New brand, new focus

urbanaries

I've been contemplating going to a flash site for a while now, but decided to really see what I could do within my existing smugmug site.

(it's still www.lynnehulbert.com)

I reworked my brand (i only had a "wordmark" before, not a real logo) and after a lot of contemplating over the holidays, decided I really wanted to only accept new wedding/engagement clients, and that I'm not looking for new portrait clients. At least for now.

I know I need to add:
-engagement gallery
-more details on wedding albums

Any feedback or glitch catching is most appreciated!

(And, if any of you guys know how to "unbold" the black body copy via CSS or otherwise, I'd appreciate it! :scratch)

dogwood

One idea-- rather than using a yahoo email, I'd "splurge" on a domain based email from someone like godaddy-- it's a whopping $9.99 for two years and really looks more professional than yahoo. And... yahoo tacks an advertisement on the end of every email you send. Your own personal email does not do that AND it serves as yet another branding/marketing tool every time you send an email (hint-- that's why yahoo offers free email).

urbanaries

dogwood wrote:

One idea-- rather than using a yahoo email, I'd "splurge" on a domain based email from someone like godaddy-- it's a whopping $9.99 for two years and really looks more professional than yahoo. And... yahoo tacks an advertisement on the end of every email you send. Your own personal email does not do that AND it serves as yet another branding/marketing tool every time you send an email (hint-- that's why yahoo offers free email).

Really great suggestion. I have that thru my domain hoster I just never set it up! :hide

lynne@lynnehulbert.com is now in my footer! thanks Pete

SloYerRoll

Hey Lynne,

Your better off creating a site with a html/PHP framework and incorporating flash into it. This will allow the crawlers and other scripts search engines use to find your site. Current technology doesn't "find" 100% flash sites due to how .fla embeds data.
There area ways around this. But it's not guaranteed to yield search engine results yet. Shoot me a PM if you'd like to hear more. The rest of it is a bit OT for a photography forum.

In regards to your site. It looks very nice and minimal. I really like it!
Three very minor things.

1. You have a link in your navbar that leads to home and your header logo leads to home as well. It's pretty common knowledge that logos take you back to the home page.
2. Pricing page: I like how you separated the content from the b/g. But the top area that separates the header from the body is a bit tricky on the eyes. An ultra thins stroke where the red dotted line below would help tell the eyes where the content is separated. I think another drop shadow would just look confusing.
3. It would be nice to see an area on the navbar that tells you what part of the site your on. So when I'm on pricing, there's a difference in the navbar so I can tell I'm on the pricing page.

Like I said. These are very small things. Just pointing out things like I'd expect you to if I was asking the same question.


Cheers,
-Jon

urbanaries

SloYerRoll wrote:

Hey Lynne,

Your better off creating a site with a html/PHP framework and incorporating flash into it. This will allow the crawlers and other scripts search engines use to find your site. Current technology doesn't "find" 100% flash sites due to how .fla embeds data.
There area ways around this. But it's not guaranteed to yield search engine results yet. Shoot me a PM if you'd like to hear more. The rest of it is a bit OT for a photography forum.

In regards to your site. It looks very nice and minimal. I really like it!
Three very minor things.

1. You have a link in your navbar that leads to home and your header logo leads to home as well. It's pretty common knowledge that logos take you back to the home page.
2. Pricing page: I like how you separated the content from the b/g. But the top area that separates the header from the body is a bit tricky on the eyes. An ultra thins stroke where the red dotted line below would help tell the eyes where the content is separated. I think another drop shadow would just look confusing.
3. It would be nice to see an area on the navbar that tells you what part of the site your on. So when I'm on pricing, there's a difference in the navbar so I can tell I'm on the pricing page.

Like I said. These are very small things. Just pointing out things like I'd expect you to if I was asking the same question.


Cheers,
-Jon

Great suggestions Jon!

I debated about the redundancy of "home" and the logo, and decided to keep things self evident.

On the pricing page, I noticed I had a different theme (white) forced and i changed it to default, now it's consistent with the "about" page now. There's some inherent delineation in the theme. Better? http://www.lynnehulbert.com/gallery/1994225

I definitely agree with you on the navbar "location" indicator. I will look into that and see if there's a way to do that within smugmug? I suppose I would need to be able to load different headers for each page in my site.

And finally, your statement about html/php incorporating flash. The main reason I wanted flash is it seemed easier for a lazy non-web-dev person like me to update/organize from the backend if I had a provider like bludomain. (which comes with a hefty pricetag). Smugmug's great progress in XL images, Stretchy, Hide Photo and Video convinced me to stick around a while longer and do the work myself (with thanks to Allen and Denise and Andi Tippie!).

Do you think flash is inherently necessary for a modern, professional "brochure" site? Does the loading time factor in here? I could use flash in my slideshow now, but I chose not to. Feedback on that is welcome. I hear smugmug is working on flash based slideshows in the galleries. I would likely take advantage of that!

I have been able to do almost everything visually I wanted to with a flash site. I do not want music. I think a lot of flash sites out there are pretty gimmicky, and don't concentrate enough on optimal photo presentation.

Thanks for your input!

Scott_Quier

This is what I see at this point in time. Your site is changing quite quickly as it has changed in the last couple of hours...

On your wedding pacakages page (http://www.lynnehulbert.com/gallery/1993641), I would loose the decimal portion of your prices. I might also want to insert a comma in the prices as appropriate.

I really like the simple naming of your packages.

On your home page, if you click on the "home" link, something appears just above the photos - "this is my: friend". At one time, I saw something else there as well, just don't remember what it was.

SloYerRoll

urbanaries wrote:

Do you think flash is inherently necessary for a modern, professional "brochure" site? Does the loading time factor in here?

With broadband connections, load time is rarely an issue anymore. I like flash, but in small doses. We're both photographers. We want the focus to be on our content. In a case like yours I'd go w/ flash functionality for background graphics that "draw" themselves on the bg then are just static images (like bludomain). You can also do so real coolness w/ navbars & flash. You can do most of the same w/ CSS but it's MUCH more code intensive when you can do it visually in flash. (Adobe Flash is a VERY tedious application though. I don't recommend it if your just gonna try it out)

urbanaries wrote:

On the pricing page, I noticed I had a different theme (white) forced and i changed it to default, now it's consistent with the "about" page now. There's some inherent delineation in the theme. Better? http://www.lynnehulbert.com/gallery/1994225

See screen cap below for what I'm thinking.

urbanaries wrote:

I definitely agree with you on the navbar "location" indicator. I will look into that and see if there's a way to do that within smugmug? I suppose I would need to be able to load different headers for each page in my site.

Yes, but it's not allot of work. Just copy paste code and ajust for each page.

Elaine

urbanaries wrote:

I definitely agree with you on the navbar "location" indicator. I will look into that and see if there's a way to do that within smugmug? I suppose I would need to be able to load different headers for each page in my site.

Lynne,

I was able to accomplish this (with lots of help) this week. My nav buttons remain lit up when any page below it is in use. Is that what you're after...that sort of thing? I know some people have a line that shows up above the button, but I imagine it could be any number of things that mark it as in use.

EDIT: By saying I had lots of help does not mean it was difficult. It means I'm rather "thick" in the code department.

stirfry

I LOVE IT! It sucked me in from the first page through to the last, and makes me want to have another ceremony just so I can get some Lynne Hulbert action to document it all - awesome job all around .

I'm glad you kept the redundant "Home" button because I've discovered that for the less web-saavy folks (and they're still out there!) they really don't always know to click the logo to get back to the homepage. Your website is extremely easy to navigate, especially for these types.

And wow. I literally did click through every page, and then on to your blog. You ARE really hard to miss - you weren't kidding when you said you were tall I like the picture of you in action on the job.

My only comment would be from the nitpicky eye of someone who edits for a living -- HERE on the pricing page I'd probably make a minor edit to your tense, keeping it consistent throughout the paragraph. It currently reads:

Lynne's unobtrusive, journalistic style has won rave reviews from brides and grooms. Her dramatic yet natural images celebrate the emotion of your wedding through photographs.

I'd change "has won" to "wins" so that it might read:

Lynne's unobtrusive, journalistic style wins rave reviews from both brides and grooms. Her dramatic yet natural images celebrate the emotion of your wedding through photographs.

Plus it is encouraging to read that you're continually winning those well-deserved kudos I might also change the above "photographs" to something more artsy fartsy and guerilla-marketing like "photographic art" because (1) it flows nicely, and (2) the term IMO is an accurate depiction of your work, and (3) it separates you-with-talent-and-skill from the rest of us ordinary schmoes who take simple "photographs". Use your wording as an upsale tactic, to differentiate yourself from the rest of the photographing pack, be it other professional photographers the couple are considering or even Cousin Sadie who will be attending the wedding as a guest and bringing her own dSLR.

urbanaries

Scott_Quier wrote:

This is what I see at this point in time. Your site is changing quite quickly as it has changed in the last couple of hours...

On your wedding pacakages page (http://www.lynnehulbert.com/gallery/1993641), I would loose the decimal portion of your prices. I might also want to insert a comma in the prices as appropriate.

I really like the simple naming of your packages.

On your home page, if you click on the "home" link, something appears just above the photos - "this is my: friend". At one time, I saw something else there as well, just don't remember what it was.

Thanks for looking Scott! Yeah, I've been making a lot of changes and tweaks in the last day or so! Thanks for the input. I am glad you approve of the package names, I know how you feel about those! (I almost named them Romance, Together and Timeless just for you )

I will consider the commas over the decimals, I like that idea.

Not sure what's going on with the "this is my : friend" stuff. Maybe its because you're logged into your smugmug site? I (thought I) had that hidden via CSS. Please let me know if you run into it again.

urbanaries

Elaine wrote:

Lynne,

I was able to accomplish this (with lots of help) this week. My nav buttons remain lit up when any page below it is in use. Is that what you're after...that sort of thing? I know some people have a line that shows up above the button, but I imagine it could be any number of things that mark it as in use.

EDIT: By saying I had lots of help does not mean it was difficult. It means I'm rather "thick" in the code department.

Mwwwaaahhhaaa....did you just volunteer to enlighten me???

urbanaries

stirfry wrote:

I LOVE IT! It sucked me in from the first page through to the last, and makes me want to have another ceremony just so I can get some Lynne Hulbert action to document it all - awesome job all around .

I'm glad you kept the redundant "Home" button because I've discovered that for the less web-saavy folks (and they're still out there!) they really don't always know to click the logo to get back to the homepage. Your website is extremely easy to navigate, especially for these types.

And wow. I literally did click through every page, and then on to your blog. You ARE really hard to miss - you weren't kidding when you said you were tall I like the picture of you in action on the job.

My only comment would be from the nitpicky eye of someone who edits for a living -- HERE on the pricing page I'd probably make a minor edit to your tense, keeping it consistent throughout the paragraph. It currently reads:



I'd change "has won" to "wins" so that it might read:

Lynne's unobtrusive, journalistic style wins rave reviews from both brides and grooms. Her dramatic yet natural images celebrate the emotion of your wedding through photographs.

Plus it is encouraging to read that you're continually winning those well-deserved kudos I might also change the above "photographs" to something more artsy fartsy and guerilla-marketing like "photographic art" because (1) it flows nicely, and (2) the term IMO is an accurate depiction of your work, and (3) it separates you-with-talent-and-skill from the rest of us ordinary schmoes who take simple "photographs". Use your wording as an upsale tactic, to differentiate yourself from the rest of the photographing pack, be it other professional photographers the couple are considering or even Cousin Sadie who will be attending the wedding as a guest and bringing her own dSLR.

Stirfry, your detailed review and compliments have me cheesing ear to ear!!! This kind of marketing feedback was what I hoped to get as well as the technical impressions. It sounds like you really put on the hat of my target audience and I appreciate that! I've already made the changes you caught, totally on point. Any other high-class-bride-guerrilla tactics you think of are extremely welcome. bow

And by all means, if you have a vow renewal one day you make sure and gimme a ring!!!

Tango

i spent over a minute looking for a number to call.....
i found i could e-mail you...

Tango

lol, i see it i see it......

i am tired, i ignored it as if it were an ip address.....lol

my day job affects me in bad ways...

Elaine

urbanaries wrote:

Mwwwaaahhhaaa....did you just volunteer to enlighten me???

I might suggest increasing the font size for your in-use nav button.

Here's what my code looks like in my header (just part of it as an example).

<div id="navcontainer">
<ul>
<li id="link1"><a href="<A href="http://e-heasley.smugmug.com/galleries">Galleries</a></li">http://e-heasley.smugmug.com/galleries">Galleries</a></li>
<li id="link2"><a href="<A href="http://e-heasley.smugmug.com/The%20Heasleys">The">http://e-heasley.smugmug.com/The%20Heasleys">The Heasleys</a></li>
<li id="link3"><a href="<A href="http://e-heasley.smugmug.com/Out%20and%20About">Out">http://e-heasley.smugmug.com/Out%20and%20About">Out and About</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

Here's what my code looks like in my CSS (just part of it as an example).

/*                                                                     *
 * This code makes the active link white.                              *
 * Notice that the link number corresponds to a particular page        *
 * The way it works is, the link style is only changed on the page     *
 * it corresponds to (so since link2 goes to The Heasleys, you only    *
 * want to make it white on that page.                                 *
 * If you want to make it bold, use font-weight: bold;                 *
 *                                                                     */
.galleries #link1 a {
    color: #fff;
}
.category_The_Heasleys #link2 a {
    color: #fff;
}
.category_Out_and_About #link3 a {
    color: #fff;
}

Hope that helps!

saurora

You did a great job on your site, Lynne! I love the fresh, clean look of it. I don't have any suggestions, but I did catch a broken link on the wedding page on the word (not the photo) portfolio.

Scott_Quier

urbanaries wrote:

Thanks for looking Scott! Yeah, I've been making a lot of changes and tweaks in the last day or so! Thanks for the input. I am glad you approve of the package names, I know how you feel about those! (I almost named them Romance, Together and Timeless just for you )

I will consider the commas over the decimals, I like that idea.

Not sure what's going on with the "this is my : friend" stuff. Maybe its because you're logged into your smugmug site? I (thought I) had that hidden via CSS. Please let me know if you run into it again.

I'm really glad you didn't go with the fuzzy names. That's just so confusing for the prospective client (and you too for that matter - how could one expect to keep it all straight?).

Don't consider the commas over the decimals - just trust me and do it (oh, BTW I have some real nice land for sale too )

As of 0700/10Jan2008, the "this is my : friend" stuff is still active for me. I will do whatever I can to help you track down and kill this - if that is your wish.

denisegoldberg

Scott_Quier wrote:

As of 0700/10Jan2008, the "this is my : friend" stuff is still active for me. I will do whatever I can to help you track down and kill this - if that is your wish.

It shows up for me only when I am logged in.

If I am not logged in to smug then that line is not there.

--- Denise

Scott_Quier

denisegoldberg wrote:

It shows up for me only when I am logged in.

If I am not logged in to smug then that line is not there.

--- Denise

I concur - when I log out of smugmug, that little thing goes away.

urbanaries

Elaine wrote:

I might suggest increasing the font size for your in-use nav button.

Here's what my code looks like in my header (just part of it as an example).

,,,,,,,,

Hope that helps!

Wow, thanks Elaine! I hope to get a chance to play with it this weekend! Thanks!!!

urbanaries

saurora wrote:

You did a great job on your site, Lynne! I love the fresh, clean look of it. I don't have any suggestions, but I did catch a broken link on the wedding page on the word (not the photo) portfolio.

'


thanks for catching tha tSusan! Fixed it right up.

ivar

Hey Lynne,

I see you put your 'full' email address at the bottom of you page. Works great, but spam bots love it :cry

Try this instead:
Put this into your Javascript box

function norobotmail(aUser, aDomain) { document.location = "mailto:" + aUser + "@" + aDomain; }

and remove this from your footer:

<a href="mailto: lynne@lynehulbert.com">Email Lynne</a>

Instead, put this in your footer:

<a href="javascript:norobotmail('lynne', 'lynnehulbert.com')">Email Lynne</a>

It should do exactly the same, but will give you less spam hopefully.

Scott_Quier

ivar wrote:

Hey Lynne,

I see you put your 'full' email address at the bottom of you page. Works great, but spam bots love it :cry

Try this instead:
Put this into your Javascript box

function norobotmail(aUser, aDomain) { document.location = "mailto:" + aUser + "@" + aDomain; }

and remove this from your footer:

<a href="mailto: lynne@lynehulbert.com">Email Lynne</a>

Instead, put this in your footer:

<a href="javascript:norobotmail('lynne', 'lynnehulbert.com')">Email Lynne</a>

It should do exactly the same, but will give you less spam hopefully.

I can vouch this method - works very well and will greatly reduce the amount of spam generated by the spam-bots (at least until they get smart enough to read Javascript!).

urbanaries

Thanks You Guys Rock!!! That email address is spam free so far and i'd like to keep it that way! Awesome!

Scott_Quier

Lynne,

Just got done looking at your portfolio and a couple of thoughts/questions came to mind:

1. You have 169 photos in that gallery, which works out to 11 pages when I view them. My first thought was wondering if this might not be a little over-kill? Just asking here.

2. Again, in the portfolio, with so many photos, there is a very good chance that your visitors will not view all of them. Have you ordered them from best to not quite best (you have no "worst" photos in the whole gallery )? There's a couple that are among my favorites that don't appear until page 8 or later.

3. I like how you've not grouped photos from any one event together, rather you've got them scattered throughout the gallery.

4. On your front page, the same picture loads up every time I start a new session, but the image is different from the one I saw there yesterday. Do you have code or something that is switching it out every day or is something else going on here? Inquiring minds want to know!

urbanaries

Scott_Quier wrote:

1. You have 169 photos in that gallery, which works out to 11 pages when I view them. My first thought was wondering if this might not be a little over-kill? Just asking here.

I agree its overkill! I am trying to cull them down, and still debating how best to organize them. Right now, they're lumped in how a wedding chronologically starts...first getting ready photos, then portriats, then ceremony, then reception. I liked it in theory but agree with you that good shots get buried.

2. Again, in the portfolio, with so many photos, there is a very good chance that your visitors will not view all of them. Have you ordered them from best to not quite best (you have no "worst" photos in the whole gallery )? There's a couple that are among my favorites that don't appear until page 8 or later.

this is a toughie, if I stack the BEST images in front, the gallery theoretically will get worse as it goes along. but I understand what you're saying.

3. I like how you've not grouped photos from any one event together, rather you've got them scattered throughout the gallery.

thanks. I also put together three couples' "best of" galleries, so one can get a feel for one wedding start to finish. So many ways to skin a cat...:D

4. On your front page, the same picture loads up every time I start a new session, but the image is different from the one I saw there yesterday. Do you have code or something that is switching it out every day or is something else going on here? Inquiring minds want to know!

I would like for the image to switch out on refresh. I think there is a way to do it but just haven't rolled up my sleeves yet. Right now its a static image and I'm changing it out manually to keep the site feeling fresh. Glad you like it!!!

thanks for your input Scott!

denisegoldberg

urbanaries wrote:

I would like for the image to switch out on refresh. I think there is a way to do it but just haven't rolled up my sleeves yet. Right now its a static image and I'm changing it out manually to keep the site feeling fresh.

You can grab a random image from a gallery, and the image will change on refresh. I use this on my Kaleidoscope and Gallery pages, as well as in the thumb I have in my navbar.

Info at http://wiki.smugmug.com/display/SmugMug/Random+Photos+Code

--- Denise

Scott_Quier

denisegoldberg wrote:

You can grab a random image from a gallery, and the image will change on refresh. I use this on my Kaleidoscopy and Gallery pages, as well as in the thumb I have in my navbar.

Info at http://wiki.smugmug.com/display/SmugMug/Random+Photos+Code

--- Denise

I looked at that code. It doesn't get any easier than that. Leave it to SmugMug to have thought of and implemented something like that....

jeffreaux2

I like the looks of the site and the simple functionality. I have seen many photographer's flash based sites, and quite frankly I usually will navigate away when I stumble onto one. The only real benifit I see in a flash based site is better protection of image theft.....and as you said it is tough to argue the cost against what we have here.

I agree with the others that your portfolio is a bit deep. An alternative to discarding photos would be to do something along the lines of what I have done. I have "portfolio" set up as a hidden catagory, and have the galleries children, portraits, and weddings. You could divy yours up as a way to let your viewers get to the meat of what they want to see by seperateing the preparation photos, ceremony photos, and reception photos from one another. This may not be the best solution, but is another way to organize that no one has touched on. In addition to the seperation, I have mine set up so that all thumbnails are up when opened to keep people from having to flip pages....mainly because that is the way I prefer to view galleries.

Anyway, it looks great...neat and clean!!.....sure makes mine look dull and boring!!!

urbanaries

ivar wrote:

Hey Lynne,

I see you put your 'full' email address at the bottom of you page. Works great, but spam bots love it :cry

Try this instead:
Put this into your Javascript box

function norobotmail(aUser, aDomain) { document.location = "mailto:" + aUser + "@" + aDomain; }

and remove this from your footer:

<a href="mailto: lynne@lynehulbert.com">Email Lynne</a>

Instead, put this in your footer:

<a href="javascript:norobotmail('lynne', 'lynnehulbert.com')">Email Lynne</a>

It should do exactly the same, but will give you less spam hopefully.

Finally remembered to do this....Thanks!

But, it doesn't seem to do anything when I click on "Email Lynne." Could someone else confirm? Was there some editing needed to the JS? I copied & pasted as-is. Thanks!

Andy

Contact info, portfolio, prices and service, all nicely laid out in a visually appealing way - props, Lynne