC at a gallery while showing them the new site, the gallery button wouldn't work under I.E. I modified the template and may have fixed it, but I'm on a Mac, and can't reproduce the problem.
I'm going to throw out another question, when you replace a website, what do you do about the links to the old site from search engines and such? Do you just dump the old pages and let the search engines re index, hoping to get the same searches and placement? Do you keep the old pages, but maybe replace the navigation with a link to the new site, or just a url redirect? A file not found error message that leads you to the new site?
In viewing other sites during my redesign, I've found many of the sites I had bookmarked on specific pages, were not there. So I ended up with an error message and then I went to the base url to find the updated site.
I keep wondering if I'm loosing something by just redirectinf them, but realistically it's better to get them on the new site and newer content, though now they have to search for the item again, I just need to make sure the same keywords and names are there for the search engines to pick up again.
You mentioned my cave images, a friend and fellow caver who has purchased some of my images in the past and is comfortable with art and galleries, is concerned my background is too dark for my cave images.
What do you think?
The old background was more grey and textured. If this is viewed as a problem, I'm wondering if a white or grey "matt" like border or keyline would be the fix or if I should change the gallery background.
Rob, I think he may have a point. Perhaps a lighter mat will help them stand out better. Then again, I didn't find it to be an issue when I browsed the gallery. I guess the mood of the image and the fact that most of them fade to black around the edges anyway helps retain the feeling.
Rob,
I like the new site. Is that Wordpress you're using? If so it works great for a gallery. I use it on my blog and love it.
Couple of things, for your old site I'd just put up a redirect. Explain to them that the site has moved and that they will be redirected there in a few seconds. That worked fine for me.
As for the dark BG, I think it's a little to dark for your cave images (which are awesome by the way). Maybe a lighter gray, like what you have at the bottom of the gradient, would look better.
I use FireFox as my browser and everything works fine. I just checked it out in IE and the gallery button worked.
Good job on the new site. Hope it works out great for you.
Nice layout and navigation is pretty simple. I agree about the bg for the cave images, maybe a border of some form so they don't fade into the BG? I noticed you have a duplicated set of links, one in the tabs and one labelled Pages on the RHS of the page. The link to the gallery section appears only in the tabs, so I was left wondering where the link was initially. Was there any particular reason for having the seperate categories section of links?
Regarding the new and old sites is there any reason you wouldn't just place the new site under your old URL?, the links would still lead you to the same place at least links to your homepage would. If you wanted to keep your old site for a while you place a link to it from your new home page. That way search engines would still find you and then work out you had updated and re index as they needed to. If you have reciprocal links it may be a courtesy to inform people linking to you of the new site.
Posted by Rob Coomer on April 23, 2007 at 10:47 PM
Hi Steven,
The site is Wordpress, with Gallery 2, and the g2embeded plugin. There have been challenges and there are still things I don't like, including the posting date and author under the headline of the static pages.
Chris, what you are seeing is the blog characterisitcs carrying over into the rest of the site. I have not yet figured out how to add the gallery link to the page list on the right, but I did figure out how to add it to the index tabs.
I will move the site to the normal URL once it's done. I will probably use the redirect to the new site.
I considered deleting the right hand navigation, but I like the redundancy, if I can just figure how to add the gallery link. I have considered a static page to introduce the gallery that would automatically add itself, but I don't like the delay it adds to get to the gallery.
I also need to figure out how to add custom templates so I can modify the blog, or actually modify the static pages without modifying the blog format.
I'll experiment with the color or using mats to see how they affect the presentation of the images.
Posted by Rob Coomer on April 24, 2007 at 11:11 AM
I've added a white mat with a black keyline to my cave and farmscape images, what do you think?
Discussion
9 repliesI'm also torn between a portfolio of only a select few images vs a much larger catalog of images. I'm not really thinking stock, more for the gallery that carries my work and keeps asking me for more images to show clients.
I'm also still chasing down some technical bugs. I noticed on a PC at a gallery while showing them the new site, the gallery button wouldn't work under I.E. I modified the template and may have fixed it, but I'm on a Mac, and can't reproduce the problem.
The new site is temporarily stored at:
http://www.gallery315.com
My old site:
http://www.robertcoomer.com
I'm looking for any and all feedback, especially on design and usability.
Guy
In viewing other sites during my redesign, I've found many of the sites I had bookmarked on specific pages, were not there. So I ended up with an error message and then I went to the base url to find the updated site.
Guy
I keep wondering if I'm loosing something by just redirectinf them, but realistically it's better to get them on the new site and newer content, though now they have to search for the item again, I just need to make sure the same keywords and names are there for the search engines to pick up again.
You mentioned my cave images, a friend and fellow caver who has purchased some of my images in the past and is comfortable with art and galleries, is concerned my background is too dark for my cave images.
What do you think?
The old background was more grey and textured. If this is viewed as a problem, I'm wondering if a white or grey "matt" like border or keyline would be the fix or if I should change the gallery background.
Guy
I like the new site. Is that Wordpress you're using? If so it works great for a gallery. I use it on my blog and love it.
Couple of things, for your old site I'd just put up a redirect. Explain to them that the site has moved and that they will be redirected there in a few seconds. That worked fine for me.
As for the dark BG, I think it's a little to dark for your cave images (which are awesome by the way). Maybe a lighter gray, like what you have at the bottom of the gradient, would look better.
I use FireFox as my browser and everything works fine. I just checked it out in IE and the gallery button worked.
Good job on the new site. Hope it works out great for you.
Regarding the new and old sites is there any reason you wouldn't just place the new site under your old URL?, the links would still lead you to the same place at least links to your homepage would. If you wanted to keep your old site for a while you place a link to it from your new home page. That way search engines would still find you and then work out you had updated and re index as they needed to. If you have reciprocal links it may be a courtesy to inform people linking to you of the new site.
The site is Wordpress, with Gallery 2, and the g2embeded plugin. There have been challenges and there are still things I don't like, including the posting date and author under the headline of the static pages.
Chris, what you are seeing is the blog characterisitcs carrying over into the rest of the site. I have not yet figured out how to add the gallery link to the page list on the right, but I did figure out how to add it to the index tabs.
I will move the site to the normal URL once it's done. I will probably use the redirect to the new site.
I considered deleting the right hand navigation, but I like the redundancy, if I can just figure how to add the gallery link. I have considered a static page to introduce the gallery that would automatically add itself, but I don't like the delay it adds to get to the gallery.
I also need to figure out how to add custom templates so I can modify the blog, or actually modify the static pages without modifying the blog format.
I'll experiment with the color or using mats to see how they affect the presentation of the images.
http://www.gallery315.com/wp-gallery2.php
I'll have to adjust some of the images if I keep the mats. I'm not sure I like them on the farmscape. I think they do look nice of the b+w cave shots.