Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hey I'm not in it to be a photography business I'm in photography cuz I love to shoot photos I don't care who you are if your going to be rude to me for no reason I will tell you how it is . No disrespect to you Tanner or Ken for that matter I've had issues with her before which is why my reply was how it was I apologize to you guys for coming off that way and thank you for the suggestions on the site

I don't like how your behind-the-scenes video plays automatically. Also, are you licensed to use the music in that video? For a commercial endeavor to be using copyrighted material without permission is pretty unprofessional.

Also, if you say you're not in it for the business then why list clients and mention contacting you to discuss rates? If this is about your love for photography then there's really no need. Just display your works and tell us about yourself on the site. I look at that site and it has the aroma of a business venture, not solely "someone who loves to shoot photos"

I love to shoot .. if someone asks me to shoot for them for money .. I obviously would .. I did'nt get into it for money but if I'm asked I do have a place to refer them too ofcourse

Had you not been looking for some critiques I would have simply closed the window before I even got to any content whatsoever.

As an end user all I get on the page is "Tyler Walczak Photography".
My immediate thought was "that's it?".
So I decided to see if mouse movements would trigger anything, turns out that text was a link. I hate flash for the record, the fact that if I like one of your images I cannot send someone to it immensely annoys me. Also accidentally or intentionally hitting the back button takes me back to your text intro page - not a fan.

When I click on a link there is nothing to indicate that I am on the intended page. The home button is particularly frustrating as there is not a single bit of text on it.

I find the navigation to be too small.

As mentioned above, I also don't like that the behind the scenes video auto plays.
I worry as well that should this site gain much traction - which I assume is your goal - that the music used in the video would draw you legal issues. To at least save you some potential hassle I would advise that you add information for the songs and artists used as well as the time in the video that they are heard. Not including ANY of that information can open you up to many more legal issues than you could ever imagine.

Once I click into a section of your portfolio I can NOT get back to the main portfolio page. So I can't see any of your other work. Not to mention that the one I clicked in only has 3 photos, 1 of which doesn't load. I would love to tell you which category it is, but I can't get back to the page that tells me which one - and unfortunately after my experience with your site so far, I do not want to re-load it. This is not a personal attack on you or your work, but the site leaves me with little desire or motivation to try again.

As for your question of why google doesn't call on your site when you search for it? Having a website based solely on flash means you are missing vital information.
Here is a wonderful example for you:

The above, by the way is the source code to your index page.
The line that reads "<m> " is one TERRIBLE monster. That means that NOTHING beyond that line of your website will ever be found by google or any other search engine. That line tells me that you have no index page and hence no content for an engine to index. Granted that even if you had this sorted, because your content is wrapped in flash not a whole hell of a lot would be indexed anyways.
The value of learning a little bit of HTML or paying someone to create a website for you is immense if you are trying to market yourself commercially. Again based on the source information, it seems like this is your goal.

As you yourself have stated, you are not in the business to make money, you are in the business to shoot. Great! Knowing that is half the battle. I personally would advise that you take all the work and effort you have put into the site and give it to someone who has a little more expertise in the field. If you have to pay them, or trade them for photography.

You are here representing yourself and your passion. You are trying to do this on a larger scale so get some help. This leads me to my final bit of advice, and while not about your personal web site, it would help tie a nice bow around everything.

If I google your name, I get many things which seem to have been created by you. I see a few facebook links, a couple of twitter links, a flickr, a model mayhem and some youtube. However every link I click gives me a completely different set of information and examples.
Most of these pages tell me to go to your website, and confusingly, images and content that I just saw are not on your website.

After all of this, all I know about you is that your name is Tyler Walczak and that you take photos and that I could call you to find out what you cost. I feel like if you organized and unified your content a little better across all streams that you would be in a much better position to get out and shoot and not have to worry about your website.

I hope that was sufficient enough to satisfy your original request.

Apparently posting source cod fails in all of my attempts to do so.
Send me a PM and I will send you a link to a text file with everything in it if you so desire the input

Thank you very much for taking the time to write all of that it was extremely helpful! From what I gathered here I'm going to try and change the things.

Opening page opens and after a second or two takes you too the homepage immediately

Make a link from my posted email to be able to email me directly from that

My horrible English in my about me

I have to figure out a way to change the portfolio button to make it take you back to the portfolio instead of the dedicated back to portfolio button.

News I will keep to update nw things kind of like a mini blog but I will change the video autoplay.

The big thing I want to change is the layout of the portfolio page I'm trying to think of a good layout.

Thank you guys again for the suggestions

I'm sure the site will remain a work in progress. The most important thing is the images, and those are great.

My only concern is the text size. It's a bit too small. I have better than 20 20 vision, but I have family that are near blind, so they wouldn't be able to read the text. Though I suppose anyone can adjust their monitors.

My site is flash right now and am finding I want to go to using html, as mentioned already, html is viewable on any device, and is more searchable on google. Your site looks and feels like html anyhow, so I don't see a reason for not having it already. With flash it makes it harder to copy an image, however there are ways to still do it, so why limit your visibility to the public just to have your site look a little prettier.

If anyone can point me to a good HTML5 template site for photography, I would love to see.

That's my two cents.

Silly Tyler be nice, and the link to your site on TMPG web profile is broken, it includes TPMG link at the front.

If you have the time, try reading some articles from here: http://www.alistapart.com/

Their articles range from hard core coding tricks to general discussion on what a good website should be. It should give you an idea of what people in the industry are doing to better their websites.

I completely agree with Holly. The text needs to be rewritten.

The things I personally hate most about websites are splash pages, flash and music, and yours has all 3.

Also:



In addition:
- Only use music you've licensed. I presume you wouldn't want people to use your photos without licensing them.
- Hotmail address? Seriously? They are still around?
- Why do you need an About and a Contact page? Seems they could be on the same page... especially since your email and phone number is on the footer of every page.

No music is on the site besides in the behind the scenes video..didn't make the video but illchange it .how come noone likes flash?

im still using flash for my site, but im gonna change it soon.. mostly because iphone does not support flash...

probably because it has been over abused?