Is there a way to lazy load a thumb gallery?

@earrame Just out of curiosity, what do you mean with “huge”? How many thumbs?

The biggest gallery has 254 images right now.

@earrame Why don’t you use ajax pagination for galleries?
This would split the galleries into two or more pages.

Thanks for the reply tizz. In fact that is the way I have it now, but my client wants them all on one page. I am trying to find a way to accommodate his desires. He feels that if they are all on one page, the visitor is more likely to continue scrolling down, but they will leave if they have to click to a new page.

@earrame OK. I think that if you keep small sized thumbnails and put the gallery in a dedicated template – I mean no sidebars, no footer, of course no social buttons, etc., only gallery – this could have an acceptable loading time.
You know, loading time depends also on some other factors, server, etc.

PS: Anyway I believe that not many people look at so many pics all at once, even on the same page. Of course, it depends on the subjects, who is the photographer and the kind of website…

The site is featherfolio.com The images are pretty engaging. We are using the lightbox and part of the problem is that the progression in the lightbox also ends with the current pagination. I think I could convince him to have the pagination if the lightbox kept going through all of the gallery.

P.S. We are currently working on a plugin that puts a direct link in the lightbox to the specific image in smugmug so a print can be purchased. If we can get it to work I think it will be pretty slick.

@earrame – If you also turn on the “Add hidden images” option for the inserted gallery then the Lightbox Effect you have chosen will show all of the images in the gallery not just those on the current page.

– Cais.

That would be great! I know I have seen that setting somewhere, but I cant find it. Can you give me a hint?

Gallery Settings > NGG Basic Thumbnails > Add hidden images
But this will increase page load, so is in contradiction with what you asked in the beginning

P.S.: The only solution is to switch to a server with professional performances, given also that it’s a commercial site

OK, I know that that is something we will have to do soon. Thank you for your help.

It turns out that I am having a problem with this particular computer accessing this particular website. I don’t yet know why, but I changed the pagination to have all the images on one page and tested it from a different computer and it loads super fast. I appreciate all of your help.