New photography website built on WordPress

Duh, it would be at;

https://www.coryshubertphotography.com

Simple but nice. The sidebar on the index drops down though. This is not a validation issue, so I’m not sure why it happens.

Hi Gangleri,

Can you explain what you are seeing? I don’t understand what you are saying. What browser are you seeing this in?

Thanks,

c

IE7. On the index (first page of pixelagogo), the sidebar is not next to the post, but on the right side of the screen, between the bottom of the last post and the footer. When I click “photography” or another of the sections, the sidebar is at the right spot.

Great catch, thanks. I will have a look at it and see what is up and what is not working right.

Thanks,

c

Ok, I did a browser check and IE7 seemed to work fine, but IE6 and 5.5 were the ones showing the menu section below the main content.

I will have a poke around the code and see what is up. I am sure it is just a simple div/size issue… I hope.

Cheers,

C

First, Pick another subject for the front page…unless you want to give the impression you only take pictures of salesmen.

Second…why, when I click on a gallery, say people, does it open a new window in my browser? I’m not opposed to opening new windows when a link takes me somewhere outside of the site, but within the site? It’s a little annoying.

You should find a way to embed your photos in your site. Simpleviewer may be flashy and cool, but it’s actually just showing that you use ready-made tools, which does not go well with the creative aspect of a photographer.
Even if it seems boring, try the embedded gallery feature of WordPress 2.5, and add a lighbox plugin for that. It’ll give you a page for every gallery, and the lightbox plugin will make the image pop up when you click on a thumbnail. All within your own site, withough going to other sites/domains, without breaking the flow of the page. Because lighbox is sort of transparent, makes itself part of the site.

THEN you might want look at a way to make your site look less like a blog.
Blogs are nice. For frequently updated stuff. For your private diary you want to share, or even for newsbits where you tell people about specials you might have for mothers day etc.
But because you have a relatively standard navigation layout, it looks like joe’s gadget blog or jim’s recipe blog or daniel’s private diary … blog.

Must look more artsy.
https://www.carlosdemello.com/ (okay, I made that one, but not with WP)
https://www.bitesnich.at/ (definately not WP, but artsy …)
https://www.jamesnachtwey.com/
They all use BIG images to impress right from the start. I don’t want to read about your work, I want to SEE it. That’s why photoblogs usually look like this:
https://www.kerstinger.com/ (okay, another one of mine [even done in WordPress], but you get the point)

Years ago, a lot of artists and photographers were afraid of people printing their works, and decided to only put miniature pictures on their websites. Which meant that potential clients couldn’t see their work properly. Not anymore.

BTW: I like your work. Especially the infrared is interesting. I heard only a handful of photographers have the equipment AND knowledge. Great stuff!

>>ChgoWriter First, Pick another subject for the front page…

Well, the idea was to rotate projects as then come up, so while this one is corporate in nature, the next one won’t be.

>>mores…

Lots of good ideas and suggestions. I don’t agree however with the idea that using off the shelf, WP for example, tools are a negative in the creative world. It doesn’t make sense to redesign the wheel for the sake of having your “own” wheel, at least not to me. Over the years of working on the web I have come to the decision that easy and clean makes more usable sense than artsy and new… but that is just my take.

Cheers,

c

hmm, I might have not put that properly, since it’s not about reinventing the wheel.
The main problem with your using simpleviewer is that it takes the user away from your site, so to speak. The surrounding layout is lost, and only your images are visible.
This may seem like intentional, “focus on the most important…”, but it only shows that the general layout is not able to implement images nicely.

I may be a bit too critical and find faulty pixels better than your average customer, but still your customers have seen numerous blogs, numerous photo galleries, and maybe even have their own picasa or whatever gallery.
So if you use the same tools they do, and they have a camera too, why hire you?

Like there are people with huge exhausts on their puny cars trying to make a lot of noise, and then there’s cars with normal exhausts that really make a lot of noise. It’s the engine, not the exhaust system, that makes a car.
Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but I think you know what I mean.
Your photos are excellent, no need for “pimping”. They’d work best if they were just left alone and viewed individually in the entire width of the page.

mores…

Fair enough, no harm taken. I understand the thought process and welcome any opinion as that is the nature of art.

The reason clients hire “pros” and not just someone with the same camera hasn’t changed in all the years I have been doing this. It isn’t the “tool” but the tools user.

Thanks for the kind words and for caring enough to post and reply as that is what makes the web such an exciting medium to work in.

Cheers,

c