please critique my photo blog

thenimirra

Hello Dgrinners. I just put my blog on my smugmug site and I was hoping I could get some critiques from members about the blog itself.

http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your time and responses.

stirfry

thenimirra wrote:

Hello Dgrinners. I just put my blog on my smugmug site and I was hoping I could get some critiques from members about the blog itself.

http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your time and responses.

Real quickly while I have your attention, I wanted to say that the first time I saw your avatar I got a real kick out of it. Still do. You seem to have a relaxed, fun personality that is also evident in your blog writings.

I enjoyed reading through the beginnings of your blog ... perhaps more as someone who happened across it (as opposed to someone who was there researching you for possible hire). We used to run a restaurant and there were two distinct parts of our store: front counter and back office. Personally, I prefer that. When I research a photographer I don't necessarily want to know a recent discussion with her boyfriend, or a rundown on the Nikon/Canon debate (back office stuff). In some cases it might even turn me off of a particular photographer (any vendor, really) depending on my take of what they share beyond their portfolio (or products).

This may not be a factor to you if you offer a service and product in high enough demand for your area, but just putting it out there. To me there is a distinction between a photoblog (mostly photos, either from recent shoots or personal shooting/experimenting) and a personal/business blog (mostly thoughts and observations with a few documenting photos thrown in for flow). This blog seems more the latter IMO, and thus more appropriate to share among friends and forums than with potential customers.

If none of the above matters to you and you rather prefer a more "open floorplan" type of business model, scratch all that in favor of this:

The format of your blog is easy to navigate. I appreciated the embedded links and liked the variety of favorite links you offered. I loved that you offered a complete profile and overall professional vibe to the blog. Your writing style is enjoyable to read, and exuded a real "genuine" vibe - you seem "real" and definitely someone who works well with people in any capacity (a huge plus if potential customers read through the blog).

If I had any complaint it would be that you might feature more of your photography (!!) peppered throughout but also near the top so that I'm more drawn in from the get-go. You have some really great choices in your galleries. As a customer, I'd love to see some blog entries that go into light detail about how you achieved certain shots (what to expect at a shoot) and some backstories behind the shots (what to anticipate your shooting style and environment to be like). Things like that ...

thenimirra

wow...I don't know what to say. Thank you so much for taking the time to not only read the blog but give me some geniune critics too. You are so right...there is a fine line between business and personal blogs....one of my flaws has always been being too open, but one of my best character traits has always been being too open. It's a double edged sword....maybe I should take your advice though and some more business related things to the blog. Thanks for the ideas about how I took some of my shots.

That post about my BF was sorta geared towards Valentine's Day. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your comments. Thank you so much...

denisegoldberg

thenimirra wrote:

Hello Dgrinners. I just put my blog on my smugmug site and I was hoping I could get some critiques from members about the blog itself.

http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your time and responses.

Just a couple of comments...

I was surprised that the photos in your blog couldn't be used as an entry point to your galleries. I would think that you'd want to use your blog to drive traffic to your photo galleries. I use a combination of an <a href statement and an <img src statement to insert photos in my blog so that a click on the photo in my blog will take the viewer to the album containing that photo. I don't use the toolbar buttons within blogger to insert photos; instead I use my own html. You can click to my blog to see an example.

I recommend that you change the order of the items on the right side. If you're trying to drive traffic to your smugmug galleries, I think the opportunity is missed by placing the flicker mosaic at the top and essentially burying the link to your smugmug galleries. Yes, you have featured galleries just under the link to flicker, but the link to your photo home page and your writings is quite a bit further down the page. Your bio info could be higher up too. And - I find the ads quite distracting. If you want the ads, can you try a smaller number, and/or a smaller size?

Hope that helps.
Happy writing!

--- Denise

thenimirra

hi Denise... I was hoping you would stop by and take a look at my site since you are also a Blogger member. I took the lead from you since I read your previous discussion on an earlier thread and decided to give Blogger a try.

I would like to link back to my smugmug site but can you tell me how to write the html code? Thanks.

denisegoldberg

thenimirra wrote:

hi Denise... I was hoping you would stop by and take a look at my site since you are also a Blogger member. I took the lead from you since I read your previous discussion on an earlier thread and decided to give Blogger a try.

I would like to link back to my smugmug site but can you tell me how to write the html code? Thanks.

Sheba -
Instead of using the picture button to insert a photo in your blog, you need to use a combination of <a href and <img src html statements. You can pick up the values you need by using the share button in your galleries. Use the entry for galleries for the <a href=, and the value from "share a single photo" for the <img src= statement. I've been using custom image sizes, but you could just as easily pick the -S or -M sizes, whatever works for your blog width. Info on custom image sizes is at http://www.smugmug.com/help/custom-photo-sizes.

Here's an example from one of my blog entries that shows a photo from one of my galleries. The example shows the combination of the two html statements. You'll need to remove the *s - they are included to keep the forum software from swallowing the html.

<*a href="h*t*t*p://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/3961344_8Ho4N/1/252985824_W2G8r"><*img src="h*t*t*p://www.denisegoldberg.com/photos/252985824_W2G8r-425x425.jpg"></*a>

If you don't have this post handy, you can always go to my blog and do a view source in your browser to see the html that I used to insert the photos. If you need to do that, I'd recommend on first clicking on a post with photos to limit the file that you'll need to scroll through.

--- Denise

thenimirra

Hi Denise, I found your view source material and was able to cut and paste your pics and text into an html page element on my blog. Your pics and text show up fine....

but when I try to link to my photo, all I get is a big box with a red 'X' in the middle of it. Any idea what that means?

I have a special gallery for my blog photos under "other". Do I have to have some special customization to it? Right now it's public but it is right click protected.

leaforte

Tight

denisegoldberg

thenimirra wrote:

Hi Denise, I found your view source material and was able to cut and paste your pics and text into an html page element on my blog. Your pics and text show up fine....

but when I try to link to my photo, all I get is a big box with a red 'X' in the middle of it. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/headscratch.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" > Any idea what that means?

I have a special gallery for my blog photos under "other". Do I have to have some special customization to it? Right now it's public but it is right click protected.

The gallery can be unlisted if you'd like, but external access must be allowed. Are external links set to yes?

Also - if you are using a gallery for your blog photos, you may want to link to that photo in the actual gallery - which means that the gallery/photo url that you use for the <a href= statement should be the "real" source gallery, and the link for the <img src= statement can come from your "other" gallery.

Can you post the code that you are using? Or just point to the blog entry with the problem? Might make it easier to spot the problem.

--- Denise

thenimirra

after much trial and error, I think I finally got it. Thanks Denise!

only one last problem...the photo is cut off on the right side. Do you know how I can fix that?
here is the code I'm using:

denisegoldberg

thenimirra wrote:

after much trial and error, I think I finally got it. Thanks Denise!

only one last problem...the photo is cut off on the right side. Do you know how I can fix that? here is the code I'm using:

<a href="http://www.picture-yourworld.com/gallery/3505170_2kAC3/1/193547213_9NVnU"><img src="http://picture-yourworld.com/photos/193547213_9NVnU-M-7.jpg"/></a&gt;

The problem is the medium size image is wider than the horizontal space in your blog. I actually altered my blog template to make it a bit wider, but a mediium landscape orientation photo still doesn't fit. That's really the reason I switched to using the custom sizes for my blog, for example, I use -425x425.jpg instead of -S.jpg or -M.jpg. You'll need to experiment to get the width right for your blog.

More on custom sizes at http://www.smugmug.com/help/custom-photo-sizes.

--- Denise

thenimirra

denisegoldberg wrote:

The problem is the medium size image is wider than the horizontal space in your blog. I actually altered my blog template to make it a bit wider, but a mediium landscape orientation photo still doesn't fit. That's really the reason I switched to using the custom sizes for my blog, for example, I use -425x425.jpg instead of -S.jpg or -M.jpg. You'll need to experiment to get the width right for your blog.

More on custom sizes at http://www.smugmug.com/help/custom-photo-sizes.

--- Denise

\


got it! I went ahead and used your -425x425 value and it seems to work. Thank you so much Denise! It's wonderful and I can link back to my business site.

stirfry

thenimirra wrote:

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your comments. Thank you so much...

I loved reading through it. I like the new entries, too. It's looking more and more perfect!

I also wanted to say how heartwarming the (currently, Terrilyn & Avery) top photo is. The natural expression, the B&W conversion, the whole capture just wraps up everything that is wonderful about being a mama. And today was the kind of day with my own kids that I really, really needed to see a picture like that.

Keep up the great work!

thenimirra

stirfry wrote:

I loved reading through it. I like the new entries, too. It's looking more and more perfect!

I also wanted to say how heartwarming the (currently, Terrilyn & Avery) top photo is. The natural expression, the B&W conversion, the whole capture just wraps up everything that is wonderful about being a mama. And today was the kind of day with my own kids that I really, really needed to see a picture like that.

Keep up the great work!

Stirfry, I'm glad I could help you. And keep your chin up. Mama's are so special and we need you guys! I was thinking about my mama today too. She passed away in 05 and gave me inspiration to become a photographer. Sometimes I hear songs and immediately think about her. Sometimes I'm struck by the realization that she really is gone to me, at least for now, until I see her again in Heaven. If you get the chance, read my Quote for the Day at the bottom of the page. It's dedicated to my Mom.