Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hey !! .. SO I have no idea what section to put this under I guess critique corner might be better? anyways I've never made a website before and its my first one does anyone have any suggestions?? Im not selling my "skills" on it so I think im not breaking any rules here ..

But anyways does anyone have any suggestions to make it better??

Thanks!

Tyler

www.walczakphoto.com

looks good, I am more of a black dude rather than white, so not a big fan of the whiteness, but i think it works. One thing I think is a bit off are the links to your achievements on other sites, dunno if it's better to just include them on your site rather than linking to outside sources. Otherwise it's clean and tidy

By that you mean just post like screen shots instead? .. Btw how come it won't show up on google if I search it?

How long ago did you create the site? It takes Google a while to find things and index them. To speed up the process you might want to register your URL with Google and ask others with related sites to link to you. Google "why doesn't google find my website" for more info.

google has some web tools, you also need to fill in your profile, don't ask me where it is, can't remember

Looks great Tyler! Nice job! I like the clean look.

very nice

Design wise it looks great. Everything is easy, simple, clear.

Only nag is, ditch the hotmail email address and get it with your website.

hey bud, site looks great. one thing that i came across, that bugged me (but may not bug you, or might be how you designed it) is that the PORTFOLIO link on the left, should always bring you back to the main portfolio section.

For example, click on portfolio, then select black and white from the three categories. from there, if i click on about, or any other link, and then click on portfolio, it takes me back to the black and white section, instead of the main portfolio section.

Besides what has already been said just some thoughts.

Technical nags:

1 - When I first load your page in firefox it gets stuck on your name and indicates it's loading data, if I then click on your name the home page comes up no problem.

2 - After looking at your portfolio clicking on "portfolio" (left side menu) does not bring me back to portfolio, even when I have left the portfolio and I am trying to get back it still goes to the last photo I was viewing. I suggest ditching the "back to portfolio" link under the photo and making the portfolio button on the side menu do what it says and go back to portfolio main page.

3 - Email should be hot linked to send mail. If you are worried about bots collecting your email for spam there are partial ways around this.

Overall impression thoughts:

Your website sends mixed messages I can't figure out if the site is for a professional photographer, a hobbyist or an artist.

Depending what it is for if it is a personal site then OK. If it was for professional use I would:

a) change the side bar menu maybe change "about" to "biography"
b) add a few entries (categories) for commercial photography, portraiture and artistic.
c) change the categories in the portfolio section instead of B&W, colour should reflect these entries or better still for a more professional look consider dropping the portfolio and moving the photographs to the different categories as this would speed up and simplify navigation.
d)Tighten up your biography maybe replacing some of the more trite terms like "I love" (used twice) and "I enjoy"

Looks good but...

Are you really really REALLY sure that you want to create a new website in and do it in Flash? There's a ton of Flash hate out there and let's face it, a handful of devices don't support it. If you want to maximize your visibility you may want to consider an alternative to Flash. Side note, I don't think Google search is able to index content presented within your Flash app, only the metadata you've associated with it.

On a personal note, I don't like the font and think the font is too small. It's not a font that's easy to read on the screen, especially given that it's so small. Strikes me as a font that looks gorgeous in print, not so on the screen.

I fully agree with the portfolio button to send me back to the main portfolio .. I tried to fix that but I can't It seems as those buttons are on a layer of their own and don't change as you browse through each other layer (about. News, Portfolio etc) // Reason I used flash is because I used a site called Wix which allows you to create your own site in a flash based web designer since I have no idea how to code lol
Thanks for all your suggestions!! Much appreciated

I would only recommend using flash if your site will benefit from it. Right now your site could be completely done in HTML without losing any functionality. With HTML you are shooting for the largest demographic possible and you will be open to the largest amount of possible clients. Then you can track everything with google analytics too.

For starters, you might want to proofread your "About" and "Contact" sections. There are a number of grammatical errors and the entire write-up sounds and looks very unprofessional.

And for seconds miss grinch? The site I used was flash based I don't think I can switch to HTML with the site builder I used. Hmm thanks everyone for there inputs much appreciated!. Minus the last one who has social issues .

Your site looks clean and the fonts you used looks good on it. But here are my inputs on your site.

- the background color you used is white (#FFFFFF) which looks good but too clean for your font imo. Maybe you can try putting this color (#EEEEEE) instead? Still white but a little dull.

- font looks good but they are quite small and they are almost touching each other (on the about page). Put a little space in between the lines and adjust them to a bigger size would not hurt.

- when I hover your links (home, news, portfolio etc), they just vanish. Try a different color when hovering?

- also, the position of your links are a little left on your name. It looks like it is not balanced. Maybe aligning them with your name? And also put it a little closer to your name.

- Put a title on your news and portfolio section. Sometimes I feel like I am lost, forgot what I clicked on your links.

Overall, I like what you did. Just some minor tweaks I guess. My iphone is terribly complaining though hehe. Cheers!

Gonna agree with holly on this one. The bio does need to be grammatically cleaned up a bit. It seems like a random stream of thought which is passable if it's just a personal website, but unacceptable if you're planning to go further.

*sniffle* our little Tyler all grown up

Maybe consider a different site builder then? Like others have pointed out, if it's a personal site it's no big deal, but if you're planning on taking it further it may be a good idea to invest some time into figuring some of this stuff out. It's easier to get all these things resolved *before* you really launch the site, etc.

I probably spent a couple of weeks researching various website options before setting up my site. It's a bit different from your situation as it's a personal site, however, although I work in IT and code for a living, I still didn't want to really do any coding for my personal site. In the end, I set up a SquareSpace account and am very happy with it. You may want to look at something like that as a coding minimal option. I did basically no coding other than messing a tiny bit with customized styles.

It seems like you're aiming to at least to try to go further with this, so keep in mind, it's not going to be about just your photography anymore. From that perspective, holly and Delsorbo are right on the money, you need to present cohesive thoughts without grammatical errors, etc. Don't take that feedback personally, I don't think these folks are trying to kick you down, they're trying to be constructive.

Best of luck!

is this really your idea of an invitation to go further?

You asked for suggestions on how to make your site better. Holly offered you some very relevant constructive criticism (proof read and correct grammar) and you launch a personal attack?

That's classy.

I have no problem with Suggestions and Criticism .. I always take them all into consideration.. Notice how I i didn't take offence to the other 20 suggestions/ criticism above? How she wrote it I did take offence to it .. You see how Ryan, Dimitiri and everyone else offers suggestions without being rude? That is constructive criticism .. She on the other hand I guess has daddy issues and needs to learn to socialize properly with other people .. I wanted way to make the site better and appreciate everyones input like I said many times above but when someone types it like she does I do take offence to it .. Notice how Delsorbo said the exact same criticism and yet it was in a helpful way not in a rude way?

Thats what my issue is with

Care to explain? Are you referring to the Fire fighter photo? .. I change the photo usually once a week to keep it different

I have no problem with Suggestions and Criticism .. I always take them all into consideration.. Notice how I i didn't take offence to the other 20 suggestions/ criticism above? How she wrote it I did take offence to it .. You see how Ryan, Dimitiri and everyone else offers suggestions without being rude? That is constructive criticism .. She on the other hand I guess has daddy issues and needs to learn to socialize properly with other people .. I wanted way to make the site better and appreciate everyones input like I said many times above but when someone types it like she does I do take offence to it .. Notice how Delsorbo said the exact same criticism and yet it was in a helpful way not in a rude way?

Thats what my issue is with

Not defending Tyler's comments but some of us here know there is a history between Holly and Tyler that is less than amicable, so Holly's comments can easily be construed not as a constructive criticism but as a subtle attack. Just saying the situation is not really black and white.

"Miss Grinch"? I have "social issues"? "Daddy issues"?

Wow. I guess I was right on the money when I said you appeared unprofessional (which, by the way, didn't mean that you were unprofessional, simply that your text made you appear so, though you seem to have proven yourself as unprofessional as your text).

I don't even know you (so I don't know what "less than amicable" history people are referring to). I agreed with the above comments about linking and flash and didn't bother to repeat them. And really, before you worry about little things like that you should worry about site content - images AND text.

This is an incredibly unkind and unprofessional response. Especially irresponsible for someone looking to build a career in photography.

Why are you even bothering to ask us to put time into providing feedback when you respond so unkindly to people who provide it? Moreover, you have not even put time into proofreading your own website so why should we invest time in it?

Your opinion I could go without unless it were constructive. As for the other members on here I respect them which is why I asked them for there opinions Tpmg helped me grow as a photographer and the people have been nothing but helpful here I did not dismiss any criticism by anyone here but when you say " first of all " to start a sentence it comes off snarky and rude . I' m not good at English if that wasn't abundantly clear which is why I asked for Tpmgs help to point out things I don't notice. Notice how youre the only one who got ragged on out of 20 people? Clearly I can take criticism .

Hi Tyler,

No need to PM me three times. The front page is usually designed to make people go in and browse the rest of the site. If you think yours does this, it's OK (of course, you may also not care about this particlar function, which is also OK). I really have nothing to add.

All best!

Sorry thus iPhone likes to act up a bit my bad for the three messages. Thanks

no prob at all cheers

I'll say this. If you're going to be running a business one should always act professional regardless of the situation. Whether it's one trying to start up a photography business, somebody providing IT services or whatever the case is, how you represent yourself professionally is crucial, as it could come back and bite you in the ass, especially when there are things like google which gives power to the customer.

You've asked for feedback so expect to get a wide range of feedback. If you're being dealt with remarks that you don't care for, just say "thanks" and leave it as that.