I was looking for a clean look with simple navigations. I hope I managed, altho there are still some things I'd like to change a bit, but I can't (the way lightbox shows photos for example).
I think you've succeeded as far as the clean look goes. The only thing that bothered me about your site was that the photos were quite small and the watermark is so large that it really harms the viewing of the photo. I know you're worried about piracy, but I have two points to make about that:
If you publish your work on the web, there is no practical way to keep people from stealing it. If someone is intent on taking your image, they'll do it, watermark or no.
Periodically use Google's image search to see if people are stealing your work. This can actually turn into a win-win situation. I found a couple of local companies that had hired a web designer who told them they had paid for my image and incorporated it into their websites. When they found out that was not the case, they were more than willing to put up a new image with my copyright notice, my website, and a title and alt tag that identified the photo as mine.
I'm just curious -- why is the menu in English and the rest in what I assume is Estonian?
After lurking around for a few months I thought it was finally time to introduce my site: http://sarasphotos.de
I spent a good deal of time customizing and using "borrowed" code from the customization links - thanks to those who have generously opened their code! I'm still frustrated with a few things, like not being able to really change the standard gallery and slide show formats. What would really please me is documentation of smugmug's css classes - customization would then be a breeze and not a struggle. (I'm an IT-Pro and occasional web designer.)
My site consists of two areas, a private area with password protected galleries for friends and family and the public areas for all to browse. Photography has been a hobby for many years and now I particularly enjoy combining photography with my other pastime, bike riding.
The site is very much a work-in-progress - I spent a lot of time working on it in December but since then have run out of time and will have to let it sit for a bit before the next round of changes. The other thing I really need to do is go through my Lightroom galleries and change my "publish" criteria to get rid of some of the duplication.
After lurking around for a few months I thought it was finally time to introduce my site: http://sarasphotos.de
Well, you seem to have a healthy outlook on life - photography and cycling. Perfect combination.
Good personal site. I thought the home page image was a little cluttered in the background - perhaps something a little less detailed? Clicking the public gallery option flashes up the keyword page for a second before moving on to the galleries. I've seen that on another site, but not sure why it happens.
Do you need the Admin tool option on the home page (I can see it)?
On the search option it might be better to have the search box at the top so we know it's there, as there is a long list of keywords first before we get to the box. I like the map thing on there - how do you do that?
My wife and I are considering a long trip to Germany and a few other places. Where is best in Germany for cycling? Preferably with a few beer kellars.
Well, you seem to have a healthy outlook on life - photography and cycling. Perfect combination.
Good personal site. I thought the home page image was a little cluttered in the background - perhaps something a little less detailed? Clicking the public gallery option flashes up the keyword page for a second before moving on to the galleries. I've seen that on another site, but not sure why it happens.
Do you need the Admin tool option on the home page (I can see it)?
On the search option it might be better to have the search box at the top so we know it's there, as there is a long list of keywords first before we get to the box. I like the map thing on there - how do you do that?
My wife and I are considering a long trip to Germany and a few other places. Where is best in Germany for cycling? Preferably with a few beer kellars.
Hi Rob, thanks for the feedback.
You've confirmed my thought that that home page picture is really too busy - I'll change it as soon as I get a chance.
I have no idea why the keywords pop up before the gallery links on the Public page - could be something to do with the custom css for the galleries, perhaps?
The search box is at the bottom because it takes up an inordinate amount of space (about 300px tall) and since it's "Default SmugMug Content" there is no way to resize it. That's what I get for using the standard Search page and adapting it. What I may do when I have more time is make a new page and put a Search element at the top of the page followed by keywords and map.
The map is the standard SM Map element (under "Discovery"). The only bummer is that it will only call up 200 photos - fairly useless if you ask me.
...the Admin Menu item... well, I need to have a login option and the teeny little login text in the footer drove me nuts 'cause I couldn't get it to align correctly on my page - and I just plain don't like the look of it. I really just wanted to stick the login link there and I didn't want the word "Login" so prominent and since you can't change the text in the default Login link I decided to put it in a sub item. I've renamed it to Admin and moved it down the list... I may look for another solution...
Cycling in Germany... well naturally I'm prejudiced and will say that Bavaria is the best because I prefer the alpine scenery to the flatness of northern Germany. The areas south of Augsburg and Munich have countless trails of varying length and difficulty. And they don't all involve strenuous climbs (I am definitely not a mountain goat!). There are many official multi-day routes like the Romantic Road and Via Claudia Augusta (over the Alps into Italy!) or one could just stay in some cute small town and ride all the tours around that area. There's no shortage of choices. As the time gets closer if you need more advice, don't hesitate to contact me.
BTW, I've already looked at your site several times - it's really tasteful (quite a compliment from me) and your images are divine!
Once again, thanks for taking the time to provide feedback!
After lurking around for a few months I thought it was finally time to introduce my site: http://sarasphotos.de
I spent a good deal of time customizing and using "borrowed" code from the customization links - thanks to those who have generously opened their code! I'm still frustrated with a few things, like not being able to really change the standard gallery and slide show formats. What would really please me is documentation of smugmug's css classes - customization would then be a breeze and not a struggle. (I'm an IT-Pro and occasional web designer.)
My site consists of two areas, a private area with password protected galleries for friends and family and the public areas for all to browse. Photography has been a hobby for many years and now I particularly enjoy combining photography with my other pastime, bike riding.
The site is very much a work-in-progress - I spent a lot of time working on it in December but since then have run out of time and will have to let it sit for a bit before the next round of changes. The other thing I really need to do is go through my Lightroom galleries and change my "publish" criteria to get rid of some of the duplication.
Meanwhile, have a look and (hopefully) enjoy!
Cheers from Augsburg,
Sara
Hello! I love your site! It does get alittle busy and there are two things I'm not a huge fan of (the navbar on the side and the smugmug gallery settings). Have you thought about switching it up on some of the galleries? Also, seems everything is small, IE all your gallery pages, your bio info/pic etc....Other than that, great shots! Had a great time looking through them all for the past hour
After lurking around for a few months I thought it was finally time to introduce my site: http://sarasphotos.de
Nice site. If I click the plus sign on the left to open the submenu, and then attempt to scroll down to view the entire list, I can't. The screen will not scroll. I'm not sure what setting you need to allow this to work.
After lurking around for a few months I thought it was finally time to introduce my site: http://sarasphotos.de
Sara
Hi Sara. Nice site; you've done a good job. I'm a cyclist/photographer as well, though I haven't figured out a way to combine the two, since most of my work is on the beach.
I agree with the point about keeping the admin link off the main page -- unless you've got a bunch of other admins.
I notice the "Info" link doesn't display anything, at least on the dozen or so pics I tried it on, so you might think about getting rid of that.
As far as CSS customization, the most invaluable tool, in my mind, is the Web Developer Toolbar Button. I'm not sure if it's available for Chrome or IE, since I use Firefox, but it is a lifesaver as far as SmugMug customization goes. Whenever I need to know what element to modify, all I have to do is click on the Information/Display Element Information link, and that will show the full heirarchy of any css element on the page when you click on it. Once you have the name, you can customize just about anything.
I think you've succeeded as far as the clean look goes. The only thing that bothered me about your site was that the photos were quite small and the watermark is so large that it really harms the viewing of the photo. I know you're worried about piracy, but I have two points to make about that:
If you publish your work on the web, there is no practical way to keep people from stealing it. If someone is intent on taking your image, they'll do it, watermark or no.
Periodically use Google's image search to see if people are stealing your work. This can actually turn into a win-win situation. I found a couple of local companies that had hired a web designer who told them they had paid for my image and incorporated it into their websites. When they found out that was not the case, they were more than willing to put up a new image with my copyright notice, my website, and a title and alt tag that identified the photo as mine.
I'm just curious -- why is the menu in English and the rest in what I assume is Estonian?
HI Tom,
thanks for the feedback! It's amazing, that someone actually took time to look closely at my website.
I will answer the question about the languaeg first: to be honest, most of my clients are estonian (good job discovering the language!). I don't know how to make two-language page, so it is a compromise for the moment. All in all, I would like most of the things to be in both languages, but the menus would then be very long and ugly. Estonians understand english well enough. I will translate all other texts to english aswell, but actually foreigners only buy photos from me (not other services).
As far as photo size and watermark are considered, I am satisfied with it and so are my clients. (I agree that I should remove it from my drawings, tho). I don't know, which photos you were viewing, but the new ones are 800 px long side, which is quite normal for web store quality. Most of my colleagues in various other countries have even bigger watermarks and smaller photos, so I think mine are pretty good.
Selling photos in Estonia is a bit difficult sometimes, people aren't so used to pay for this service yet. Stealing used to be massive, as I work in sport competitions shooting lots of teenagers and so on. They would do anything to get things for free. My aim is to sell and in my field of business people know me well, so I don't need fame or advertising as much as I need my salary.
This is mine. I've changed the same day of the launch, but because how easy it is to customize, I've been making several changes to stay with this design I hope you like. http://jchmportafolio.infoinnova.net
P.D. What I really miss in this new smugmug is the option to use JavaScript.
Hi, very nice site you have!
I wonder, how did you do the "floating" text on the homepage?
Been playing around with and tweaking the new SM layout as well as my WP site to match up as best as possible. I THINK I've ironed out most of the bugs but always welcome feedback.
Been playing around with and tweaking the new SM layout as well as my WP site to match up as best as possible. I THINK I've ironed out most of the bugs but always welcome feedback.
I like the homepage and how you have the.....slideshow?? set up. Not sure what to call it to be honest but I do like it! Not a fan of the NavBar though, all of the links are at the VERY VERY VERY top of the page. Also, how did you get the ads to work? I tried before but could not get it implemented right. I noticed to, when you are in a gallery, the formatting of your drop down NAVBAR links change completely. I like it better when you are in a gallery. Not sure why there is a difference, but I'm a "uniformed" type of guy so it just doesnt suite me. Great shots by the way, just finished going through Oregon and New Zealand. Hope you dont take offense!
I like the homepage and how you have the.....slideshow?? set up. Not sure what to call it to be honest but I do like it! Not a fan of the NavBar though, all of the links are at the VERY VERY VERY top of the page. Also, how did you get the ads to work? I tried before but could not get it implemented right. I noticed to, when you are in a gallery, the formatting of your drop down NAVBAR links change completely. I like it better when you are in a gallery. Not sure why there is a difference, but I'm a "uniformed" type of guy so it just doesnt suite me. Great shots by the way, just finished going through Oregon and New Zealand. Hope you dont take offense!
Nav bar on the home page is from Wordpress, Nav bar on the galleries page is from SmugMug. The formats are different mainly because the two sections of the site handle mobile/browser responsiveness differently and I'm still working to make the two nav bars uniform.
Didn't really do anything special to get adsense working. SmugMug has a content block where you can enter in the ID of an adsense ad.
The one thing I REALLY don't like however, is how SM handles Google Analytics and custom domain names. As it is now, if someone navigates from my homepage to a gallery page (or vice versa), analytics will show that one person as 2 separate visitors. I could fix that problem in the old SM by using custom javascript for analytics instead of SM's built in analytics support.
I finally did it. I crossed over from Legacy. It took me a while to get it all set up. What a learning curve!
I live in Central Mexico and shoot abstracts and street photography. My portfolio site was designed using Dina. I wanted a clean, simple, minimal look and my goal was to convey what I do on the homepage within a few seconds. I have three galleries, each with 20 of my top photos. I may reduce them down to 15 per or even 10 per gallery. Like me, most viewers just don't have the time to look....I call it the 3 second attention span! I want to get my point across fast.
I think you've reached your goal of a clean look to your site.
There are a couple of changes I would recommend. I've never understood why images like those on your home page should be grayed out. Presented with your homepage I would be likely to move on without visiting your galleries. Why hide the color of your images with a layer of gray?
The second is that I would change your about page from a gallery to a page. Place a single photo and some text on the page. Raise the text higher on the page so your viewer doesn't need to scroll to read it.
I think you've reached your goal of a clean look to your site.
There are a couple of changes I would recommend. I've never understood why images like those on your home page should be grayed out. Presented with your homepage I would be likely to move on without visiting your galleries. Why hide the color of your images with a layer of gray?
The second is that I would change your about page from a gallery to a page. Place a single photo and some text on the page. Raise the text higher on the page so your viewer doesn't need to scroll to read it.
--- Denise
Thank you Denise for taking time out and checking over the site.
Regarding the grayed out photos on the home page, I do not have that problem on my IMac. In fact, they are clear and bright. The only time the images are grayed out is when I hover the pointer over the image and it quickly displays the name of the gallery. I will look into this more.
Is anyone else out there having the same view as Denise? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Very good advice about replacing the gallery "About Me" and setting it up as a page. Makes a lot of sense. I will look into that as well. Another learning curve coming up!
Regarding the grayed out photos on the home page, I do not have that problem on my IMac. In fact, they are clear and bright. The only time the images are grayed out is when I hover the pointer over the image and it quickly displays the name of the gallery. I will look into this more.
Maria -
I just looked again and the images on your home page look fine now. Did you change something? Very odd if you didn't...
Maria -
I just looked again and the images on your home page look fine now. Did you change something? Very odd if you didn't...
--- Denise
Hi Denise,
Yes, I changed the option of the name placement from hover to below the gallery on the home page. I did not care for this option before...but it seems to have made the images considerably brighter. Thank you very much for the alert.
I have been struggling a while on how to make a Page for my About section. I created a Page in a Folder in Organize, but I'm not sure how import copy and a photo...or lay them out in Customize. This is all new to me, so it will take me a few days.
Yes, I changed the option of the name placement from hover to below the gallery on the home page. I did not care for this option before...but it seems to have made the images considerably brighter. Thank you very much for the alert.
I have been struggling a while on how to make a Page for my About section. I created a Page in a Folder in Organize, but I'm not sure how import copy and a photo...or lay them out in Customize. This is all new to me, so it will take me a few days.
Glad to know I wasn't imagining things!
For your page, you just need to drag a photo content element and a text content element to the page (or an html element if you want more control). The photo can be from an unlisted gallery. If you have problems or questions please start a thread and someone will jump in and help.
For your page, you just need to drag a photo content element and a text content element to the page (or an html element if you want more control). The photo can be from an unlisted gallery. If you have problems or questions please start a thread and someone will jump in and help.
--- Denise
Thanks again Denise for all your help! I will get on it.
Completely Remodeled....
Hello all! I changed just about everything on my site....played with the map (hate that I can only post 200 pics to it =\!!), added the profile block to the gallery page and my family only folder (havent seen anyone take advantage of changing it for each page, let me know what you think) and went a bit old school with the homepage with just a full-screen slideshow. Please let me know what you think. I feel really good about it, who wants to kill my buzz? haha jk
Customisations
I made some minor adjustments to the base theme (and I am not convinced I did them in the most efficient way) such as:
I wanted a left sidebar that had a Nav menu that could change per page. I didn't want to build an entire sidebar on each page, so instead a created a site-wide sidebar with the repeating elements (title, contact info and links, etc) and then per page I just have to do a simple Nav block with the links I want there (and align it and adjust the alpha). This was difficult to achieve as the two 'layers' would run over each other with scrolling/etc.
Some minor CSS changes to change font size for Photo Titles, remove Tags, etc, etc (HUGE thanks to leftquark and denisegoldberg from some of their answers in this forum which I stole)
Others I can't remember right now.
To Do/Wishlist
The site doesn't look great on mobile (the use of two sidebar nav menus goes all wrong) so need to fix that.
Would like a different looking map (maybe google maps).
Would like to remove the hover text on images.
The overlapping of sidebars, whilst it is working now, may be subject to problems, I feel.
Others I can't remember right now.
That's about it. Any thoughts/ideas/feedback welcome!
Sam
regards,
Sam
______________________________
SmugMug site - samuelmcdowell.com
Customisations
I made some minor adjustments to the base theme (and I am not convinced I did them in the most efficient way) such as:
I wanted a left sidebar that had a Nav menu that could change per page. I didn't want to build an entire sidebar on each page, so instead a created a site-wide sidebar with the repeating elements (title, contact info and links, etc) and then per page I just have to do a simple Nav block with the links I want there (and align it and adjust the alpha). This was difficult to achieve as the two 'layers' would run over each other with scrolling/etc.
Some minor CSS changes to change font size for Photo Titles, remove Tags, etc, etc (HUGE thanks to leftquark and denisegoldberg from some of their answers in this forum which I stole)
Others I can't remember right now.
To Do/Wishlist
The site doesn't look great on mobile (the use of two sidebar nav menus goes all wrong) so need to fix that.
Would like a different looking map (maybe google maps).
Would like to remove the hover text on images.
The overlapping of sidebars, whilst it is working now, may be subject to problems, I feel.
Others I can't remember right now.
That's about it. Any thoughts/ideas/feedback welcome!
Sam
Not sure if I'm the only one, but I cannot see the links to your galleries.....only "about" and "contact"
Not sure if I'm the only one, but I cannot see the links to your galleries.....only "about" and "contact"
Oh...should be a "Collection" there in the middle, between the title and the about/contact options? I can see it on safari and chrome? Otherwise yes, it is going to be hard to navigate to any actual photos!
regards,
Sam
______________________________
SmugMug site - samuelmcdowell.com
Hi Sam. You've done a nice job. Good color scheme, and some beautiful photos.
I like that you've used a "non-busy" photo for your background. Sometimes the background photo can make a site seem messy because there's too much going on.
One thing you might think about, especially if you have more than 20 photos in each gallery, is the display of thumbs. I know you provide a grid view, but on tablets and smaller, even that will tend to leave a lot of images off the page. On the normal view, many users might not take the time to scroll to the bottom. Just a thought. . .
You pointed out in your post the main reason why side bar menus are not used that often -- they misbehave on smaller screens. In your case, it appears the social icons go to the top of the page. You may have to play around with the css to fix that.
No search or tags? A personal choice, I know, but these are nice ways for users to find similar photos, especially as you add more.
Oh...should be a "Collection" there in the middle, between the title and the about/contact options? I can see it on safari and chrome? Otherwise yes, it is going to be hard to navigate to any actual photos!
I got it! Great shots to start off with....and I'm with him above, I love the cleanliness. Love the shot of the "final approach" by the way. I think you need to play with the links a bit so its a bit more easily accessible. I had to click the "collection" at the very top of your header on Chrome.
Thanks Tom/Jeff for the feedback and thoughts! (And for taking a look...)
Jeff - I'm not sure where you mean you had to click on the 'header'? Could you not see the link on the sidebar still? And is this chrome on a laptop/desktop or on a mobile device? Sounds like you are getting strange behaviour and I would like to fix it!
Tom - I will change the copyright, thanks (didn't realise there was a 'standard'). I think that search and/or tags will make an appearance as the site grows, but they are not so necessary right now. I hear you on the thumbnails - it's just that I am not a big fan of the crowded tile look. I think your view of either using them or having smaller galleries is a good one - I will have to choose! Making the Nav sidebar work on mobile is going to be a little bit of a challenge as I don't know CSS (have just been winging it with 'borrowed' code from this forum) but I understand I will need to do something to display/hide menus depending on screen size.
As for why my work isn't offered for sale - two reasons: one understandable (just getting started with this and building confidence) and one that may sound a little silly (I don't know how...yet). For selling via SM, I have a Power account at the moment, so would need to step up if I were wanting to make something of the 'sale' options that SM provides.
regards,
Sam
______________________________
SmugMug site - samuelmcdowell.com
Thanks Tom/Jeff for the feedback and thoughts! (And for taking a look...)
Jeff - I'm not sure where you mean you had to click on the 'header'? Could you not see the link on the sidebar still? And is this chrome on a laptop/desktop or on a mobile device? Sounds like you are getting strange behaviour and I would like to fix it!
Tom - I will change the copyright, thanks (didn't realise there was a 'standard'). I think that search and/or tags will make an appearance as the site grows, but they are not so necessary right now. I hear you on the thumbnails - it's just that I am not a big fan of the crowded tile look. I think your view of either using them or having smaller galleries is a good one - I will have to choose! Making the Nav sidebar work on mobile is going to be a little bit of a challenge as I don't know CSS (have just been winging it with 'borrowed' code from this forum) but I understand I will need to do something to display/hide menus depending on screen size.
As for why my work isn't offered for sale - two reasons: one understandable (just getting started with this and building confidence) and one that may sound a little silly (I don't know how...yet). For selling via SM, I have a Power account at the moment, so would need to step up if I were wanting to make something of the 'sale' options that SM provides.
its Chrome on my desktop....and the collection link is literally above the name of the site. Its almost running into one another. I opened it on IE and Firefox and its opening just fine though. Maybe my Chrome is acting up?? Again, love your shot!
Allright Customization gurus, we want to see what you have been doing to the New SmugMug. Reply to this thread with your new SmugMug site. If you can also give a brief overview of the additional customization you did, that would be awesome.
We are going to start showing off awesome sites via our social media channels soon, so show us what you got!
I did have to learn some basic XHTML & CSS (thank you community college courses and google!) in order to do some very basic edits. Mainly I added some links (mapquest and facebook), centered some text, changed visited/unvisited links etc. The real revelation came when I discovered that I was not limited to the number and or types of content blocks I am able to display on my page (see my news and updates page). Once I overcame that obstacle I was off to the races. It hasn't been easy, there were several times where I hated SM! But now I love you again. :smooch
Comments
All set I think now.
Thanks again, and any other feed back welcome!
Seb.
I think you've succeeded as far as the clean look goes. The only thing that bothered me about your site was that the photos were quite small and the watermark is so large that it really harms the viewing of the photo. I know you're worried about piracy, but I have two points to make about that:
- If you publish your work on the web, there is no practical way to keep people from stealing it. If someone is intent on taking your image, they'll do it, watermark or no.
- Periodically use Google's image search to see if people are stealing your work. This can actually turn into a win-win situation. I found a couple of local companies that had hired a web designer who told them they had paid for my image and incorporated it into their websites. When they found out that was not the case, they were more than willing to put up a new image with my copyright notice, my website, and a title and alt tag that identified the photo as mine.
I'm just curious -- why is the menu in English and the rest in what I assume is Estonian?Instagram Twitter Facebook
HI all,
After lurking around for a few months I thought it was finally time to introduce my site: http://sarasphotos.de
I spent a good deal of time customizing and using "borrowed" code from the customization links - thanks to those who have generously opened their code! I'm still frustrated with a few things, like not being able to really change the standard gallery and slide show formats. What would really please me is documentation of smugmug's css classes - customization would then be a breeze and not a struggle. (I'm an IT-Pro and occasional web designer.)
My site consists of two areas, a private area with password protected galleries for friends and family and the public areas for all to browse. Photography has been a hobby for many years and now I particularly enjoy combining photography with my other pastime, bike riding.
The site is very much a work-in-progress - I spent a lot of time working on it in December but since then have run out of time and will have to let it sit for a bit before the next round of changes. The other thing I really need to do is go through my Lightroom galleries and change my "publish" criteria to get rid of some of the duplication.
Meanwhile, have a look and (hopefully) enjoy!
Cheers from Augsburg,
Sara
Well, you seem to have a healthy outlook on life - photography and cycling. Perfect combination.
Good personal site. I thought the home page image was a little cluttered in the background - perhaps something a little less detailed? Clicking the public gallery option flashes up the keyword page for a second before moving on to the galleries. I've seen that on another site, but not sure why it happens.
Do you need the Admin tool option on the home page (I can see it)?
On the search option it might be better to have the search box at the top so we know it's there, as there is a long list of keywords first before we get to the box. I like the map thing on there - how do you do that?
My wife and I are considering a long trip to Germany and a few other places. Where is best in Germany for cycling? Preferably with a few beer kellars.
Hi Rob, thanks for the feedback.
You've confirmed my thought that that home page picture is really too busy - I'll change it as soon as I get a chance.
I have no idea why the keywords pop up before the gallery links on the Public page - could be something to do with the custom css for the galleries, perhaps?
The search box is at the bottom because it takes up an inordinate amount of space (about 300px tall) and since it's "Default SmugMug Content" there is no way to resize it. That's what I get for using the standard Search page and adapting it. What I may do when I have more time is make a new page and put a Search element at the top of the page followed by keywords and map.
The map is the standard SM Map element (under "Discovery"). The only bummer is that it will only call up 200 photos - fairly useless if you ask me.
...the Admin Menu item... well, I need to have a login option and the teeny little login text in the footer drove me nuts 'cause I couldn't get it to align correctly on my page - and I just plain don't like the look of it. I really just wanted to stick the login link there and I didn't want the word "Login" so prominent and since you can't change the text in the default Login link I decided to put it in a sub item. I've renamed it to Admin and moved it down the list... I may look for another solution...
Cycling in Germany... well naturally I'm prejudiced and will say that Bavaria is the best because I prefer the alpine scenery to the flatness of northern Germany. The areas south of Augsburg and Munich have countless trails of varying length and difficulty. And they don't all involve strenuous climbs (I am definitely not a mountain goat!). There are many official multi-day routes like the Romantic Road and Via Claudia Augusta (over the Alps into Italy!) or one could just stay in some cute small town and ride all the tours around that area. There's no shortage of choices. As the time gets closer if you need more advice, don't hesitate to contact me.
BTW, I've already looked at your site several times - it's really tasteful (quite a compliment from me) and your images are divine!
Once again, thanks for taking the time to provide feedback!
Cheers,
Sara
Hello! I love your site! It does get alittle busy and there are two things I'm not a huge fan of (the navbar on the side and the smugmug gallery settings). Have you thought about switching it up on some of the galleries? Also, seems everything is small, IE all your gallery pages, your bio info/pic etc....Other than that, great shots! Had a great time looking through them all for the past hour
Newbie in Action
http://www.photospaced.com
Nice site. If I click the plus sign on the left to open the submenu, and then attempt to scroll down to view the entire list, I can't. The screen will not scroll. I'm not sure what setting you need to allow this to work.
Hi Sara. Nice site; you've done a good job. I'm a cyclist/photographer as well, though I haven't figured out a way to combine the two, since most of my work is on the beach.
I agree with the point about keeping the admin link off the main page -- unless you've got a bunch of other admins.
I notice the "Info" link doesn't display anything, at least on the dozen or so pics I tried it on, so you might think about getting rid of that.
As far as CSS customization, the most invaluable tool, in my mind, is the Web Developer Toolbar Button. I'm not sure if it's available for Chrome or IE, since I use Firefox, but it is a lifesaver as far as SmugMug customization goes. Whenever I need to know what element to modify, all I have to do is click on the Information/Display Element Information link, and that will show the full heirarchy of any css element on the page when you click on it. Once you have the name, you can customize just about anything.
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HI Tom,
thanks for the feedback! It's amazing, that someone actually took time to look closely at my website.
I will answer the question about the languaeg first: to be honest, most of my clients are estonian (good job discovering the language!). I don't know how to make two-language page, so it is a compromise for the moment. All in all, I would like most of the things to be in both languages, but the menus would then be very long and ugly. Estonians understand english well enough. I will translate all other texts to english aswell, but actually foreigners only buy photos from me (not other services).
As far as photo size and watermark are considered, I am satisfied with it and so are my clients. (I agree that I should remove it from my drawings, tho). I don't know, which photos you were viewing, but the new ones are 800 px long side, which is quite normal for web store quality. Most of my colleagues in various other countries have even bigger watermarks and smaller photos, so I think mine are pretty good.
Selling photos in Estonia is a bit difficult sometimes, people aren't so used to pay for this service yet. Stealing used to be massive, as I work in sport competitions shooting lots of teenagers and so on. They would do anything to get things for free. My aim is to sell and in my field of business people know me well, so I don't need fame or advertising as much as I need my salary.
All the best,
Külli
Hi, very nice site you have!
I wonder, how did you do the "floating" text on the homepage?
- Terje
http://www.fullspectrumphoto.net
I like the homepage and how you have the.....slideshow?? set up. Not sure what to call it to be honest but I do like it! Not a fan of the NavBar though, all of the links are at the VERY VERY VERY top of the page. Also, how did you get the ads to work? I tried before but could not get it implemented right. I noticed to, when you are in a gallery, the formatting of your drop down NAVBAR links change completely. I like it better when you are in a gallery. Not sure why there is a difference, but I'm a "uniformed" type of guy so it just doesnt suite me. Great shots by the way, just finished going through Oregon and New Zealand. Hope you dont take offense!
Newbie in Action
http://www.photospaced.com
Nav bar on the home page is from Wordpress, Nav bar on the galleries page is from SmugMug. The formats are different mainly because the two sections of the site handle mobile/browser responsiveness differently and I'm still working to make the two nav bars uniform.
Didn't really do anything special to get adsense working. SmugMug has a content block where you can enter in the ID of an adsense ad.
The one thing I REALLY don't like however, is how SM handles Google Analytics and custom domain names. As it is now, if someone navigates from my homepage to a gallery page (or vice versa), analytics will show that one person as 2 separate visitors. I could fix that problem in the old SM by using custom javascript for analytics instead of SM's built in analytics support.
Anyways, thanks for the feedback!
Hello Everyone.
I finally did it. I crossed over from Legacy. It took me a while to get it all set up. What a learning curve!
I live in Central Mexico and shoot abstracts and street photography. My portfolio site was designed using Dina. I wanted a clean, simple, minimal look and my goal was to convey what I do on the homepage within a few seconds. I have three galleries, each with 20 of my top photos. I may reduce them down to 15 per or even 10 per gallery. Like me, most viewers just don't have the time to look....I call it the 3 second attention span! I want to get my point across fast.
Thank you for taking a look and for any feedback.
Regards,
Maria
http://www.mariasciandra.com/
Thanks for the Germany info, Sara, that's very useful. And thanks for the comment on my site. Keep shooting!
Rob
There are a couple of changes I would recommend. I've never understood why images like those on your home page should be grayed out. Presented with your homepage I would be likely to move on without visiting your galleries. Why hide the color of your images with a layer of gray?
The second is that I would change your about page from a gallery to a page. Place a single photo and some text on the page. Raise the text higher on the page so your viewer doesn't need to scroll to read it.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Thank you Denise for taking time out and checking over the site.
Regarding the grayed out photos on the home page, I do not have that problem on my IMac. In fact, they are clear and bright. The only time the images are grayed out is when I hover the pointer over the image and it quickly displays the name of the gallery. I will look into this more.
Is anyone else out there having the same view as Denise? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Very good advice about replacing the gallery "About Me" and setting it up as a page. Makes a lot of sense. I will look into that as well. Another learning curve coming up!
Thanks again,
Maria
I just looked again and the images on your home page look fine now. Did you change something? Very odd if you didn't...
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Hi Denise,
Yes, I changed the option of the name placement from hover to below the gallery on the home page. I did not care for this option before...but it seems to have made the images considerably brighter. Thank you very much for the alert.
I have been struggling a while on how to make a Page for my About section. I created a Page in a Folder in Organize, but I'm not sure how import copy and a photo...or lay them out in Customize. This is all new to me, so it will take me a few days.
Many thanks for all your help!!
Regards,
Maria
For your page, you just need to drag a photo content element and a text content element to the page (or an html element if you want more control). The photo can be from an unlisted gallery. If you have problems or questions please start a thread and someone will jump in and help.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Thanks again Denise for all your help! I will get on it.
Saludos,
Maria
Hello all! I changed just about everything on my site....played with the map (hate that I can only post 200 pics to it =\!!), added the profile block to the gallery page and my family only folder (havent seen anyone take advantage of changing it for each page, let me know what you think) and went a bit old school with the homepage with just a full-screen slideshow. Please let me know what you think. I feel really good about it, who wants to kill my buzz? haha jk
http://www.photospaced.com
Newbie in Action
http://www.photospaced.com
Hi all,
New to SmugMug and I have just finished putting together my site. More galleries to be added, but any feedback welcome:
http://smcdowell.smugmug.com
Customisations
I made some minor adjustments to the base theme (and I am not convinced I did them in the most efficient way) such as:
To Do/Wishlist
That's about it. Any thoughts/ideas/feedback welcome!
Sam
Sam
______________________________
SmugMug site - samuelmcdowell.com
Not sure if I'm the only one, but I cannot see the links to your galleries.....only "about" and "contact"
Newbie in Action
http://www.photospaced.com
Oh...should be a "Collection" there in the middle, between the title and the about/contact options? I can see it on safari and chrome? Otherwise yes, it is going to be hard to navigate to any actual photos!
Sam
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SmugMug site - samuelmcdowell.com
Hi Sam. You've done a nice job. Good color scheme, and some beautiful photos.
I like that you've used a "non-busy" photo for your background. Sometimes the background photo can make a site seem messy because there's too much going on.
One thing you might think about, especially if you have more than 20 photos in each gallery, is the display of thumbs. I know you provide a grid view, but on tablets and smaller, even that will tend to leave a lot of images off the page. On the normal view, many users might not take the time to scroll to the bottom. Just a thought. . .
I would use standard format for your copyright: ©2014 Samuel McDowell
You pointed out in your post the main reason why side bar menus are not used that often -- they misbehave on smaller screens. In your case, it appears the social icons go to the top of the page. You may have to play around with the css to fix that.
No search or tags? A personal choice, I know, but these are nice ways for users to find similar photos, especially as you add more.
Curious why you don't offer your work for sale.
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I got it! Great shots to start off with....and I'm with him above, I love the cleanliness. Love the shot of the "final approach" by the way. I think you need to play with the links a bit so its a bit more easily accessible. I had to click the "collection" at the very top of your header on Chrome.
Newbie in Action
http://www.photospaced.com
Jeff - I'm not sure where you mean you had to click on the 'header'? Could you not see the link on the sidebar still? And is this chrome on a laptop/desktop or on a mobile device? Sounds like you are getting strange behaviour and I would like to fix it!
Tom - I will change the copyright, thanks (didn't realise there was a 'standard'). I think that search and/or tags will make an appearance as the site grows, but they are not so necessary right now. I hear you on the thumbnails - it's just that I am not a big fan of the crowded tile look. I think your view of either using them or having smaller galleries is a good one - I will have to choose! Making the Nav sidebar work on mobile is going to be a little bit of a challenge as I don't know CSS (have just been winging it with 'borrowed' code from this forum) but I understand I will need to do something to display/hide menus depending on screen size.
As for why my work isn't offered for sale - two reasons: one understandable (just getting started with this and building confidence) and one that may sound a little silly (I don't know how...yet). For selling via SM, I have a Power account at the moment, so would need to step up if I were wanting to make something of the 'sale' options that SM provides.
Sam
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SmugMug site - samuelmcdowell.com
its Chrome on my desktop....and the collection link is literally above the name of the site. Its almost running into one another. I opened it on IE and Firefox and its opening just fine though. Maybe my Chrome is acting up?? Again, love your shot!
Newbie in Action
http://www.photospaced.com
I have finally unveiled my new Smug Mug site. You can view it here: http://www.tammieharris.com/
I did have to learn some basic XHTML & CSS (thank you community college courses and google!) in order to do some very basic edits. Mainly I added some links (mapquest and facebook), centered some text, changed visited/unvisited links etc. The real revelation came when I discovered that I was not limited to the number and or types of content blocks I am able to display on my page (see my news and updates page). Once I overcame that obstacle I was off to the races. It hasn't been easy, there were several times where I hated SM! But now I love you again. :smooch