Site for portfolio

[nickbedford]

Well I decided due to some requests and whatnot to do work etc, to make a little portfolio site to showcase a small amount of my best work (in this case thirty images).

Here is the site in its current fledgling form. I have a bunch of other stuff under nickbedford.com (as seen in my signature) but this is a quick portfolio page that links back to Flickr photos it's showing.

It feeds off a set I created in Flickr that I will be able to constantly update with newer work.

nickbedford.com

What do you think? Quick and to the point? Do you think I need some extra information such as an about page etc?

This isn't me creating a business or anything (I'm keeping it a freelance hobby thing for a while), I just thought a portfolio would be a nice to have when clients come along and ask about a potential shoot.

[faeriegodess612]

I like it, but of course, I'm not a business owner. So my opinion is kinda a moot point.

Is that ur mummy in the first picture of the second row?

[nickbedford]

Originally Posted by faeriegodess612

I like it, but of course, I'm not a business owner. So my opinion is kinda a moot point.

Is that ur mummy in the first picture of the second row?

(now the second from the left) Yeah. I was visiting on the weekend and I felt like experimenting with that kind of sun filled shot

[OsmosisStudios]

I dont know how you have the site set up, but I'm getting a horizontal scroll bar at 1440 monitor res: that's far too wide. It doesnt move very much, but it's enough to be distracting.

Your menu doesnt make much sense to me. "Photo shoots" sends me to Picasaweb, "Shoot Favourites" to nickbedford.com, which seems to be a blog, "Photo Blog" takes me to another blog. The flickr link is fine (though I cant help but wonder why you've got both Flickr and Picasa working at the same time). I would never connect my website to my personal twitter. Make a secondary twitter account for the website, and use it for promotion. The e-mail link is also fine, though I'd prefer an actual contact page with the address spelled out: mailto links are deprecated and dont work all that well.

SIte works well, if a bit simple. It needs some kind of about page just to give it some body, and a bit more information on the main page to actually let people know what the hell they're looking at. I was confused for a bit because there's no titles, no copy, nothing.

[nickbedford]

Yeah it's only preliminary at this stage. The website should actually fit in <1000 pixels (I just tested it).

Also, I agree my different links are a bit confusing. I keep sorta adding new things here and there and it's getting a bit messy to be honest. I might be better off merging the blog, the "favourites" blog and the photo shoots all into one website.

Little steps at a time

[OsmosisStudios]

It's not fitting in 1000pixels on Safari or Firefox on my machine.

[faeriegodess612]

Oh, well, theres your problem, Oz. Your on a Mac. lol j/k

I thought that beautiful woman kinda had a slight resemblance to your avatar. Even though your makin a face in your avatar pic.

[nickbedford]

Originally Posted by faeriegodess612

Oh, well, theres your problem, Oz. Your on a Mac. lol j/k

I thought that beautiful woman kinda had a slight resemblance to your avatar. Even though your makin a face in your avatar pic.

Haha yeah. One day I'll get a normal portrait

Update! I am getting a little tired of the blogging and have since reworked the portfolio site.

EDIT: It's live now. http://www.nickbedford.com/

What do you think??

[nickbedford]

What do you think now? This is probably my final design for now. Click the buttons above and below to scroll through the six images I've decided to showcase. Tell you what, it's not easy picking a small set of photos you want to use

Nick Bedford, Photographer

[OsmosisStudios]

Left or right, not up and down: that's confusing.
Your site has a lot of black space "below the fold" and theres no reason for it: it ads scroll bars when they are not necessary
Ditch the buttons at the bottom: plain text or none at all.
Right now youve got sans-serif font (for your menu) and serif font (for your header/next/previous). Choose one or the other and keep it consistent. Use different sizes and weights, but dont mix them unless youve got a specific design reason to (Hint: Sans-Serif works best on a screen, serif best in print).

On your about page: Ditch all the coloured text (underline for links instead), and the buttons above the text box: they dont match the look of the rest of the site and look amateurish. While youre at it, change the A: tag in your CSS to a different colour: 0,0,255 blue is hard to read on black.
I'd re-read (or have someone read) your copy text on this page as well: it's got a weird two-sided style that is off-putting.

I still dont understand the "full shoots" link in the menu, nor do I understand the flickr link. FLickr is linked in your About page and the "full shoots" is just an odd name. THe contact link can go right out the window: it's in your about page as well. You could always put the contact stuff from the about page onto a contact page (likely the best bet).

I still dont like the fact that the visitor drops directly into your gallery and that the gallery is just a slideshow: some separation of subject matter would be nice. If you insist, at least have the slideshow be automated and allow the visitor to click to the portfolio page.

It's a good site (i especially LIKE the gallery system you have on the main page, just used differently) but it's got a few things that just dont sit right.