DSLR Photography Forum

I just finished my website, i've got it up, but not under the domain name I want yet, shouldn't be long though. i'd love to get some feedback/opinions on how it looks.
I know next to nothing about this stuff, but whipped it up in iweb on my new mac.
Anyway, see what you think...
Inspired Images

Thanks

Wow, Schell, I think your site is just awesome!

I like the colour scheme, and the portfolio you have up really shows off your skills! I hope the business goes well... any clients yet?

hi

very nice, i love the font...whats is it?

small sugestion, the background paper http://home.exetel.com.au/fulcher/Inspir..._bkgnd.png maybe you should slide it or just make a small one and then strech itor just save it and comprese it more. the problem is that it takes a bit too long to load.

thanks for sharing

christian

is that the going rate for porttrait?

ps: the little icon for email me on the last page is not working. but you have ur email on top.

wow is right!!!!! You have done a great job there Schell. I love the scrapbook look and layout! Nice and clean not too busy. It has a welcoming feel to it.

Wish you every success.

jules, well, I haven't 'officially' opened yet. So far, there has been plenty of talk, but not much action in the client stakes. I'm happy to take it slow as its really just an 'on the side' project at the moment. Though my brother just got engaged and asked me to be photographer :/ but seeing as I've never done a wedding before, I told him I'd be happy to go second photographer and I'd give him the photos I do as a wedding present.

Thanks christian, the script font is Zapfino (its a mac standard font) . The other thing i think might be making it slow is the fact that I dragged the full sized images into the template...I'm thinking perhaps I should resize them (der!).

I think the going rate is quite a bit more than I've put up there. But, as I said, I'm starting small and just looking to hone my skills and see what the demand is like, and how people like my work. I worked out my prices by getting out the price list I was given when I got married (which was actually discounted because the photographer was my parent's neighbour) and halving it. I'm hoping that I will be busy enough to need to put up my prices by the end of the year. Or maybe you think I'm charging too much? I planning on handing out 'free 8x10' cards to people to try and get things going.
I might just delete the email icon, that might make it simpler, thanks for the heads up.

Russ, thanks...but I can't really take the credit, it was a mac template. I'm glad it has a welcoming feel to it though

Thanks for all your positive comments! I'll let you know how things go once I take the plunge :o

wow Schell! :o

That was out of the blue... but... wow.. It looks fantastic!

The photos you've posted, the look and feel of the gallery, the general idea behind the business, your target audience, and your photographic strengths all come together beautifully here.
And the website includes everything it needs to and nothing more. Simple.

I also admire your pricing approach as well. As long as it is worth your while financially (make sure you aren't ripping yourself off), the quality you are offering at the price is an absolute bargain!

At first glance it looks like you could be onto a real winner here. Of course there's a lot more to a business than just a website, but its a fantastic start.

great

Hey definitely agree with Kombi with pricing... you may be just starting out / testing the waters, so I can see how you would want to price yourself a bit lower... that's good to start off with, make sure you don't sell yourself short in the long run!

Especially with your talents..

I love the site and wish you well on the business side too. I will say that it took a little long to load but was worth the wait.

........... Shawn

P.S. I admire ( sp ) you for taking the next step in photography. As i know i have much more to learn , Thats the step i cant wait to take.......

Thanks all, my head is very big after reading all your comments
I wish I knew more about how these things work, haven't been able to 'fix' the long loadig time as of yet.

Thanks for the feedback re the prices, it was really hard to know where to start, but I figure as long as I'm covering costs and making some money, I can always put prices up if I get too busy or whatever.
I still feel like a bit of a fraud, as I've had no formal training...but time will tell I suppose :/

Next step will be to start handing business cards out and hopefully take some bookings!

hi

what i have done is resize and cut it out ur background, so now you need to replace it and stretch to what dimission you want it.



take care

christian

hi

i though maybe you want a enter page on your website? i hope you do not mind that i copy your shot. Im just trying to help. i have also slice it for you so that it will load faster











uuhmm a bit big..i have to resize it a bit later...im a bit tired at the moment..... anyway tell me if you like or not.

take care

Your site looks fantastic. Well done Schell. The template you are using is bang on. The only suggestion I will make is that you get out and photograph some people other than your direct family. The photos you present are of all the same people. Use your friends to build your portfolio. Offer them free prints to get them to pose for you.

Yes, you are completly right there colin. That's sort of why i'm starting up the business, cos i'm running out of willing subjects. I will be printing out some vouchers for free 8x10 prints to hand out to everyone I haven't shot yet.
Byrt, thanks that looks lovely...but i was sort of using the welcome page as my enter page. Or perhaps i need an enter page so people having something to look at while the rest of the site loads? The other problem is I don't know how to put it in using iweb. Its a pretty basic program and only has limited functions.

I personally do not like a front delay page... I want to get straight into the meat of the site. If you check around very few peofessional sites have an entry page that doesn't also act as the home page.

Great work there Schell

To make sure your speed issue is minimized and for the safety of your images reduce all DPI settings to 72. You can compress to the jpg's to around 7 without degrading quality, but save as a copy just to make sure no artifacts are introduced.