opinions wanted

[Marc Jutras]

Hello all!

I'm on vacation and I'm having a hard time believing it!

Since it was a bit cold for my R2 today, I decided to revamp my personal site. I've been thinking about it for a while and finally made the move.

For those who had visited the previous version, you will probably remember (I'm an optimist) that navigating throught the galleries was a bit of a pain. I felt there was too much stuff and pages. So I reduced it a lot. I kept only my most recent work (R2 with film).

I decided to reduce my gallery to only one section and make it entirely accessible from the main page. So, unless the visitor seeks older information still available, it'll be a one page site experience.

I have left old stuff that seems to attract a lot of traffic (the articles at the bottom) and the "published work" section (gotta have something to brag about, right?).

So, after a day spent on this, I'd like to know what you guys and gals (do I really need to put an s? ) think about it. marcjutras.com

Thanks.

 

[taffer]

Hi Marc ! Congrats on your vacation

The first seconds I was a bit confused as it's not usual that you have to scroll down to find galleries on most sites but after using it a bit I liked the three separate vertical sections. A tip you could add is three big visible titles with links to an anchor in the main page, so clicking the link will automatically scroll you down to Info | Gallery | Techniques, for example.

That said, I like the straightforward gallery, clean and simple. Couple thoughts, dunno if it would be easy to maintain that design if you'd like to add categories, but now that I think you could easily separate the vertical strip of thumbnails on the left so it's ok. The other thing is that on a 1024 screen it's better to use your browser on full screen mode to completely view the photos.

That said, I really liked to see your work together, and found the articles also to be interesting and useful. Thanks for sharing !!!

Oscar

 

[Marc Jutras]

Thank you for taking the time to give me those fine comments.

The anchor links pointing to the big sections is something I'll include asap.

I thought of different ways to add categories to the gallery but I think I won't do that. I want to keep it as simple as possible. If I need to pressent a special body of work, I'll create an independant section for it. My new gallery is extremely easy to update and that was part of the idea.

I just tried to view the site at 1024x768 (I'm normally at 1280x1024 and up). The height of the pictures (600px) can indeed be a problem since all the toolbars in the browser use a lot of space. I'm not sure what to do about it. I don't feel like resizing everything. I'll probably put a note suggesting 1280x960 and up.

Was it loading fast?

Thanks again.

 

[taffer]

Glad I could be of any help Marc !

In fact there's no need to resize anything, now I see the note to go to F11 mode (was it already there ?

Yup, loaded fast at work and here as well on my dsl at home.

I also see the anchors now you may also think about placing a 'top' link on each section to go back to the top.

And that's all, overall I like it very much !!

 

[Marc Jutras]

The F11 note is new. I thought about the "top"anchor but I think the page is small enough that people can scroll back up. I'll think about it some more...

I'm glad to hear it loads fast. The hosting service I use has been really good over the last 2 years.

Thanks again.

 

[rbiemer]

Very well done, Marc!
I bop around the 'net looking at lots of photographers sites and seems like a good half of the sites are too dificult to navigate(trying to be Arty?) yours is easy!
Like the work as well!
Rob

 

[st3ph3nm]

Second that!

Easy to navigate, some great photos, and the articles and links are usefull and interesting.

Can I advise any changes?
Nope.

Cheers,
Steve