Critique My Photography Website

.Ian.

.Ian.

Active member
Alright so I recently made this photography "portfolio" style website. I'm just going to use it as a site to put on business cards, or tell my friends, so that if people are looking for a photographer or want to check out a little of my work, they can go here and just look at my stuff.

I'm just looking for a little critique on the format and ease of use type of stuff. Not so much the quality of the images themselves. I also just want to make sure the site even works properly on everyones computers, just because I used HTML5 which is semi-new... I think. (Don't quote me on that)

I'm really trying to get some better shots for it, and I'll have a lot of pictures switched up and stuff soon, but if you do want to give a little critique on the pictures too, feel free too. I know they could use it haha. They're mostly all older pictures that I just moved over from my other site, so I will be switching them up soon with some of my better/recent stuff.

Here's the link: http://www.ianaraujophoto.com

Let me know what you think! Thanks for checking it out!

 
I'm on my phone, and I can't see any photos via the mobile site

Also the wording in the about me section was a little awkward

In the contact it says call or text m( the e of me dropped down a line) I would drop the text part though
 
I like it, good start for sure. I'm no professional at this kind of stuff but I'd line up the main content/pictures left alignment with the title "Ian ______". It just seemed kind of weird being indented over a bit.

Also, I think that when you click the pictures they should get bigger than already shown-- otherwise what's the point of clicking them? I'd make the main pictures smaller and consolidate the site a bit. I liked the "About" section the best in terms of formatting and balance. Hope this helps!
 
Looks pretty good, I like the sudle use of colour, but theres a bunch of things I'd work on. I would put the about/contact after your photos as apposed to before, that way the client will tend to see all of your work as the make their way to the about section. I'd also pick 1 way to show photos (Gallery) on the pages besides home, personally I like the sports layout the best.

I felt that your about me section sounded a little unprofessional, I'd work on it a bit. Also as mentioned before drop the 'text me', I usually have a client email me with what their looking for and then I set up a time to call them, I don't have set rates so for me that eliminates having to come up with a rate on the spot.

Also, its not a bad idea to run recent work through a blog, tumblr can host a domain name for free, and thats what I did, it just keeps my best stuff on my website. I'd eliminate some of the links at the bottom as well. Your flickr didn't have much on it and your vimeo/youtube had nothing so I wouldn't link them via your website, same with your personal facebook/twitter. If your twitter is only business then thats fine, same with a business facebook page, personally I'd want to look as professional especially because I'm a teen/amateur photographer.

Hope all that helps, I have links to my site/blog in my sig.
 
Oh sorry I literally haven't done anything on the mobile version. I just threw that together and never even finished it.
 
Thanks for all the other suggestions guys! I'm definitely going to go and edit it now and make a few changes. I definitely see what your saying about the "unprofessional" sound of my contact pages too. I'll go revise those now. I'll work on the alignment of everything too. I didn't realize when I created it, that everything wouldn't scale with the size of the page so I'll straighten it out.

Thanks for all the help and +k to all you guys.
 
Check out the bio. I also don't think you have enough of a nature portfolio to warrant having that section.
 
Thanks, yeah I'm working on editing the bio right now. I'm revising it to make it sound a little more professional. As zbphoto said, I am a teen so I'll want to make my about me sound as professional as I can. I would like people to judge me by my work and not my age.

As for the content in the Wildlife section. I'm planning to add more too. I'm actually in the middle of transfering files from my harddrive to my newer computer, then I'll have more to add to the wildlife section. The other shots I have aren't that "incredible" though.

Thank you, and 10/10
 
When I open it in Safari, the left edge of the website is cut off the page. I don't know if that's within your control but its happening.

There are a lot of similar photos in your sports section. If this is an accurate representation of your skills/vision/range then that's fine, otherwise I would look at the selection with a more critical eye.

In the personal work section, there is some good work (#2, #7), and there is also some (imo) not strong work (#3, #5, #6).

I think that 'perched' is your strongest photo on the site currently.

Honestly I would have waited until I had accrued a larger portfolio before making a website. Right now it appears that you're still starting a portfolio, which doesn't give a professional impression. For example, the two moto pictures look like they're the same place, possibly at the same time. Two skiing pictures look like they're taken from the exact same perspective, with similar lighting. The three skate pictures in a row have the same rider, again giving the impression that they were all taken at the same time. In summary, try to show more range of work and skill in your portfolio.
 
Thanks for all the critiques man!

I'll try to explain my situation for some of my shots. Although I'm not so proud of it, but at the moment they are a semi-accurate representation of my work, and I'm really not trying to make excuses or anything of the sort here. I honestly would like to be able to have captured multiple angles on (for example) the day with the snowboarder and skier from my local mountain. I could've switched the angle up from the left though, but that's about it in that circumstance, I'll explain.

I've been shooting for the past... 3 or more years. Basically my problem is money, just like everyone else in the world haha. (I don't mean to go off on a long winded story here but I guess I'm going to)

I've been working since I was 15 just to be able to afford my expenses, just any expenses in general. Back when I was about 15 I bought my first DSLR and used the 18-55 kit lens for about 6 months to a year. I then worked all summer to buy a car. Bought the car and continue to work to afford insurance, taxes, gas, everything. I saved up and bought a sigma 70-200 2.8 lens on craigslist for $400 that I can't even use now because not realizing it when I bought it (long story short) the mount was broken, but fixed well enough that I wouldn't have even realized it when I bought it. Right after I bought the 70-200 (working fine at the time) A buddy of mine broke his girlfriends 18-55 lens and he said her mom would kill him, and he only had $40 at the time, so... I sold it to him for $40, just because I figured thats what a good friend would do. For the next year I shot with my D3000 (from when I was 15) and my 70-200. So that's why a lot of the angles on the sports shots are the same, because I only had my 70-200, but I just loved to shoot, and wanted to shoot no matter what. So I kept saving up for another wide angle from working. I save up enough to buy a mid-range/ wide angle lens, and my car gets totaled by some guy not paying attention on his phone. I had to buy a new car and insurance helped but over-all I was back to having no money again. My D3000 sensor dies and I had to buy a new body, so I saved up for awhile and bought a D7000 and still only had my 70-200.

Basically things kept happening to keep me from spending more money on photography (3 laptops dying... etc. etc.) I also couldn't afford to drive an hour to my mountain on multiple days to take pictures so that's why they were all taken on the same day.

FINALLY I saved up and bought a tamron 17-50 2.8. So I have my 17-50 and my 70-200 with a messed up mount that would still kind of work and my D7000. I shot for about 2 weeks with that lens set up and bought a sigma 10-20 on craigslist for $150. All of a sudden my mount on 70-200 wont mount on my camera so I'm stuck with a 10-20 and 17-50. I don't even have an ipod or cell phone (mine is from 5 years ago and doesn't work unless it's plugged in)

So that's my current set-up right now, while I save up enough money to fix my 70-200.

Alright so that was my MASSIVE EXCUSE on why the shots aren't as creative as they could be, or are all taken on the same day and everything. It's basically because over the past 3 years I haven't had a time where I've had even 2 lenses where I could even think about switching it up a little.

I actually made the site a month ago at the time when I had my 10-20, 17-50 and 70-200 because I thought for once I was all set with a range of lenses and If someone wanted to hire me to take a picture of their birthday party or something, I could do it.

I just did some updates to it recently though so thats why I asked for a little critique on it now.

Really though, theres a lot more people in this world that are in a much worse money situation than me, and can't even afford to buy food, never mind worry about a DSLR camera. Haha.

Sorry this probably isn't even a time in my life when I should be worrying about how my photography website looks.

I basically wanted to start making a little money off of something that I just love to do, and I wish I could just make enough to afford to do it and buy new gear. I really couldn't even accept business or anything of the sort now because I don't even have an adequate (for a photographer making money) standard lens set-up.

Oh well,

Thanks for all the critiques guys, I always love it when people critique my stuff because it really gets me thinking about what I could do differently! +K to everyone!

 
Jeeze I just re-read that, and I sound like such an annoying spoiled kid.

Sorry about that guys I didn't mean to write such a long/stupid life story and make an excuse. Haha.

Alright back to the critiques!

Sorry about my stupid life story. Haha

 
I was also thinking about taking a picture of myself and putting it on the side of the contact me page or something.

Would you guys suggest doing that, or not, because It might turn people off right away if they see a kid?

 
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