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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Please Review My New Website
Christopher Pasatieri, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Lodi | NJ | USA | Posted: 2:32 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> Well I fully overhauled my new website and my initial feedback has been mixed.
Please post honest reviews, I want to hear the good and the bad.
The site has music, so please adjust your volume accordingly.
It is Flash based and requires a screen resolution of 1024x768 or larger. It can not be viewed at 800x600 properly.
http://www.cmpdesignz.com
Thanks,
CP |
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Christopher Pasatieri, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Lodi | NJ | USA | Posted: 2:45 PM on 11.12.07 |
| ->> The music control is on the right menu bar with "Play Previous and Next". Select "Play" and it will turn off the music. |
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Allan Campbell, Photographer, Assistant
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Salem | OR | USA | Posted: 3:04 PM on 11.12.07 |
| ->> Personally I dislike controls that are hard to read. Placing your text sideways does just that. Also I have a fast connection and it took too long to load each image, try some sort of pre-load to make it faster. |
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Colter Ray, Student/Intern, Photographer
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San Marcos | TX | United States | Posted: 3:14 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> Christopher,
To be honest (and I know you want honest), I found the site a little hard to manuever... it took me almost a full minute before I figured out how to go from one photo to the next under each section. (But this could be a result of something like 3 hours of sleep last night).
The purpose of your website is to showcase your work, so I would try to make it a little more accessible. (K.I.S.S.)
Also, I personally would ditch the music, it distracts from the photographs and a lot of people may find it annoying because they already have something playing in there iTunes.
I did like the idea of the veritical scheme, but feel it could be tweaked to be a little more user friendly - maybe have the categories switch to being horizontal when you mouse over them, then again, I know about this much flash --> | | so I'm not sure how hard this is to do.
I want to be impressed by your work, not by your site (don't worry, I was definitly impressed by your work)
But you're on the right track, just could use some subtle changes.
-Colter Ray- |
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Mike Last, Student/Intern, Photographer
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London | Ontario | Canada | Posted: 3:19 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> I feel if that Play Next and Previous button actually correlated to a slide show type system and not to music it would be much better. If I could just keep clicking next and it would scroll me through all of the photos in the category it would be way better.
I also feel you should only have enough square boxes on the left side for the number of photos that are actually in that section.
I agree with Allan about the pre-load of images... I also have a fast connection and was having to wait for images to load. |
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Dave Prelosky, Photographer
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Lower Burrell | Pa | US | Posted: 3:40 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> A few things I noticed right off the top -
• In you bio, you state you're a specialist in all aspects of photography. I don't think you mean to state your qualifications that way.
• You're accepting assignments in your are? Spell, gramar and use are all important checks.
• In your contact line, write it the way you speak, rather than like a bad contract.
• I'd consider presenting single images within galleries from the top down. As I don't read Hebrew or Arabic from the bottom right to top left, the process is counterintuitive.
• Ditch the references to student projects. Your book (portfolio) will either get you work or it won't. |
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David Bernacchi, Photographer
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Milwaukee | WI | USA | Posted: 3:44 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> Christopher...
Way to many images...37 baseball photographs alone. Most editors / buyers will figure out your ability after 5 - 10.
Keep the Faith. |
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Christopher Pasatieri, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Lodi | NJ | USA | Posted: 4:29 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> OK, I have changed my BIO, and added text that lets you know it is a music control.
I can change the images for the galleries to go from top to bottom as opposed to bottom to top.
The images are only about 60KB each, so I don't know if they are loading due to a slow connection or if because they are being called from an external script.
As far as the amount of images, I chose a lot because time and time again I have gone to someone's website that only had about 10 or 12 images in their galleries and I wanted to see more. I figured this way if an editor or potential client wants to see more, it is there for them already. If they move on after only 10 images to the next gallery, that's fine also.
Keep the feedback coming!!!
Thanks,
CP |
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Brad Mangin, Photographer
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Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 6:03 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> Good afternoon Christopher- you have received some really good feedback already from the folks above. I will now come in and basically back up everything they have said based on my experience in talking to many picture editors and art buyers.
Some of the best advice I have seen lately- and a philosophy I go by was uttered by one of the best bloggers going just last week- A Photo Editor (http://aphotoeditor.com/). The Photo Editor - who REALLY knows the business- had this to say about websites:
"I really don’t give a crap about your design or goddam logo or witty intro. I just want to look a photos. Fast."
That pretty much says it all and echoes the advice given by others here.
Your site is way too hard to figure out. I do not want to have to think and marvel at your design skills. I want to look at pictures and NOT HEAR THAT MUSIC. Please turn it off. The default should be OFF and not ON. It drove me crazy and took me awhile to figure out how to turn it off.
When looking at your photographs (the most important part of the site) I want to see forward and back buttons. It is way too hard to navigate through all your images. I am doing so right now and find it quite clumsy.
Your baseball portfolio has a few very nice images in it. However- you need to get rid of the static head shots, batting shots and pitcher shots and concentrate on the true MOMENTS that make up a quality portfolio. Your 37 images could be edited down to 10 good ones quite easily.
Just because your pictures are of big league ballplayers this does not mean that they will impress editors or other clients that would actually pay you to shoot an assignment for them. Editors want to see great pictures and do not care if they were shot at a Little League baseball game or a high school softball game. I was able to get hired for the best staff photographer job I will ever have in my entire life based on a portfolio of 30 sports pictures- over half of which were black and white high school and Little League pictures that I shot at a 15,000 circulation newspaper when I was a punk less than two years out of college. The director of photography who hired me did not care what level of athletes I had photographed- what he liked were the peak action moments and off the field features I had included in my portfolio.
Looking at your 37 pictures in the baseball section on your site I will tell you that at this time you have a set of pictures that show you have shot a few big league games this season - however very few of these pictures are what we would call "portfolio" pictures. You see- for a picture to be in a photographers portfolio it must be very special. It is hard to explain what it takes for a picture to be that special but I can tell you that you will really know deep down in your heart when you see it in Photo Mechanic (it used to be when you would see it though a lupe on the light table!).
To put this in a little perspective I will tell you that from the first pitch of spring training to the final out of the World Series I usually shoot around 80 Major League games. Out of those 80 games I might make five pictures that I feel are good enough for my portfolio. If I were a hitter that would give me a season batting average of .063 which is not very good :-)
Also- like others have said- the images load way too slow. And finally- you need to have captions- or at least titles with your images to show you are a journalist so that picture editors will take you more seriously.
Good luck with your site and the changes you will continue to make. Remember this is all a learning and growing process- which is a GOOD thing. It is OK to tinker with your site. Remember- you never know when that important editor will come to your site for the first time to look at your portfolio- you know - the editor who will give you your first really big break!
Brad Mangin
www.manginphotography.com |
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Theresa Scarbrough, Photographer
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Chicago | IL | USA | Posted: 10:27 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> The first thing that hit me was that the music is distracting, I had to put it on mute, and the photos take to long to load. If the site is about your photos, focus on them.
The site is creative enough to sell your web design and logo design skills, but again if you are looking to sell your photography talent keep it simple and easy to use. For example, if you have to use an arrow to point out where to click on photos maybe you should rethink the design a little. Where are the captions on your PJ stuff?
Just some constructive advice. I went crazy with the flash and stuff as I learned to build my site as well, but am now trying to keep it as simple as possible, and it's still a continuous work in progress!
Theresa Scarbrough
http://www.theresascarbrough.com |
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JohnPaul Greco, Photographer, Assistant
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Milwaukee | WI | USA | Posted: 10:33 PM on 11.12.07 |
->> The images appear to be soft.. Did you provide larger files to a web designer to have them "fit" into the template frames by some sort of automatic resizing, or did you submit images that were sized specifically for the size they would appear to be..?
Also,...just my personal opinion, here,... I like to see "bigger" images.. like 12" high by what ever wide,..that fill up more of the screen of 15" monitors.. (I am viewing things on a 24", which may be part of it).. but I like to be blown away by the work..
The navigation seems a little complicated at first, but the music control was easy to shut off...(sorry, I don't care for the tunes).. ;-) I like how after I selected an image, the tab turns a darker gray to let me know that I've already seen it.. The loading times seemed a little long for such small images,...(making me wonder if they really are larger, but downsized to fit inside the template box)..
For me,... I like the use of navigation arrows on my keyboard to direct me to the next image.,. on your site, I have to move my big mouse over the tiny little tabs...
Overall,... not bad.. It's better than what I am currently using,...
How much did this cost you if you don't mind sharing...because I am in the middle of having one
Oh, and here is a friend of mine's new website...(whose navigation is pretty well designed IMHO).. (I dig his tunes a little more too).. ;-)
http://www.mikelarsenstudios.com
Cheers!
JP |
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Christopher Pasatieri, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Lodi | NJ | USA | Posted: 7:12 AM on 11.13.07 |
->> The music has been removed for lack of better judgment. If you ask me, it's kind of boring looking at the site with no sound.
I am staying vertical for now with my galleries until I find the time to rewrite my entire FLASH document.
I attempted to address the issue of the images loading slowly. I reduced the JPEG compression even further, but wasn't happy with the end result. I also timed how long it to me to load an image and if it was a second, it was along time. Perhaps load times are being effected by other factors such as the time of day the site is being viewed, number of viewers, etc.
I plan on adding "Previous" and "Next" control buttons for the slides as well as keyboard navigation sometime in the near future.
Keep the reviews and comments coming, I greatly appreciate them.
Thanks,
CP |
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Karsten Moran, Photographer, Photo Editor
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New York | NY | United States of America | Posted: 9:11 AM on 11.13.07 |
->> I think you've done a great job designing a graphically-cohesive and cutting edge Web site, but you've stretched yourself too thin across "multiple personalities." This is what people are responding negatively to. You have to decide whether you're selling your photography, or your design services.
Brad said: "I do not want to have to think and marvel at your design skills." This is great advice for a photography site. But if your intention is to market yourself as a designer as well, maybe you DO want us to marvel at your design skills. That said, I'm not sure doing both in a professional manner--in the same place--is possible.
Perhaps re-thinking your site architecture would be a good first step. If you're going to market yourself as a web and graphic designer, you need to replace each of those photos with a screenshot, link, or description to a design project you have worked on. If you're going to market yourself as a photographer, your design skills are distracting your visitors.
You might tinker with slapping together a sister site for your photography (stick the domain/content on the same hosting account) and use your existing site as-is, to market your design services. Two domains, two markets. It's a lot more work, but if you have the time, it might be worth it. |
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Christopher Pasatieri, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Lodi | NJ | USA | Posted: 9:46 AM on 11.13.07 |
->> Karsten-
I have always done well selling both aspects to clients. I feel that offering a client a "total package" works very well. I can not tell you how many times I have designed a website for someone, quoted them the price with the proper purchase of legitimate stock photography, and ended up making a day rate to shoot custom stock for them because it was cheaper.
An "all in one" site has always worked well for me.
Thank you for the feedback.
CP |
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Christopher Pasatieri, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Lodi | NJ | USA | Posted: 12:51 PM on 11.14.07 |
->> I optimized the images a bit more, discovering a way to compress in Dreamweaver that isn't very destructive to the image.
Thank you all again for the comments and anyone who hasn't had a look yet, please feel free to do so and drop me a line.
Thanks,
CP |
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Brad Mangin, Photographer
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Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 2:21 PM on 11.14.07 |
->> Christopher- thanks for canning the music. You are a photographer and not a rock star :-)
Now then- you still have WAY too many baseball pictures. No one is going to look through all of those pictures, especially when there are so many mediocre photographs getting in the way of the real jewels.
Please read my post above again if you are truly looking for some advice from a grizzled veteran who has done alot of research on this topic. I am seriously trying to help you.
Good luck. |
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Michael McNamara, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Lincoln | NE | USA | Posted: 2:38 PM on 11.14.07 |
->> Brad is right....you really need to weed out your images to only the really great ones.
If you are too in love with a lot of them, get an editor to sit down with you and help you cull the herd a little bit.
Treat your website as a true portfolio. Look at each one of your pictures and ask "Is this truly one of the best photos I've ever taken?" If the answer is no, the photo needs to be taken out. |
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Robert Catto, Photographer
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Wellington | NZ | New Zealand | Posted: 4:39 PM on 11.14.07 |
->> Hi Christopher - I'll just chime in with one comment I haven't seen yet, which is the site address itself.
Why CMPDesignz.com? Okay, I can see that Pasatieri isn't an necessarily an easy name to spell, so www.pasatieri.com may not be the best option either; but why should someone need to remember your middle initial, and to use a Z at the end, to find you? (This may be more of an issue to me than to others, because I also see far too many names here in New Zealand ending in NZ for no apparent reason, and I'm sick of it!)
Maybe it's a brand you've been using for years, and changing it's not an option - but I'd at least consider looking at options that are easier to explain on the phone, or more memorable if you tell someone in person - but that's just me.
Good luck with it,
R |
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David Stephenson, Photographer
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Lexington | Ky | USA | Posted: 4:51 PM on 11.15.07 |
->> Christopher,
To add to Robert's suggestion of a simpler domain name - you can always keep cmpdesignz.com and find another, simpler name (or two or three) that will redirect to cmpdesignz.com.
David
http://www.davidstephenson.com |
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Ben Burgeson, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Vista | CA | USA | Posted: 5:10 PM on 11.15.07 |
->> bro,
way too complicated. I agree with brad. I closed the window after about 45 seconds. too many photos, and too many choices. the people we sell ourselves too have about 0 seconds for a new guy. make it as simple as possible, so when they actually do give your site a chance, they wont regret it and find themselves, like i did, asking; why am I looking at this.
music is up to you, I have music on my site to convey the mood of the images, however I also have an easy on/ off switch too.
Great images, and I give you mad respek (as Ali G would say) for putting your a** on the line and asking for a review. Way to have some guts!
oh, and there should be way more Dodgers pics on there... jk
some kid. |
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