Need some opinions...new web site design.

[twebster]

Hi y'all,

I've been busy working on a new web site design. I'm trying to get away from fancy graphics and just trying to present a simple, clean web site that is easy to navigate. I am most especially interested in what y'all think of my images gallery. Eventually, I will have a print order procedure in place in the image galleries. All critiques are welcomed and appreciated.

Tom Webster Photography

Best regards to all, as always
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Tom Webster

Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA

The worst day photographing dragonflies is better than the best day working!

[Mike B in OKlahoma]

I have a poor sense of design, so I hesitate to comment, but I never let common sense stop me....

I found the site simple enough to navigate, though the gallery (which is what I think you particularly sought comment on) was pretty simply structured. Only comment I can think of on it is that the categories strike me as a bit odd. "cactus flowers"? Do you expect to have an especially huge collection of those, sort of a specialty? Admittedly, you live in a good spot to accomplish that!

Color scheme doesn't draw attention to itself, which I suspect is how you want it.

I liked your "Focus" article quite a bit, I've had similar thoughts not as well-articulated or formed.
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Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
--Calvin

[twebster]

Hi ya' Mike,

Thank you so much for taking the time to view the web site. Your comments are what I was hoping to hear. Quick, simple, bloodless...sort of. I did set up the galleries to focus the viewer on the image first and it seems I have achieved that goal. Did you click on the images to view the larger sized images?

As regards the albums...well...yes, they are a bit esoteric as I am just in the testing phase. However, "cactus flowers" may become an album of its own. I made about 300 cactus flower images this last spring and most are still in the RAW format If I combine my 35mm archives from past years I have about 3,000 cactus flower images.

Best regards to you as always, my friend
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Tom Webster

Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA

The worst day photographing dragonflies is better than the best day working!

[salden]

I like it Tom. I also liked your articles. I think you have a good color scheme going as well.
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Sue Alden

[Carl_Constantine]

Well, as web site design and programming is one part of my business, I'll comment as well :-)

Only good things to say. layout is simple and easy to find things. Gallery is the same software for our membership gallery and is pretty easy to use and find things. You need more articles :-) and there is one list but in your essays (extra bullet) which I'm sure will go away once you fill out the site.

Overall, it's fine. One suggestion is rotate the front page image from time to time, or set up a series of 12 or so images that are randomly chosen. It will give some dynamicness to the site.
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Carl B. Constantine

[twebster]

Thanks for your input, Carl and Sue,

JUst what I wanted to hear. I just wanted to keep this site as simple as possible. I want everything to concentrate on the photography and method. Yes, I will be adding more articles. Right now I've got just the basic structure up for comments. I did a lot of editing to the CSS of the Coppermine Gallery and to the page templates. I have a shopping cart mod I will be adding to the gallery when I get all of the images loaded. So far so good.

Thanks, my friends
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Tom Webster

Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA

The worst day photographing dragonflies is better than the best day working!

[georgedingwall]

Hi Tom,

I like your website for it's simplicity. Some photography sites you go to are fiendishly difficult to find your way around.

I have a couple of comments.

First, I checked your site out from a laptop, and had to scroll down to find your navigation links which were at the very bottom of the page. The same thing when I opened one of your lovely images, there was a thumbnail bar at the bottom of the screen outside the view I had on the laptop. It might be better if you could put your navigation tools at the side or at the top of the page like you have on the Articles page.

The second thing is that the images you show on the site are quite large and I could see no copyright protection on them. As these images are to be for sale, you may want to consider embedding a copyright notice onto the images.

Bye for now.
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George Dingwall

Invergordon, Scotland

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/

[DaveW]

As a cactophile I am waiting to see the other cactus flowers besides Opuntias!

Would not simply "Cactus" be less restricting, because the stems are often as decorative as the flowers?

DaveW

[twebster]

Hi ya' George,

Thanks for looking at my web site. I'm kind of stuck with the navigation links as they are in the image galleries. I modified the Coppermine Photo Gallery software to display my galleries as I wish them to be displayed. Unfortunately, the links are all at the bottom of the page.

Yes, I did make the images larger. The intermediate sized images are 800 pixels and the full size images are 1024 pixels. I did this in response to a recent web survey that stated the average surfer is using a 19" or larger monitor set to 1280 x 960 pixels. I figured the intermediate size images should display OK on smaller monitors. I do apologize that the images are so large on a laptop/notebook screen.

I haven't bothered putting on the copyright symbols yet since I am just testing the site. I am preparing an overlay that should take care of that soon enough. Thanks for your concern, George.

Hi ya' Dave,

I agree, "Cactus" would be better, however...I haven't any images of the stems or pads. Seems I have neglected these while photographing the flowers

Thank you, gentlemen, for your input.
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Tom Webster

Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA

The worst day photographing dragonflies is better than the best day working!

[beetleman]

When can I buy the poster size prints Tom???
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Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda

[Ken Ramos]

Well I have read what folks have to say so far Tom. I know little about website design myself but your new site is easy to navigate. The navigation links are both on top and at the bottom of the page, making them easily accessible. Someone commented on having them out to the side, I suppose that would be personal preference but they are fine where they are for me. I viewed your site on both a 19" monitor and on my teeny little notebook laptop with a 12" screen and the site appeared fine on both. As I said, I know little about website design but your layout looks good to me.

[Biologyben]

It seems like an excellent start to the website.

I, however, am like George who uses a laptop. My max screen size is 1024x768. It would be particuarly helpful to have your main navigation bar (Essays, Galleries, Order Prints, About Me, Contact) at both the top and bottom of the homepage (index.htm) and gallery, just like you have it on your 'essay' and 'about me' pages (consistancy!). It may seem redundant but would prevent the needless confusion & scrolling for many users. Also, I don't personally prefer the new window when you open the gallery. I personally prefer external links to pop new windows, and internal ones to open in the current window.

Last thing. When I view the large images (800x600), the coppermine tool bar above the image (that lists 'File 1/4', forward and back buttons, etc) is perhaps 30 pixels wider than anything else. This forces a bottom scroll bar on my screen. This should be an easy fix in either the php or css to force it to the same size as the breadcrumb trail nav-bar (Home > Avian Images > Shore Birds, etc)

These are just little nitpicks but will really make the site seem professionally done

Good work so far!