Web Sites

[Bill Pierce]

A bunch of the folks on this forum have web sites. I think it would be useful to rest of us to know how they went about it. Did they use one of the template services; did they hire someone to set up their site? Did they do it themselves? And what do they think makes up a good web site? Any examples of sites they admire?

Any other thoughts would be useful, too.

Bill

[Sjixxxy]

Well, I'll start with mine.

My website (http://www.kpraslowicz.com) is just a Wordpress Blog (http://wordpress.com) that I heavily modified to have its own photo gallery management built in. I ddin't want to write a CMS from the ground up like I had for previous verisons of my website, nor did I want to use a dedicated gallery application as every one I tried had pretty lousy support for content management. Wordpress has great content managment, but no real gallery support, but since my gallery needs were less then my content management needs, I went with it. I've been building & designing web sites professionally for almost three years now, and doing them as a past time fore a decade now, so creating the site to do exactly what I wanted it to do wasn't too hard.

[BillBingham2]

K,

How did you link the two together? I have not kept up with scripting/programming options over the past 10 years other than some application server solutions.

I do not have a site. I'd like to, but time goes between very limited to negative (read nowhere near enough time to go to the bathroom). I really should, got tons of stuff I'd love to share.

Thanks.

B2 (;->

[mackigator]

Sjixxxy (http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/member.php?u=17931) that's a really nice site - good job.

[Sjixxxy]

Content for most is way more important than form.

Indeed. I've seen more then my share of sites that look really awesome, but once I get done with the ten photos in the gallery, there is nothing more to do. As I look over my analytics, content is defninetly king for driving visitors to the website. Of the top ten landing pages in the past month, 18% go to the root, which is mostly people just clicking links to it off other sites, or in my signatures in various websites forums. 20% go to one gallery image (http://www.kpraslowicz.com/photo/little-girl-vs-a-cows-ass/), which happens to have the terms "Little Girl" & "Ass" in the title, which also happens to bounce 75% of the dissapointed pedophiles who find it.

The other 60% of visitors? All driven from non-gallery content. So, note to self, write all those articles that have been bouncing around in my head for years. They help spawn visitors.

[jan normandale]

Yeah I like it too. It's a nice and clean front page visually

[JonasYip]

My sites are all built on my own really basic template system and my own gallery scripts... mostly because I wanted them to work a particular way and modifying other existing packages to fit would have been more work than just writing my own.

But then, I already knew what I was doing )having worked as a web developer in the past), so that obviously is not the solution for most people....

j

[Sjixxxy]

How did you link the two together? I have not kept up with scripting/programming options over the past 10 years other than some application server solutions.


Wordpress is all ran off of php scripts & mysql databases. I just created a few more mysql tables to store the data about each photo I want to post, and wrote a plug-in in php to let me administer that database via the wordpress control panel. From there, the gallery pages are just custom written wordpress pages that query the databases I set up to display the info on my photos.

[ClaremontPhoto]

I went with http://my-expressions.com/ and modified one of their templates. to get http://www.claremontphoto.eu/ which does everything I want it to do for $30 a year.

I like it that I can use my own domain name.

[Keith]

Zenfolio costs me $45.00 per year for unlimited storage ... I quite like the way the site is structured and I like the way it looks. My son who understands these things better than me showed me how to buy and register a domain name and link it to Zenfolio. I've had some cards printed with my domain address on them and the whole setup cost me less than $100.00 for photo hosting, web address and bussiness cards.

It amazes me that all this can be done for this amount of money! :)

[oscroft]

I just use plain HTML for my (very basic) site - but my purpose was really only to learn a bit of HTML

[pesphoto]

I built mine from scratch using Dreamweaver. It has a glitch here and there but I knew absolutely nothing about building a website. It's all trial and error. But i like how it turned out anyway. Hosted by GoDaddy for something like $5 a month i think.

[Lol999]

I did mine with Dreamweaver and then hack bits of code from other sources to accomplish what I want. I considered things like J!Album, Simple Viewer etc but just didn't like them. My hosting costs £2.98 a month with my own domain name. I considered ClickPic but with the ammount of photos I wanted to show it ran about £80 a year. I think a good website is easily navigable, uses a fairly muted colourscheme and lets people see the images clearly. One site I like is www.angryskies.co.uk

Cheers, Lol

[le vrai rdu]

I use a slightly modified wordpress. I like the grey, the best color for photoblog imho

[pesphoto]

There is certainly nothing wrong with doing that way, especially if you like learning a new skill.

Dreamweaver is quite a good application, easy to use and easy to learn. It makes using basic CSS quite easy also.



Yes, I kind of used my own site as the guinea pig and then made a site for my wife who is a pro wedding photographer. It seems to work pretty well for her. She gets lots of hits and ranks pretty high with google searches. She shoots around 30 -36 weddings a season here and many of here bookings come from hits on her website.

[mwooten]

I'm like pesphoto in that I have my photo site hosted and registered by GoDaddy. I manage things through GoLive, and typed up the simple css the site uses myself. Nothing fancy, but it works.

[whitecat]

Better photo is good too. Check my site out. Not too expensive.

[ClaremontPhoto]

For my (non photo) site I use GoLive because that's what I bought years ago and even though I've upgraded now and then I've never changed to Dreamweaver.

[ClaremontPhoto]

You would imagine that with all this talent that this site could benefit from a makeover from somebody who knows what they're up to.

Go on CameraQuest, ask somebody to give your site a tweak.

[Gabriel M.A.]

I programmed mine from scratch. I built the server, installed FreeBSD, set up and configured Apache, PHP, etc etc etc

GMAPhoto.com (http://www.gmaphoto.com/)

It is a pain, and my upload interface has been so far a 2-year project, because I hardly have time to spend programming it. I had to drop setting it up further the way that I want in order to save my relationship.

So, unless you're retired or wealthy, do go with a template website. Or pay someone else to do it.

I'm going to have to pick up my project again and start from scratch...again.

This time I'm wiser (I think). I'll buy a Flash template and adjust the ActionScript part, and program only the upload interface.

Zenfolio is another option; I've seen a number of you guys use it (Ferider and Keith, for example) well.

[chris000]

I decided to use a template (Clikpic) because I know nothing whatsoever about building a website and, frankly, have no desire to learn.

I think it is important that sites are simple and clear, the object is to showcase the photography not the web design - whenever I come across a site that is full of gizmos and gimmicks, I just shut down and move on.

[formal]

I used basic HTML/JSP and SimpleViewer.

I use Lightroom to generate the SimpleViewer galleries.

David

[sem]

I just wanted to know, how it worked out. Got with my internetconnection the chance for a domain, so I built my side with frontpage older version, but for my interest it is enough.

Here you can take a look, but it is just in the beginning.

http://www.lightleak.de/

regards
sem

[sem]

If you like the side, feel free to send a mail. Id would be nice to hear something abuot the side.

Thanks
sem

[nikola]

Bill, it really depends on what you want, similar to everything else in life.
I personally wanted the simplest possible thing, where I could stuff my photos and show them, so I mashed it in half hour... http://photo.klica.net ....despite being active part of web scene with resources to do miracles. :D

If one is in need of good looking professional portfolio it is best to find someone who nows and can! :) Everything between are just shades.

[mike kim]

Am I the only one using a pixepost template? I find it quite practical and straight forward to use.

[manfromh]

I used to use a self-made html site, but I switched to using minigal, since its easier to manage the gallery with it. I made some changes to one of the skins to make it look better. I think my host is currently offering free domain names aswell, but im not sure if I need one.
http://mlans.pri.ee

[ClaremontPhoto]

Having your own domain name does add a bit of class.

You'll probably just need to point the domain to your webspace and wait 24 hours for it to work.

[Bill Pierce]

Looking at the websites mentioned here and just hitting the sites of other folks I know, I've come to a few conclusions. Please tell me if and why I am wrong.

(1) A page of little postage stamps is genuinely unattractive (even when you know that clicking on one of them will give you a big screen image).

(2) Each subsection shouldn't have a lot of images. I think some of us overestimate the attention span of someone sitting in their home or office looking at a computer screen. It never hurts to cut down to your best, especially when it's being seen by folks who don't really know you.

Eric Meola (www.ericmeola.com) and I both showed up at Time-Life about the same time. Eric had the good sense and skill to move into advertising and commercial work. No credit line on ads; so, to many he was invisible. But he was one of the most successful and sought after photographers in that world. And certainly extremely well known to his compatriots.

He began dealing with digital early in the game. Ditto web sites. Look at http://www.ericmeola.com. The site is simple and uncluttered. Each subsection contains 9 images, no more. While it is a professional site, I think it has a lot to say to this forum because it does not say, "Boy, can I shoot ads. Wow, am I a big time pro. Pretty please, hire me." It says, "Here are some nice pictures. I hope you enjoy them."

[pesphoto]

I like sites that look kinda homemade and are a bit rough around the edges. But then again Im not trying to become sought after. I think if I was in Eric's position I might think differently I guess. Also, his site crashed my Safari.

[Lol999]

Bill, apart from a few simple truths (which quite a few still ignore,such as background colour etc) there are no hard and fast rules about website design, much as there are no such rules regarding photographing something. it's all down to the individual's taste and desires. many of us just like the idea of having our work in cyberspace and certainly don't make any money at it,although these sites can be "better", in terms of consensus, than those of pro's using it as a window for their wares. I've used several designs, one with the postage stamps and one without, and each had it's admirers and detractors in terms of design. i think as amateurs we are guilty of having perhaps unjustified pride in and emotional attatchment to our work and want to show as much of it off as possible, but hey, it's our child and to us it's beautiful. if I could take 9 images as good as your friend Eric i would probably only have 9 on there, but until then I'll take the shotgun approach ;)

Cheers, Lol

[Bill Pierce]

I'm on Safari, too. And don't crash on his site. Wonder what the difference is?

Bill

[Bill Pierce]

[QUOTE=nikonhswebmaster]I kind of like those little "postage stamps" but you have to be careful how you use them.]

Agreed in the way that you use them almost as headers to the accompanying text. Also, many of those images are bold enough to be recognizable even though reduced. My disagreement is with those pages that look like checkerboards until you realize each square is an actual picture that you can almost see.

Bill

[nksyoon]

What do people think about mixing B&W and colour pictures?

1. B&W and colour in the same gallery
2. B&W and colour in different galleries on the same site

I know many people prefer to look at colour only or B&W only in the same gallery, but from the same location I have photos I like in colour and others in B&W. How to reconcile this?

[pesphoto]

Yeah, im not sure. Could just be my set up here at work. I have 2 monitors with Photoshop as well as Leaf capture running.
Eric's work is cool. On my site im just less concerned with it looking perfect. Like Lol, mine's a place where i post good and bad stuff. It's mostly for myself and if others happen to find something they like about it that's cool too. I have thumbnail pages, hidden pages, gallery pages. It's a mish mash.

[Bill Pierce]

Bill, apart from a few simple truths (which quite a few still ignore,such as background colour etc) there are no hard and fast rules about website design, much as there are no such rules regarding photographing something. it's all down to the individual's taste and desires. many of us just like the idea of having our work in cyberspace and certainly don't make any money at it,although these sites can be "better", in terms of consensus, than those of pro's using it as a window for their wares. I've used several designs, one with the postage stamps and one without, and each had it's admirers and detractors in terms of design. i think as amateurs we are guilty of having perhaps unjustified pride in and emotional attatchment to our work and want to show as much of it off as possible, but hey, it's our child and to us it's beautiful. if I could take 9 images as good as your friend Eric i would probably only have 9 on there, but until then I'll take the shotgun approach ;)

Cheers, Lol

Understood and appreciated. Those of us who suddenly found we could earn money with our hobby also developed some rather harsh survival skills in a large and somewhat indifferent world.

Bill

[Bill Pierce]

[QUOTEOn my site im just less concerned with it looking perfect. Like Lol, mine's a place where i post good and bad stuff. It's mostly for myself and if others happen to find something they like about it that's cool too. I have thumbnail pages, hidden pages, gallery pages. It's a mish mash.[/QUOTE]

On both your site and your wife's site no postage stamps except those three sets on your site. I don't know why I have this aversion to postage stamps. Maybe it's just the declining eyesight of old age.

Bill

[Bill Pierce]

This is the site I made for my wife who shoots 30-36 weddings a year.
http://www.staceydoylephotography.com/
Again, maybe a bit home made looking but it works for her and I made it much less cluttered and confusing than my own since she is trying to attract clients and make a living. Which she does.

Anyone getting maried?

I think it is a good site.

Bill

[pesphoto]

I have had others say the same thing about those partial postage stamp size thumbnails. I just started doing it when I knew nothing about making websites and continued it. Maybe one day I'll try a redo and reorganizing, but not sure if my personal work warrants the time it would take. If I was a photographer in your class and was using it to earn my living I'd be more concerned. But for me it's just a fun thing to do.

[kuzano]

This is the site I made for my wife who shoots 30-36 weddings a year.
http://www.staceydoylephotography.com/
Again, maybe a bit home made looking but it works for her and I made it much less cluttered and confusing than my own since she is trying to attract clients and make a living. Which she does.

Anyone getting maried?

After 20 plus years in marketing and most of that in banking, nothing beats the statement made by using lots of "white space" and the white being white. It's a striking site and the message is clear..... I do quality photography for weddings. I hope your wife appreciates what a nice job you have done for her.

Now, if you really want to screw it up, start doubting it and hire a "professional" web site designer.

[pesphoto]

After 20 plus years in marketing and most of that in banking, nothing beats the statement made by using lots of "white space" and the white being white. It's a striking site and the message is clear..... I do quality photography for weddings. I hope your wife appreciates what a nice job you have done for her.

Now, if you really want to screw it up, start doubting it and hire a "professional" web site designer.

Wow thank you for that. Tried my best to keep it simple and clear. She does appreciate it and knows how many late late night i spent trying to figure it all out. She is such a talented wedding shooter I wanted that to come across.

[kuzano]

corrections:

Actually the statement of the site is "I do quality photography"

Second, I see she did give you great credit on the site.

It's very well done. No distractions with the trickery of the internet getting in the way. No sounds, no animations...Just great!!!

[Lol999]

I occassionally frequent a web design forum. When I have a redesign I ask for opinions but filter out the ones NOT relating to functionality etc as many don't have a creative bent but are excellent technically. Likewise on a photo site I'm more concerned with opinions on appearance and, to a point, the photos. The worst to encounter is the web design pro/photographer hybrid ;)

Cheers, Lol

[pesphoto]

nikonhswebmaster,
Very true. Many of my wife's bookings come from google searches. Her site comes up frequently on page one of prospective client searches.
Google "wedding photographers in Rhode Island". Number 5, page 1

[Bill Pierce]

You have to make a choice when using any Adobe Flash site. Your images and all text will be invisible to Google. If you are famous and the site is just vanity then this is OK, but if you depend on the semantic web to bring customers to you then you want to avoid Flash or anything that cannot be indexed by search engines.

If you do not want Google to index your full size images you must put a meta tag on the large images to say so, and only the thumbnails will be indexed. Never put up an image you are not comfortable having "stolen."

Say you want a simple site sans Flash and would like to put up some images that weren't relatively small, relatively low def and relatively useless to thieves, how would you put on the meta tag? I'm hardly beyond the point where the metadata has my copyright. (Offline for the rest of the day, but I'll check in when I get back home about 1AM East Coast time.)

Bill

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I built mine myself. I wouldn't want to use a template someone else uses. I'm an artist; I think if you're a creator then it looks VERY bad to use someone else's template to generate a site that looks like 500 other people's sites. There is nothing wrong with hiring a professional web designer to do your site, as long as you get an original design. Web design is technically complex, and some people haven't the time or desire to learn it, so you don't have to do it yourself. But its nice if you do!

A good website needs a good navigation system with the main menu choices available on every page. That way someone hasn't got to click the BACK button 500 times to find the home page or the contact form page.

Contacting you should be easy. One of the menu button on every page should link to the contact info page, with a form they can fill out to contact you online and other info like phone number or mailing address if you want that..but email is essential.

Images should be layed out in categorries that describe the projects you work on. Don't put 900 photos all on one page, especially if they are totally unrelated to each other, and make the thumbnails big enough to see. Link the thumbs to decent sized images and make sure the photos look good without too much compression or sharpening.

[pellothed1]

I use SmugMug, I'm surprised no one else does. I needed a way to upload tons of images that could be ordered through the site without doing the fullfillment myself. The site is highly customizable and the support forum, dGrin is excellent.

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I use SmugMug, I'm surprised no one else does. I needed a way to upload tons of images that could be ordered through the site without doing the fullfillment myself. The site is highly customizable and the support forum, dGrin is excellent.


I don't for 3 reasons. One, I'm an artist, so I am expected to make my own prints and wouldn't ever sign my name to a print ordered from a photo lab.

Two, my commercial clients virtually never want prints; they want digital files to give their ad agencies or graphic design people so they can use them in ads. So, Smugmug's lab services aren't of any use to me there either.

Three, I think using sites like Smugmug, PBase, and Flickr shows laziness in a professional photographer. If you're doing this professionally, I feel you need a site with your name on the site and your name (or business name) in the URL. And it looks bad for a creative person to be using a generic design.

[pellothed1]

Did you look at my smugmug site? Given it says "powered by smugmug" at the bottom, but I don't see a problem in this any more than other sites I've seen with similar text. I use smugmug because I sell, literally, thousands of prints a year from weddings. I don't sign them individually, and somehow doubt that any wedding photographer signs their wedding or portrait prints individually. I've spent quite a bit of time customizing that site with CSS, JAVA, HTML code to differentiate it from a standard template. Just because I'm using SmugMug doesn't mean that I'm not an artist as well, you seem to insinuate the opposite. You also call me lazy because my site doesn't have my name on it? Obviously you didn't look at my smugmug site, which has it's own branding including custom URL. I think your making generalizations without doing proper research. SmugMug is significantly above and beyond PBase and especially Flickr.

[imajypsee]

because I designed and maintained my own pages for years (as well as doing the coding and designing for many other people's pages) and don't find it that much fun any more. In fact, it's tedious. And, I get plenty of work with my pitiful, lazy, site....I just finished a big commercial job and do plenty of gallery sales.
The only time I've considered moving off Pbase is when the site goes through its occasional meltdowns. That Smugmug site of yours, pellothed1, looks really good.

As for you, Chris...your smug attitude and judgementalism isn't going to get you very far, so I'd rethink your know-it-all-ness.

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

As for you, Chris...your smug attitude and judgementalism isn't going to get you very far, so I'd rethink your know-it-all-ness.

HILARIOUS!

You judge me and tell me I won't get far in life because I'm "Judgemental" and you don't even have the courage to sign your name.

My comments about smugmug, pbase, etc. were in response to Tony asking why no one mentioned Smugmug. He asked a question and I answered him. What I told him is the truth about why I do not use Smugmug. That doesn't mean I'm right, but the way I do things and the reason I do them works for the kind of work I do. It wasn't meant as a personal attack...its simply how I feel about the way a photographer should present his/her work.

After seeing Tony's response I did go look at his website (which I had not done before). I have never seen anyone do that with Smugmug before, and his site looks beautiful. Every other Smugmug site I've run across had the default Smugmug layout and Smugmug's URL....which I still think looks amateurish. Having seen what Tony did with it, I'd consider doing it myself (using my layout like he did with his to sell on Smugmug) if I did weddings or some other kind of photography where people buy commercially made prints.

[Bill Pierce]

C'mon gang. A little courtesy all around.

Bill

[Nando]

It seems that the discussion is primarily focussed on websites that showcase groups of photographs in separate galleries. I'm not saying that I do not like these types of personal websites but that I also like the photo-blog type website that features a photo-of-the-week or something along those lines. I also really like websites that have photo-stories rather than or in addition to galleries. In this regard, I find the Magnum website really good. I keep visiting often just to see the photo-stories (or photo-essays as they call them). I also downloaded all their photo-podcasts and put them on my Palm PDA. Whenever, I need some inspiration or when I'm bored, I whip out my PDA and play their pod-casts. I downloaded all of Brooks Jensen's 400+ pod-casts off the Lenswork website too and put them on my Palm - they're audio only but very good.

Personally, I don't have a website yet. Being an amateur, I'm not sure if I would even put my photos on my personal website as I don't intend to sell anything. I share my photographs on flickr. I primarily use flickr because I get a lot of inspiration from other photographers that are on there too. Every day I visit flickr and play a slideshow of the latest photos posted by members on my contact list. This gets me pumped up about going out and taking photographs.

In fact, getting myself inspired is the reason why I also visit personal websites of pro and amateur photographers. I'm never looking to hire a photographer or buy prints (though I have purchased some photography books off personal websites). I primarily just want to see some nice photographs - get some new ideas, and to motivate myself.

BTW, I don't mind the postage stamps. I just hate it when an original rectangular photograph is cropped into a square for the thumbnail. I find it is often a really bad representation of the actual image. On the rare occasion, I find the square thumbnail interesting and the actual rectugular image a bit bland. Flickr crops images to a square thumbnail automatically and as far as I know, doesn't allow for the photographer to choose how the image should be cropped into the square. It is a really big pet peave I have with flickr.

[Harry Lime]

www.elanphotos.com

I try to keep things simple and consistent. To me that means easy navigation and consistent art direction that doesn't overwhelm the content. My site could certainly use some work, but I think I'm heading in the right direction. The big problem of course is that I'm not an expert in any of the software used to build sites. So, I'm a little limited as to how fancy I can make things (which may be a good thing...).

I used Soundslides and Dreamweaver to build my site. Recently I expanded into Logic Express 8 and Final Cut Pro for audio slideshows. I use Fetch for uploading everything.

Soundslides is great. It is cheap and very simple to use. It would be nice if a future version had more extensive timeline controls. But for the money, it works like a charm.

I believe that these days sound is an important part of presenting your work. A few weeks ago I bought a Zoom H2 digital audio recorder. The recording quality of this little unit is excellent. It has FOUR microphones so you record 2 channel stereo or even 4 channel 'surround' stereo. With a little effort you can mix these 4 tracks into actual 5.1 surround sound.

http://tinyurl.com/33c435

Now, when I go to an event or location I take a few minutes and grab some audio. Later I can mix everything on my Mac and sync it to the slides with Logic Express and Final Cut Pro.

I'm currently working on a long term personal project, so a lot of these ideas about sound aren't currently implemented on the site. But I'm working on it... ;)

My big problem is bandwidth. My provider will shut me down once I hit a certain amount of data transfered. To up the limit I need to pay more. I've never had this problem, but as my site grows in size, it may be an issue down the road. Blogs are better in this sense; as far as I know they do not suffer from this limitation.


HL

[Nando]

Harry,

I really like your website.

I have considered moving all my work to a Blog format.

I think that photoblogs can result in more repeat-visitors. I tend to visit photo blog websites more often just to see if there are updates. I've been visiting the following website regularly in the hopes of seeing new material even though there hasn't been an update for two years.

http://www.takaakiokada.net/log_03/

[shikuro]

Harry,

I really like your website.



I think that photoblogs can result in more repeat-visitors. I tend to visit photo blog websites more often just to see if there are updates. I've been visiting the following website regularly in the hopes of seeing new material even though there hasn't been an update for two years.

http://www.takaakiokada.net/log_03/


WOW thanks for the link Nando! It was through that website that i rediscovered a blogger that I'd "lost" 2-years ago. I use to follow his blog but lost his name and link when my laptop was stolen. Thanks!

by the way that blog is http://uwaa.org/ (it's in Japanese, if you can't read it just enjoy his style)

[Nando]

That's great!

[Harry Lime]

Thank you very much 'nikonhswebmaster', for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed my work.

[gregg]

Tony E - that is a great site from SmugMug. I'm late to the game on this thread but it looks like there are ways to allow for personal fulfillment of "hand printed" materials as well which would make SmugMug pretty good for all around presentation and e-commerce.

Thanks for the tips.

[andersju]

I run my own server (FreeBSD w/Apache, PHP, MySQL) and use Wordpress with a few customizations for my two photo blogs, http://2038.cc and http://x.unix.se.

I want as little as possible to get in the way of the photos, I hate Flash with a passion and I believe that relatively high-res photos make for greater impact. Around 1000 pixels wide seems appropriate for me at the moment. (Unfortunately I started 2038.cc before coming to this realization, so they're smaller, and me being pedantic in matters of uniformity, I can't change them now..)

I've toyed with idea of uploading each photo in several sizes and then have a javascript try to figure out the visitor's resolution and show the right version of the photo, so it takes up as much space on the screen as possible, just within the limits.

I was very much inspired by the Japanese photographer shikuro mentions, more specifically his site http://www.yamasakiko-ji.com/. It just blows me away.

[agi]

Great websites/photoblogs everyone.

I also use Wordpress for my photoblog and have been itching to redesign it soon. I'm pretty much self taught in code/website design so I'm fearful to change something now that I've been using the template/theme I created on my own. I'm also lazy.

andersju - I like the very simple design of your photoblog and was wondering if you created your own template/theme?

My photoblog: http://www.alapan.com/blog

Input appreciated :)

[pellothed1]

Tony E - that is a great site from SmugMug. I'm late to the game on this thread but it looks like there are ways to allow for personal fulfillment of "hand printed" materials as well which would make SmugMug pretty good for all around presentation and e-commerce.

Thanks for the tips.
Thanks Gregg. SmugMug allows comments below each photo (such as the black print below the photos in the Personal gallery that shows where each picture was taken), you can add html code into that container that would allow PayPal or Google Checkout buttons (by using the button builder html generators on their respective sites). I don't currently have any pictures that I've done that way, but it's easy and I've done it in the past with some success. Google Checkout is free (PayPal takes their standard fee) and allows multiple options through drop down menus, so I prefer it. That is the easiest way to do self-fullfilment, not something for weddings or the like, but for pictures that I print myself.

Prior to starting my own business I ran the custom printing lab of a large photo company and saw them spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to accomplish what I can do through SmugMug for $100/year. Given they don't have to upload their pictures, they just drop them onto their servers, but I still think the SmugMug ordering side of things looks significantly better. I do wish that I could customize the look of the backside of things, and remove SmugMug's branding completely, but I'm willing to live with it considering what it would cost to build something similar. Keep in mind, I have to be able to upload thousands of photos during the course of a week during wedding season and have some way to fullfill the orders (something I couldn't do myself). The only other real choices are galleries offered by individual labs, but they offer very little customization.

Also, and not that I'm trying to talk anybody into using SmugMug, but they have a journal style gallery (I use them in the Wedding and Portrait information sections of my site) that would allow one to create a photoblog with comments. The two journal galleries on my site are formated using HTML, but the standard layout is a large picture in the center with the comments below. This would also allow you to add Google Checkout buttons below your photoblog pictures in the event someone wanted one and you didn't want the run of the mill prints from SmugMug.

[andersju]

agi: I did (much inspired by Yamasaki), but it's really not much of a theme :) If you want the code, just PM me your email address. I like your blog - elegant, and the photos are very nice; I'll be back.

[shikuro]

agi: I did (much inspired by Yamasaki), but it's really not much of a theme :) If you want the code, just PM me your email address. I like your blog - elegant, and the photos are very nice; I'll be back.

Hi Anders, you website is fantastic, simple. I like Yamasakiko's website, but am clueless when it comes to codes and programming.
I sent you PM as well.



thanks

[fuwen]

I know nuts about making a website but am keen to set up one just to share my experiences on music and photography.

So I talked to the administrator of a Singapore headphone forum (www.sgheadphones.net, I am a regular of this forum). Coincidentally the administrator is keen in this type of work and she offers me to host with her. So I paid to get a domain name that I like, and paid a fee to the forum for some diskspace and help. I was given a template and I am quite happy with it so I started to add in articles.

I am given a website editor which is not so difficult to use for uploading articles and pictures. For galleries I asked her to install simple viewer.

When I work on my Mac at home the editor seems only work properly with firefox and not safari.

And that's about it.

[Ali Riza Kutlu]

Hi all,

I was reading all of the comments and discussions over websites. This is a good topic and could be www. directory for members.

I went to choose a ready template from foliolink for following reasons.

* I don't have knowledge of creating websites nor time to learn. Though I am not an artist so I don't mind to have same templates others have.
* I wanted to have full control on my website as I might need to add or remove picture any time, or making changes on texts.
* Having a good website is expensive and also every time I didn't want to ask for a help from a web designer.
* It is flash also visible on google....

Websites should also have following notices.
* Copyright notice
* Terms and Conditions
* And other useful informations you might find necessary.

If you don't have these details it ain't making sense to pro people but thieves.

In the end here is my WEBSITE (http://www.tesibaphoto.com)

Best, Ali

[dingadingdang]

Using wordpress here too with the YADB plugin, makes life very easy!!


www.gallery.dinglespeaks.com (http://www.gallery.dinglespeaks.com)

[shalimar]

selection of domain names purely depends on the niche of your website, its the quality of the domain which really matters, in case if you need domain names and if you have an entrepreneurial attitude ,then i have a domain name reseller account with
http://www.goresellers.com/
so i get hosting and domain name at a very very less price than the average market price , they have wonderful hosting service with 24X7 suppor

[kxl]

Like others, I also use a Wordpress template on my site (http://www.kalahi.net):

The template I use was inspired by the Big Picture layout from the Boston Globe. (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/)

[Frank Petronio]

Maybe someone will find this useful....

http://frankpetronio.com -- since 1995, last major design was in 2005 using Movable Type and static photo galleries, all W3C compliant (although only XHTML 1.0 Transitional but it was 2005). The standards-based approach and lean design/sizes makes the site very search engine friendly and it gets about 600 real visits per day, the best that I can tell. I'm not going to change this design until Movable Type goes out of business and the software becomes outdated, I'm happy with the design (even if I could now go with larger images). I have over 500 blog posts... so far ;-) Comment spam is a pain but my filters are set high and I approve everything, but I still catch a few legit comments in the 20-30 spam comments I get daily.

http://frankpetronio.net -- I felt that I needed a Flash site for client friendly presentations, now that Flash is less of a burden than a few years ago. Dripbook is a portfolio networking site aimed at the fashion industry. It cost about $225/yr and I'm on both the Dripbook site and my own URL. It is easy to update using a web browser and it shows up in searches readily. Dripbook seems to give me everything I need and want for a fraction of the price of LiveBooks.

http://www.dripbook.com/ip/petronio/ -- my iPhone gallery. Automated through Dripbook, it works well and is lightening fast.

http://frankpetronio.blogspot.com/ -- a free Blogger site for family snaps. It works really well and I like the Blogger templates design-wise. Seriously I think a lot of photographers should just use Tumblr and Blogger and to hell with custom half-ass designs.

http://cleanpage.com/ -- I don't actively pursue graphic design and marketing jobs these days but I don't reject them either. This site is the same guts as the fp.com site but much smaller. I put everything a potential client needs to see on one page, including my design portfolio, the rest is just reinforcement.

I have a few friends' sites hosted on my server package and the Word Press sites have been a PITA because of security flaws, spam, etc. I like the options in Word Press but because it is so popular it gets targeted more.

Nowadays I use GoDaddy for domain names. Simple, just don't fall for their added value BS.

My biggest headache is hosting, I hate my current host, Media Temple, which was the darling of the web guru set back in the mid-2000s. But like the couple of hosts before it, they start out awesome and go downhill in a few years. MT is SLOW, has a lot of downtime, and they had a hacker break into a lot of sites, including mine. If it wasn't such a pain to transfer everything I would have switched two years ago.

The best host that I have found, at the moment, until they go to Hell like all the others, is http://pair.com/

My suggestion to a lot of photographers who are green with all of this is to build a Facebook page with a couple of galleries and some text. That will help them decide what works online for their work, sequences, reactions, etc. Once they master a social networking site then they can tackle a custom site.

Second step is to do something like DripBook and Blogger. I am not so convinced you need a custom website anymore. People don't want to wade through the overdesigned Flash bull**** or the lame homemade efforts most photographers subject them to. I wouldn't design from scratch right now myself. I don't think you can do a better scratch design than Blogger or Live Books or any of the successful web apps like that.

Do get a good logo (that works at web sizes) and pick a good business name. Spend money on nice business cards. Print your stationary on your inkjet.

I don't design websites anymore (I was a CD at a dot.com in the day) and I honestly don't know where to start with modern coding. I'm good w strategy and usability and yelling at people ;-)

Years ago I tried to tackle cameraquest.com and was overwhelmed, gave up. I think that site will never be redesigned because it would be a massive expensive job. He basically needs to start over except there really isn't a good reason -- it isn't well designed or coded but it works and get's a lot of hits. Look at Ken Rockwell, Luminous Landscape, these awful vBulletin forum boards, others -- they are all awful from a design POV -- but they are very successful sites.

In other words, design is dead. A lot of the best designed sites have little or very narrow content, such as commercial photographers trying to flog their wares to a skeptical audience. But a site like Cameraquest's doesn't need a perfect design or a lot of overhead, since the content is so good that people overlook the missing or messed up things about the site.

[Nando]

A friend of mine in the graphic design business sent me a link to the following website that was featured in a trade magazine:

http://www.nicolawalbeck.com/

I find the presentation and user interface very interesting.