Finally, My Site!

[inzite]

Hello guys,

So I finally managed to get my own site up and running, mainly to display some of my better stuff and also give potential clients a view of my stuff. My clients are mainly younger crowds and I mainly cover wedding/prewedding work, therefore I have included some of those work on the site. It also has some of the highlights of my traveling etc... 🙂 It is presented in a blog format to suit my casual style more but still has the categories that viewers can choose to sort through the posts.

Would be great to get some feedback in terms of the site and also the photos on there from you guys! 🙂

http://www.ricky-cheong.com

 

[JHenry]

Ricky,

Took a look at your site, and like some of the images (the main photo for the road trip, especially).

Here are two comments from someone who doesn't make his living from photography, but looks at lots of sites.

First, there is a lot of dead space on you home page. Wait...it's not dead space anymore. The equation thing you have finally loaded. That leads to comment #2: It took forever for your site to load. Now, I'm down in NZ, and our internet is notoriously slow but I think there is something wrong with your site. Third, I don't really understand the equation thing you have. I like the symbols, but don't get it. Does the 3-leaf clover represent "luck?" If so, I'm not sure a potential customer would want to see that you rely on luck for their sessions.

Lastly, while I like the content, it doesn't seem focused. Looks like its a wedding photographer's site with quite a bit of personal travel pictures. If I was a potential client this might turn me away.

I do like your images, and that's the most important part.

Jeff
www.pixelsandgrain.co

 

[inzite]

thanks for the kind comments Jeff! regarding the luck part it is as in having the best uncontrollable circumstance such as weather in everyone's favor. Infact the website is a hybrid between something personal and client friendly.

 

[segedi]

Nice photos, but agree, that animation does not serve your audience well. It loads terribly slowly and takes away from the main interest of the site, the photos. Maybe make it static and put it in the footer. And remove some items, nobody wants to do complicated math on a photo site.

The logotype is nice, but too large, the whole header would be better much smaller, again, bring the photos as the main focus.

The blog style is fine, but as something that feeds into a more professional portfolio site. As your only site, I wouldn't put the personal/travel photo in there. They do serve as a nice getting to know you, but if you want to sell wedding photography, make that the focus. And put Weddings at the top of your category list. Or better yet, make it a top nav item.
Home . Weddings . Engagements . Personal Work . Contact

Remove archives - they don't serve the goal of the site.

Add a personal photo or two to the about section. And maybe remove the gear stuff. Clients shouldn't care as the photos speak for themselves. And guys like me will question why your awesome rangefinder kit isn't being used for client work.

The overall feel of the site is welcoming and friendly. It's a very good start and is motivating me to do a lot more work on my own site!

 

[FrankS]

Calling oneself gifted ... Just doesn't sound right to me.

 

[kevin_v]

As noted, the feel and tone of the site is very nice and welcoming, however, as segedi said, the logo's really large. I'm sitting at a 13" screen with a browser window approximated filling 80% of it and when I load your page, I see no photos; I see that as a flaw. However, if you zoom out three to four times (Ctrl-minus or Command-minus), at least on my setup, the scaling improves significantly IMO (font size excepted of course). Also, you probably don't need those three links at the end of EVERY post – maybe just "back to top." Good luck!

 

[Luke_Y]

I'll echo some of the others. It's a warm friendly feeling site, I like that. I like some of the photos on the site.

Is it a Blog or Business site? That animation takes some time to load even on a fast connection. I don't see a photo on the home pg without scrolling. I don't feel like I should need to scroll on the front pg of a business site.

Give me a clean (you can still make it warm), fast loading, business site front page with a solid photo that targets and speaks to your intended market (chang it out occasionally). Give me easy to decipher links to the things I want to see (Info, Portfolio, Contact, Blog) on the same front page with no scrolling.

And no music.... (just a general comment, not to you specifically)