Website feedback

Gareth,
First off, you are no doubt a very good photographer with some lovely images on your website. Yes I am building you up ready for a smidge of negativity.
I think that my feedback would adjust a little dependent on what you want to achieve through your website.
So very important question for you to ask yourself:- What do you want to achieve from having a photographic website?
I think that you have by trying to include everything diluted your photographs a little. I feel that your website would be stronger and more impactful if it had few sections and fewer images. I really believe it would be an example of less being more. With fewer well chosen images they would work harder and be appreciated more.

So some lovely work that could be trimmed back. Don't be afraid of giving the work that is most dear to your own heart pride of place with other work present in a subordinate format. A trusted third and fourth pair of eyes are often invaluable.

Do click through Bill's "creative photography" link in his post and do click through to his website. Having a few well chosen images filling the screen as the home page with visible but discreet links to more work. It shows his intent and makes those few images work very well.

Keep up the good work
Nigel

I'm sure others will have views that vary wildly from my own

Interesting comments from Nigelk. That he spent time looking at your web site says positive things about him as well as the site itself. He is right though, my own view and that of my wife vary wildly from his.

Comments from my wife: 'Very appealing site. Images extremely eye-catching. I wanted to see more. Particularly liked the size of the images as well.' This from someone who worked in corporate communications at a senior level in a number of large organisations.

And who am I to disagree? (Plus, I completely agree with her.) My own view was simple, it is a 'clean' landing site and invites people to dive deeper into the images.

I particularly liked 'Hiraeth'. As a writer I felt you caught what that word meant for you perfectly. The pang of regret is clear, as is the understanding for the change that is happening.

Looking at the rest of the images, I found them involving, Portraits especially.

One thing I would suggest, have the heading of the Gallery that one is in at the top of the page would help in navigation. Otherwise one can become lost and have to revert to General Galleries to find out where we are, (if you see what I mean.)

Additionally, in General Galleries, you have an image for each project and yet, when clicking on Personal Project, or Project Unknown, there is a dropdown list rather than images as per General Galleries. Same for Shop. Having the same format might help there.

In sum, Gareth, I think you can see that I liked the web site and your work very much.

I can see a great deal of effort has gone into this, and it looks good. I have just been overhauling my own photo website so know what it is like, I too mixed potentially commercial work with everything else but realised it was trying to cover too much and losing impact as a result. One suggestion I would make then is to separate your commercial work from personal; if someone is looking for a wedding photographer for instance they want to know you have expertise in that field and not just as a sideline (even if it is!). The photo websites I am most impressed by have a consistent theme throughout, e.g all landscape, street or whatever, although like you I am more eclectic so struggle to achieve that. If you subscribe to Lightroom/Photoshop you have access to Portfolio which lets you build up to five free websites so maybe put all the Project Unknown shots on one, personal shots on another and so on, and keep the main site for commercial only. You can always include links to the other sites for people who are interested.

The analogy I think of is a shop window, do you put everything on show like a hardware store or focus on a well spaced and selective display like a posh ladies’ dress shop? Difficult I know and I should heed my own advice more but I hope you take this in the well-intended way it is meant.

If i may contribute Gareth, i would echo the comments above in general that the site is a bit busy.
some photos repeat in different categories. i know its early days and yet it is full to the brim.
I myself. would be commenting from a casual observers perspective and not in any way trained.
You also have photos for sale which i looked at, around four or five and in my humble opinion you much more superb saleable photos scattered around in flora and fauna for instance and other categories might i add like the shot of the clapped out vw beatle heading for a beach for surf fun

but having said all that, credit to your good self for making it happen and the best of luck with time on your side.
Flan

The general layout of the landing page is slick and clean but my first reaction, having taken it in, was wow, there's far too much here! For example, compare the landing page with that of the "project unknown". Same clean layout but no visual assault and no confusion about where do I go first? You quickly realise what it's about whereas the overwhelming amount of information on page 1 leaves you wondering quite what this fellow is about? The images clearly state that you are a highly competent photographer - and that's before you even look elsewhere - but their visual cacophony left me slightly stunned. As Nigel said, less is more, although some disagree and Mrs Urbanmeister's qualifications are hard to argue about! But I too think you ought to decide exactly what you want the advertising to say about you, say it cleanly and plainly, and only then offer fresh avenues for people to explore. In short, the design and the content are lovely but there is too much too quick !

Afternoon Gareth.

I expect books, presentations, web-sites to have a flow that starts at the beginning and end at the end. Yours doesn't I'm afraid; at least not for me. I'm not getting structure.

What is the purpose of your site? The landing page should make it clear what I can expect from it.

Are you aiming to sell me something? Are you showing me your photographic journey over time? Are you presenting for my enjoyment your undoubted ability via a number of projects?

If you're trying to sell me something, tell me what range of products you have on offer, show me the merchandise or services, take me to the check-out.

In my view the services and sales sections need to be separated from the projects. Also there are a number of mistakes in the text, so do you have someone who could be an impartial editor come proof-reader?