I am a brave soul, I am...

[arsifferlen]

I'm shakin' in my boots, but I value the opinions on here, so here goes...

Critique my site and blog, please.

Work in progress...so have mercy, but be honest. Spank you.

...and if this is in the wrong spot, please tell me and I will gladly post it elsewhere....

[Athas_orm]

Okay. If your sure you want this, please don't take offense.

I strong advise against opening popups to each part. Especially for the enter link. As far as people are concened they are already on your website. clicking enter shouldn't bring you to a new page.

Your spash page doesn't really match in style to your flash application. Put the copyright on the bottom of the splash page.

Putting the main part in flash makes it very difficult for search engines to index your site. This is bad.

The animation on the "home" page doesn't really do much for me but thats just personal taste. I find it a bit distracting especially if I see an image I like and I can't pause it to look at the image.

When trying to fill in the Contact form I can't tab through the fields. Which is annoying.

Its slightly on the difficult side to read the "post-it" note on the contact page. You list a phone number but don't list the country. This is probably a bad thing. I'm going to assume US?

On Proofing Page It isn't obvious that "View Gallery" is a link It looks more like a label. So its not obvious how to fill in the form.

I think the proofing link should be marked differntly to the other links (perhaps a different colour) when you hover over it it should be marked as clients only.

The links page doesn't has a few links but I don't think your average reader will understand DPS. If this is mainly based for your clients I think the links are not really what clients are intrested in. Although It probably intrests other photographers. Depending on who you are targeting you should probably put some text underneath each entry explaining what they are and why you are linking to them.

The links menu item opens up only one sub menu item which is also listed as links. This is unnecessary, it should act as the the "contact" menu for example.

In the galleries section. The thumbnails are probably a little small. The left and right arrows could mean next page (of thumbnails) which is what I assumed. Likewise the play and pause controls probably should be a bit bigger.

Finally I think you should put a link to your blog from within this section. The blog style should closer match your website style.

Please don't take offense to any of these comments this is a large part of my job. There are a few things I don't like but.. thats just personal taste.

Great photos btw.

Wes

[arsifferlen]

Absolutely no offense taken AT ALL! This is exactly what I need!

Thanks a bunch for your critique and I will take all things into consideration! ...and thanks for the compliment as well!

[LMAshton]

About your blog...

I'm not a fan of dark backgrounds with white/light text. I know they're popular in artsy crowds, but they're also usually harder on the eyes than dark text/light background. And yeah, I'm getting old and cranky. :P

I'd be inclined to put your About Me bit at the top of the right column. I'd also suggest using a picture of yourself. People seem to instinctually trust sites more when there's a picture of the person behind it there.

There's no link for archives, only for older posts. An archive menu would be better for users.

When you put links in your blog posts, you can make them into clickable links. I see in your most recent post that you mention Heather LaBone Photography, but it's not clickable, so if a person wants to visit that site, they'll have to copy and paste the link, which translates into very very few people actually following that link. Alright, I saw your note about it not working.

As well, you have a label at the top saying "Website" and the next line "Click Here". Instead of "website", I would suggest "Sifferlen Stills Photography", and make it a clickable link. I'd also be inclined to put it at the top of the right column. Ditch the "Click here" bit.

Comments - I would highly recommend adding name/URL. I don't belong to any of the communities listed, and I'm not going to join just to comment on yours or anyone else's blog. I'll leave without leaving a comment instead, and I know many others feel the same way.

I'm a nitpicker by character, so take what works for you and ignore the rest. Good luck!

[arsifferlen]

great advice LMAshton!

I will take these opinions seriously and work to make the site/blog more user friendly.

[LMAshton]

I should also add the bit about personal preferences, tastes differ, I can be overbearingly opinionated, yada yada...

[arsifferlen]

you're funny LMAshton!

i need those strong opinionated opinions you speak of, so keep 'em comin'!!

[OsmosisStudios]

First, to the OP:
_When I go to your "Website" link, I should end up on your website. Not on a (bad, bland, boring) splash page. And the website shouldnt load seperately.
_The blog and website are too distinct from eachother. If you want them to represent a common business/person, I'd make them at least look alike.

The website:
_There isnt much here that cant be done with HTML/CSS/simple scripting. All flash does is slow things down and hurt your SEO. I cant say I'm a fan.
_That being said, the flash works well. I just think it's unnecessary.
_The menu is, IMO, in the entirely wrong order. It should be Home-Portfolio-About-Contact.
_Leave out the links page. It was en-vogue a few years ago, it isnt anymore.
_The font used for the menu and in certain other places (the post-it on the contact page, especially) is VERY hard to read. White and black is fine, but it's the font itself that's a pain.

Going through the flash is fairly humdrum with nothing coming up as being particularly good or bad. Im just a little underwhelmed. Flash is usually used to a great degree, where here it's very subtle. As i've mentioned, there is a lot that is easily reproduced in normal website design without flash. That's my big issue.

The blog is also fairly standard wordpress. It doesnt match the site. I dont personally see the appeal of blogs, especially for a portfolio/business site like your own.

Overall it works, i just felt very underwhelmed.

To LMAshton:
I have to object to your comments about white-on-black sites. Black and white backgrounds show images very differently and exude a different feel. From the OP's images, the black would work best (it would look strange in white). White is inherently female, light, fun, easygoing. Black is inherently male, serious, formal. The colour is dictated by the style.

I also find that too much white is harder on the eyes than a lot of black with white writing. It's actually been found that black-on-white is easier to read in print but that white-on-black is easier to read on a screen.

[arsifferlen]

[QUOTE=OsmosisStudios;891660]First, to the OP:
_When I go to your "Website" link, I should end up on your website. Not on a (bad, bland, boring) splash page.

Thank you for your input Osmosis. I'm very new to website design and I was under the impression that in order to be crawled, the splash page was necessary, no? Sounds like if it's flash template, then it doesn't matter either way, no?

[Niresangwa]

Despite the name including the word "stills", I still didn't know you were an art photographer until I finally looked at the blog, which of course until that point had me wondering why your slideshow book was showing pictures of ivy, a swing, etc and not people...

...maybe its just because i'm so accustomed to seeing that kind of site style used for portrait photographers.

Are you just doing commercial/abstract photography though? Your galleries include sections for people as though you're into portrait as well.

Maybe its the fact I just got out of bed, maybe I'm just generally a confused person too conditioned from doing my own research that I had expectations on what your site was about based on how it was built...but self inflicted or not, it was ambiguous for me

Other than that, i liked the template with the post it note, tape etc. and unlike previous respondents, didnt mind the colours. Though the fonts used seem a bit cheesy and out of place, especially the header on the site.

The live feed frame on the blog - is that required? the one showing where your visitors are from? if not, i'd lose it. it looks a little...out of place. at first i thought it was an ad bar.

Oh, and agree with the not having it open in a separate window.