I've spent this miserable weather converting a huge backlog of images and redesigning my website. Fundamentally its the same format but with a new, clean and uncluttered look. I also wanted to depersonalise it so its quite clinical.
I would really appreciate your feedback regarding the layout and feel of the site and size of the galleries. Also if you find any bugs or missing links please let me know.
Hi Elliott - can't find any bugs in Firefox.
I think you've achieved the look you were after - one of the best nature photography flash-driven sites I've come accross - very nice
One thing I would say though is that your galleries don't show off your 'portrait' format images at their best because of the smaller size - 400x600 will display fully without scrolling in a browser at 1024x768 monitor res - I know it's a problem when it comes to laying out your flash page & display, but I'd really try and change the portrait display size - the images are too good to viewed small Elliott
I have just taken a quick tour around your website.
I think you have done an excellent job. The layout and design, is simple, elegant, professional looking, easy to navigate, good choice of colour scheme, flash galleries are fine, everyone has Flash installed these days so this is a good approach. The articles section is nice, adds a bit of interest, photography sites can be very dull without some nice text to accompany the pictures.
Thumbs up from me, no nits.
cheers
Sean
p.s. glad to see Snake's Head Fritillary in your stock list
Nice looking site, although I also agree the portrait images need to be bigger.
Do you have a way for non-flash users to view the images? When I first re-designed my site using flash I had many people (including some from here) telling me I shouldn't 'assume' everyone has flash as many companies block certain types of content and browser plugins or do not have the latest versions. I fixed the problem pretty quickly although the fix is only evident to someone without flash or with an older version of it, so most people will never know its even there! Might be worth thinking about though, as was said to me 'the more people can view the site the better!'.
Great stuff - really looks good and like the design - I've always been a big fan of this kind of look for a website, and your high-quality images really suit it. No nits from me, everything worked fine on IE7, and you've taken the time to make sure people understand flash is needed for the galleries (what more can you do!) so I personally wouldn't worry about that.
Yep, you've done a great job on the new look website. The only thing I particularly liked about the old site was the colour, but that is a personal thing and very minor nit on a superb site.
Thanks to all for your feedback. Its very much appreciated. The general consensus is very positive which is great. One of the few benefits of my previous career as a website designer!
I will take a look at the portrait format images. It will take a bit of fiddling as the controls for the gallery may edge off the bottom of the page. It is a shame to squish them so much. I 'um and arred' about flash bit its been a standard build item in I.E. since version 5.0. I looked at the stats on my web server and nobody was surfing with anything older. I do have an alternative home page that detects the flash plug-in automatically and tell people about flash.
Hi Elliot,
I don't know the first thing about web design so I'll refain from commenting on that aspect.
However,I very much enjoyed viewing your wonderful collection of images and found your articles very interesting,useful and entertaining.
A site I'll no doubt be visiting many more times in the future.
I'm afraid I have disagree with the rest. I really dislike the way the main frame collapses towards the left when it switches from lansdcape to portrait format. It means I have to move the mouse to reposition for the next image. After awhile I got bored having to concentrate on finding and then reselecting the navigation thumbnails, which has been cropped off as the frame collapses, rather than concentrating on the main images. Personally I would kept the frame the same size and centred the portrait format images, this would keep the mouse on the thumbnails
Another minor thing is the slight jump if adjacent landscape images have slightly different vertical dimensions eg between the mallard and mandarin duck, again centring the images vertically on a fixed frame size wouls stop this happening.
They are distractions that imo spoil a site that visually appeals to me as it is clean with a good choice of colours and deisgn layout.
I run an lesser known browser called Deepnet but the same effect is seen in IE7
OK, on the whole its a favourable review. Kevin, I understand your frustration but the gallery is a built in template which I cannot reconfigure
I am currently assessing the new Flash galleries than come with Lightroom so this may change in the near future. The whole idea behind this site was that it is clean and easy to manage. It only takes a couple of clicks to update the galleries with new images. Because all the images are exported direct from my image management software, all the metadata is embedded and is displayed by the gallery.
Thanks all for the kind words on the images and site.
Discussion
13 repliesI've spent this miserable weather converting a huge backlog of images and redesigning my website. Fundamentally its the same format but with a new, clean and uncluttered look. I also wanted to depersonalise it so its quite clinical.
I would really appreciate your feedback regarding the layout and feel of the site and size of the galleries. Also if you find any bugs or missing links please let me know.
Thank you and I look forward to your feedback.
I think you've achieved the look you were after - one of the best nature photography flash-driven sites I've come accross - very nice
One thing I would say though is that your galleries don't show off your 'portrait' format images at their best because of the smaller size - 400x600 will display fully without scrolling in a browser at 1024x768 monitor res - I know it's a problem when it comes to laying out your flash page & display, but I'd really try and change the portrait display size - the images are too good to viewed small Elliott
Everything looks and works fine over here! Looks very professional!
Well done!
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
I have just taken a quick tour around your website.
I think you have done an excellent job. The layout and design, is simple, elegant, professional looking, easy to navigate, good choice of colour scheme, flash galleries are fine, everyone has Flash installed these days so this is a good approach. The articles section is nice, adds a bit of interest, photography sites can be very dull without some nice text to accompany the pictures.
Thumbs up from me, no nits.
cheers
Sean
p.s. glad to see Snake's Head Fritillary in your stock list
Do you have a way for non-flash users to view the images? When I first re-designed my site using flash I had many people (including some from here) telling me I shouldn't 'assume' everyone has flash as many companies block certain types of content and browser plugins or do not have the latest versions. I fixed the problem pretty quickly although the fix is only evident to someone without flash or with an older version of it, so most people will never know its even there! Might be worth thinking about though, as was said to me 'the more people can view the site the better!'.
:)
Great stuff - really looks good and like the design - I've always been a big fan of this kind of look for a website, and your high-quality images really suit it. No nits from me, everything worked fine on IE7, and you've taken the time to make sure people understand flash is needed for the galleries (what more can you do!) so I personally wouldn't worry about that.
Mark
p.s. love the fox pictures on there...
Yep, you've done a great job on the new look website. The only thing I particularly liked about the old site was the colour, but that is a personal thing and very minor nit on a superb site.
Regards Chris.
I will take a look at the portrait format images. It will take a bit of fiddling as the controls for the gallery may edge off the bottom of the page. It is a shame to squish them so much. I 'um and arred' about flash bit its been a standard build item in I.E. since version 5.0. I looked at the stats on my web server and nobody was surfing with anything older. I do have an alternative home page that detects the flash plug-in automatically and tell people about flash.
Thanks again!
A very clean and professional website (which is no surprise if you used to design them for a living!)
Always a pleasure to browse your work.
Pete
I don't know the first thing about web design so I'll refain from commenting on that aspect.
However,I very much enjoyed viewing your wonderful collection of images and found your articles very interesting,useful and entertaining.
A site I'll no doubt be visiting many more times in the future.
Another minor thing is the slight jump if adjacent landscape images have slightly different vertical dimensions eg between the mallard and mandarin duck, again centring the images vertically on a fixed frame size wouls stop this happening.
They are distractions that imo spoil a site that visually appeals to me as it is clean with a good choice of colours and deisgn layout.
I run an lesser known browser called Deepnet but the same effect is seen in IE7
I am currently assessing the new Flash galleries than come with Lightroom so this may change in the near future. The whole idea behind this site was that it is clean and easy to manage. It only takes a couple of clicks to update the galleries with new images. Because all the images are exported direct from my image management software, all the metadata is embedded and is displayed by the gallery.
Thanks all for the kind words on the images and site.