New Site Live -- Feedback Welcome

indiegirl · September 4, 2010

Hey, friends!

My new site is live, hooray! Would love your feedback:

jessemichener.com

Photog4Christ · September 4, 2010

It's taking forever to load. I gave up.

FWIW... I'm at a hotel right now and it might be their Internet connection, but everything else I'm doing online tonight is fine.

Wachel · September 4, 2010

Site does take too long to load in my opinion.

Your images are great and I liked looking at them.

I am not a fan of music on webpages...personal preference, I know.

Overall I like the site.

Angelo · September 4, 2010

Photog4Christ wrote: »

It's taking forever to load. I gave up.

and the flash script froze my browser

.

Sam · September 5, 2010

I guess I am in the minority here about the speed. I am on a cable connection and the load time didn't seem any longer than other sites.

Nice images.

Sam

Hikin' Mike · September 5, 2010

It didn't take that long, but when I heard music, I left.

indiegirl · September 5, 2010

So here's the thing: I don't like music, either! Hahahaha. I tried out cause I liked the song a lot. Wonder if I can set the default to NOT play unless someone clicks it... off to tinker...

ETA: Yup! Done and done. It's now something you have to click if you like that sort of thing.

Malte · September 5, 2010

The rounded edges of the photos leave a pale white corner on your off-white background.

Malte

angevin1 · September 5, 2010

indiegirl wrote: »

So here's the thing: I don't like music, either! Hahahaha. I tried out cause I liked the song a lot. Wonder if I can set the default to NOT play unless someone clicks it... off to tinker...

ETA: Yup! Done and done. It's now something you have to click if you like that sort of thing.

Jesse, that's pretty cooL! I like it, but have to admit to staying away from flash right now. The reason is, I was worried about loading times! I am on the crappiest connection until further notice and it is the latest tech from Verizon wireless, the other option here is dial-up.

First visit, no load and no play, refresh and it loaded pretty fast and photos looked stunning. I love that drop down under life.__, nice site.

After not choosing flash for my latest iteration on some websites. I am now actively working in Adobe flash and learning it's abilities. Flash ought to be the way to go from the hyperbole they give me due to the size of the files.

We'll see: TBD!

cheers, and Good Luck!

Dan7312 · September 5, 2010

I think it looks very good and it makes me want to (and I did) dig around into your site the see your images... which are also really, really good too.

It is a slow to load on my machine and I am running on a DSL connection. It's not that it's unusable, but it is distracting.

Sound off by default is a good thing.

Flash is an issue, nobody with an iPad will be able to see your site which is too bad because I am sure your images would looks stunning on an iPad.

Flash also sometime really gums things up if you don't have a good connection.

Some companies don't allow flash, so in some cases someone who wanted to see the wedding you just shot for them as soon as you just put it on line would have to wait until they got home to see them.

A lot of places that use flash also have a non-flash version of their site too, but of course that is whole lot of extra work.

Having just a flash slideshow on the opening, non-flash, page might get by if you can get to all the galleries and other stuff without using flash.

indiegirl wrote: »

Hey, friends!

My new site is live, hooray! Would love your feedback:

jessemichener.com

Dan7312 · September 5, 2010

Actually as I did deeper I find some parts don't work. Recent Works->whatever just hangs at 0%

indiegirl wrote: »

Hey, friends!

My new site is live, hooray! Would love your feedback:

jessemichener.com

Tracker · September 5, 2010

very nice. very crisp, light & clean looking. I like your final logo design, too.
is it a lot of work to generate all that flash content?

I liked your bio page. Any chance of seeing some of your granddad's work? It sounded so interesting,

indiegirl · September 5, 2010

I'm so appreciative of your feedback.

I'm also going to hide in a hole and consider my options for a site people can actually SEE.

Not sure what the heck I'm going to do.

RogersDA · September 5, 2010

ShowIt, now with HTML5 goodness.

Recommended by many, including SmugMug. Check out ClubSmug.

indiegirl · September 5, 2010

Tracker wrote: »

I liked your bio page. Any chance of seeing some of your granddad's work? It sounded so interesting,

Thanks, Tracker!

I pulled some stuff off my dad's smuggy site. He's in the process of scanning the mountains of archived images, a job which will fall to me at some point!

Anyway, I found some neat stuff from G-pa's library. His day job was a Lt. Col. in the USAF and the family did stints in D.C. and Washington (and back) for most of his career.

I LOVE this. This is his holiday album index from the time my dad was an infant until 1976, the year after I was born:

This is Christmas, 1955. Not sure how he set up the auto timer and held the baby, but from the look on my father's face (the cryin' baby), I'll bet it was a bit hurried! He was always tinkering with remote set-ups.

Summer of '56. I think everyone from this time period has this exact shot, right? Still, I just love it. Again, he was using a timer. I like how calm and relaxed he looks--"Yeah, I do this all the time..."

1957 or 58:

These must be around 1959 or so.

1964

1972--Cross-country trip with five kids in the station wagon. My dad was a total punk and hated very minute of it. The entire family still talks about this trip with a sort of collective nostalgic misery. Anyway, I included this because it reminded me of one I shot of my youngest this summer on our road trip. Also: no railings? Eesh.

I like railings!

Lastly, I close with this sweet shot of yours truly and my dad. He was 19, I was a wee babe. 1975

indiegirl · September 5, 2010

Well. The Hard Way is like tuition into life, huh? I realized I didn't save any of my images in the "save for web" feature from PS. I did reduce the size and resolution for the upload, but methinks once I redo the images in "save for web," the site will run a lot faster. Holy crap, what a lot of work.

Tracker · September 5, 2010

thanks for sharing the G-dad pics. Those were awesome. I tried to resurrect some of my folks pics for their 50th. It was a different time, for sure.
Good luck with the rework. I recently decided I needed to divide my smug site from my "family" site. What a butt whippin'.

indiegirl · September 5, 2010

Ok, I've re-uploaded the front page images that are now optimized. Can anyone who had issues before let me know if it's any better? Many thanks.

Tracker · September 5, 2010

I have a pretty fast connection (10Mbs down/2Mbs up) and it was loading ok--not really fast. I can tell it's much faster now. I bet the slower minimum DSL connections will see an even bigger improvement.

Dan7312 · September 6, 2010

Yup, it loads faster now. There is only a 5 second delay on the home page now. On other pages the load time is negligable. The "Recent Works" don't hang anymore either. Much better.

indiegirl wrote: »

Ok, I've re-uploaded the front page images that are now optimized. Can anyone who had issues before let me know if it's any better? Many thanks.

chrisjohnson · September 6, 2010

indiegirl wrote: »

Hey, friends!

My new site is live, hooray! Would love your feedback:

jessemichener.com

Is still a bit too slow - although the images are good enough to hold my attention and I have a very fast connection.

I wonder what the purpose is. Looking for business? Strutting your stuff? Self-indulgence? Reinforcement? Imo you need to be clear what you want to viewer to DO. It can be as simple as "sit back and enjoy my beautiful images", but I think you are wanting to persuade people to hire you, so then you need to think more of their needs.

Sorry if this comes across a bit hard. Not meant to. I enjoyed looking at your work.

indiegirl · September 6, 2010

goldenballs wrote: »

Is still a bit too slow - although the images are good enough to hold my attention and I have a very fast connection.

I wonder what the purpose is. Looking for business? Strutting your stuff? Self-indulgence? Reinforcement? Imo you need to be clear what you want to viewer to DO. It can be as simple as "sit back and enjoy my beautiful images", but I think you are wanting to persuade people to hire you, so then you need to think more of their needs.

Sorry if this comes across a bit hard. Not meant to. I enjoyed looking at your work.

Not harsh at all, but I do have a question: are you suggesting the choice of images are not cohesive enough to tell the viewer what I'm after? Or that I should include a tagline as it loads, "sit back and enjoy..." Or otherwise include verbiage about what I'm about?

Thanks!

Jesse

denisegoldberg · September 6, 2010

There is a noticeable lag from when I click a navbar entry to when I see a photo. White space for a bit, then your loading bar, then the photos. Unfortunately I suspect that's a side effect of using flash. I'm not very patient when it comes to sites loading; I hate to wait!

--- Denise

Dan7312 · September 6, 2010

You images and they way you have put them arranged them on your site are really compelling, but even with the shorter click-wait-click-wait it still is an annoyance to go through them.

Not to put words into GB's mouth, but I think what he was pointing out was not the verbage on the site, but what you expect of your site. If the purpose of the site is for friends and strangers to appreciate the art you have created then the delay is just an annoyance.

But as a commercial site the delay might be costing you clients. Think of a couple looking at a lot of sites trying to decide on the 'tog for their wedding. The delays might cause them to push on to the next site on their list. For example look at Andy's site (moonriverphotography.com) and look at how quickly you can go through his galleries to see if you like what he does.

But take this criticism with a grain of salt... Flash only sites are always critisized by computer and web geeks like the kind that haunt places like dgrin.:D You might ask some of your own friends and aquaintences if they think your site is to slow or not, they might be a better test of what your potential customers will think.

indiegirl wrote: »

Not harsh at all, but I do have a question: are you suggesting the choice of images are not cohesive enough to tell the viewer what I'm after? Or that I should include a tagline as it loads, "sit back and enjoy..." Or otherwise include verbiage about what I'm about?

Thanks!

Jesse

Wachel · September 7, 2010

Loads much faster now!

chrisjohnson · September 7, 2010

indiegirl wrote: »

Not harsh at all, but I do have a question: are you suggesting the choice of images are not cohesive enough to tell the viewer what I'm after? Or that I should include a tagline as it loads, "sit back and enjoy..." Or otherwise include verbiage about what I'm about?

Thanks!

Jesse

Dan is right. My puzzle was what the site was for, or equally who it is for.

In business a web-site is used for two main purposes:
- to reinforce the positive impression that existing customers and prospects have of you, even to keep in contact by eg publishing interesting news so you are top of mind for their next assignment. It tells a bit more than people pick-up in a meeting.
- to tell Googlers quickly whether they have landed in the right place and what to do next.

For hobby a web-site may have many different purposes, not least self-expression. I think yours is falling in-between, it is not really hobby and it is not really business. People may get confused. I do.

If you are in business, then in boxing terms you are leading with your chin by showing images up-front and then asking commodity pricing. As a "commodity" client my basic assumption would be that you can take a decent photo otherwise you would not be in business - I don't actually need to see the pictures up-front although I probably look before I sign the order. Any photos you do show may put people off - style and taste are very personal. If you are on the other hand selling your "art" then your prices are too low and your story is inconsistent. When I buy art I want rare, exclusive, special. I hope this makes sense.

Let me assume that the main purpose is to sell, eg, a commodity service of taking portraits in area X. As a prospective customer, I want first to learn about your service and your reputation and your pricing. So in your case, as far as I remember, you specialize in portraits and live close, you'll come to me and capture MY memories, you are a Gardner Girl (pillar of the community, reliable), and you are affordable (cheap). Try to think what your customer is concerned about. A customer buying "art" has different values.

On the other hand, being half-artist and half-artisan you could come across in the commodity market as an arty-farty type, self-obsessed, no commitment to deliver what I want unless I am lucky .... Get the picture?

Bottom line: I think your site would be better if it was a lot clearer what it is supposed to do and who is supposed to be interested and what they should expect - and a bit faster

. The images are great but then I expect that from any professional photographer.

indiegirl · September 7, 2010

goldenballs wrote: »

Dan is right. My puzzle was what the site was for, or equally who it is for.

In business a web-site is used for two main purposes:
- to reinforce the positive impression that existing customers and prospects have of you, even to keep in contact by eg publishing interesting news so you are top of mind for their next assignment. It tells a bit more than people pick-up in a meeting.
- to tell Googlers quickly whether they have landed in the right place and what to do next.

For hobby a web-site may have many different purposes, not least self-expression. I think yours is falling in-between, it is not really hobby and it is not really business. People may get confused. I do.

If you are in business, then in boxing terms you are leading with your chin by showing images up-front and then asking commodity pricing. As a "commodity" client my basic assumption would be that you can take a decent photo otherwise you would not be in business - I don't actually need to see the pictures up-front although I probably look before I sign the order. Any photos you do show may put people off - style and taste are very personal. If you are on the other hand selling your "art" then your prices are too low and your story is inconsistent. When I buy art I want rare, exclusive, special. I hope this makes sense.

Let me assume that the main purpose is to sell, eg, a commodity service of taking portraits in area X. As a prospective customer, I want first to learn about your service and your reputation and your pricing. So in your case, as far as I remember, you specialize in portraits and live close, you'll come to me and capture MY memories, you are a Gardner Girl (pillar of the community, reliable), and you are affordable (cheap). Try to think what your customer is concerned about. A customer buying "art" has different values.

On the other hand, being half-artist and half-artisan you could come across in the commodity market as an arty-farty type, self-obsessed, no commitment to deliver what I want unless I am lucky .... Get the picture?

Bottom line: I think your site would be better if it was a lot clearer what it is supposed to do and who is supposed to be interested and what they should expect - and a bit faster . The images are great but then I expect that from any professional photographer.

I could just kiss you. I mean that in a professional way, of course

So I'm working on all of this. Thanks for the questions and comments. They're priceless.

New Site Live -- Feedback Welcome

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