Opinions on my photography site

[Chronicdiving]

Hey Guys!
I am a photographer by fire and web designer by choice. I designed this website for the photographer I work for and might be interested in making some changes to it. Effectively what I'm looking for is feedback on the current site from other photographers so that I can help make the next version of the site even better. Thanks a lot!


Clarifications: I am Raymond of Steel Nerve Designs, the site is www.PeterCuttsPhotography.com of Peter Cutts who is both my employer and a client of mine.

Thanks!

[BrianHines]

Ok well here goes.

a few things:

1. You have no meta data in there (keywords for the search engines)
2. on the payment screen. Scripting should be changed to https to enable the ssl and ensure customers know that their data is protected.
3. The site navigation should be present on every page to make it easy to get around.
4. This site is a little boring. I would incorporate some php galleries or flash to spice it up a bit.
5. Half the site does not work (I’m sure you know that)
6. His email address is at aol.com.... seriously? Tell him to make a email address at his domain name.
7. That domain name is silly long. He should at very least shorten it to petercuttsphoto.com or better yet Cuttsphoto.com

Hope this helps

[Chronicdiving]

In regards to number 2: the ssl is enabled, how do you mean it's not? Having HTTPS might be nice, but it's secure as it is.
In regards to number 4: This is a choice made by Peter not myself, it's a simple european look and is exactly as simple as he likes it. The photos speak for themselves is his opinion
In regards to number 5: What do you mean 1/2 the site does not work?
In regards to number 6: Constructive?...
In regards to number 7: Not much that he can do about it now...

Thank you for your input and it will be noted.

[Ozscot]

I don't get why someone who has access to President Bush, Colin Powell, Angelina Jolie, Sean Connery etc has such an 'awkward' looking site with an aol contact address???

I really don't see much difference between how it looks now and how it looked 3 years ago other than the fact a few things (most notably the title) have been shuffled around? - I found it 'awkward' with slow loading times too....sorry.

Oz

[Chronicdiving]

Slow load times? I'm not sure there's much to load there...Also, how do you mean 3 years ago, did you visit it before or did you find the old site on the way back machine?

Thank you

[candleman]

my only constructive statement could be, it may be better to have a single tab for "portfolio" and then have sub-headings/pages to go to "celebrity", "corporate" etc etc.

i'm not a fan of the thumbnail/movie strip down the left, theres too much to look at all at once before i've decided what i want to look at.

good luck.!

[Ozscot]

It maybe my browser but it took a while for the left hand column to appear - maybe 20 seconds or so. I looked it over from 2002 until now and though between 2002 and 05 there were quite a few changes - the look and feel it has now appears to have been there since 2005 ?

Oz

[Chronicdiving]

interesting, I actually never noticed the filmstrip loading slowly...I became his webdesigner and photography assistant in 2004 so until then the site was maintained by someone else, thus for the steady look since my arrival. It seems some say too bland and some say too busy...very interesting...keep the comments coming please!

[Mr Guy]

Needs to degrade gracefully for people who ashew the abomination that is flash. I was sitting there, going, why is everything blank, before I flipped to IE and went, "Oh, flash only, DENIED".

[teddirez]

I have to agree with Brian on this one, understanding that your client/employer is after simplicity, its your job as the designer to gear them toward what makes a website pop! He is no doubt a fantastic photographer but who knows more about web design, you or him?

Whilst a lot of 'togs use their name as their business name, the domain is always going to be long. Thats not too huge an issue except when fitting it on the biz cards, however, not utilising the domain name for emails is really a huge no no for professional design.

I would keep the left hand navigation menu on the front page consistent across all pages, that will assist in keeping the flow of the site simple.

Having purchased an SSL certificate doesnt make the site secure, it needs to reside on the secure part of the server for it to actually be encrypted.

If you need any help with complete hosting solutions just sing out and i'll be more than happy to help.