Critique/ Suggestions for my Website?

[justinthephotographer]

Hi guys. I'm 15 so please don't be too harsh

I started teenagephotographer.com for young photographers. After a month, we're starting to gain pretty steady and high traffic!

I want to change the website a bit, and would like some feedback! What should I add/take away, edit, etc.?

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.

[DanielLane]

At a first quick look, I am quite impressed with the web site. A lot of information on there! Dynamic site with lots of things to click on to take you around the site. Keeps it interesting. I will explore more later (gotta head to work in a minute). One thing I would think of changing would be the color scheme. It's a great site and all, but the gray on white leaves it a little plain. Throw some color in there. Get some dynamic range going. Unless you are all about B&W photography, you are in to color. Show that on the site.

[Doug Sundseth]

Clean interface on the front page. (I like the gray on white, BTW.) I'd like to see prominent category links. (On second look, "Read Our Articles", sounds more like a recent articles section than a categories section, though it seems to be the latter.)

When clicking on the categories in "Read Our Articles", I get a links bar that runs right through the middle of the page (and over the top of other stuff). I'm using Firefox 6 for this, BTW.

The way you present photos in the articles is interesting, but it doesn't work well with a scroll wheel. When I use a scroll wheel, I expect to go down the page, not to flip sideways through photo links. If the default scroll wheel behavior weren't so standard, this wouldn't be a problem, but since it is, I consider this to be a usability problem.

I'd like to see the photos on a dark gray or black background rather than the white background that you've used. It's much more flattering for most photography.

In spite of some minor usability issues, though, this is a well put together site. Good job by the designer (and the people who gave the designer his brief.)

[justinthephotographer]

Thanks for the input! I'm implementing changes tonight

[mshockley]

All in a great looking site. Great information and articles, lots to surf around and do to keep your visitors interested.

And I actually kind of enjoyed how when viewing a featured teen portfolio the scroll wheel "flipped" the pages open....different and fresh.

I can agree with maybe a tiny bit of color.....