Your thoughts

[Master Mason]

I have been working on customizing my smugmug site. Could you please take a look and let me know what you think.

thanks

http://ghsportphoto.com/

 

[Gdad]

Looks great Greg- you have some great work on display.

You probably know this already but in case anyone else is looking to customize their Smugmug page there is a wealth if great info Here on Dgrin. I know nothing about code or html or web design- all mine was pretty much copy & pasted from there.

 

[GatheringNoMoss]

The introductory site pictures are good choices.

 

[NostalgicDad]

Looks nice Gregg. Great site and great photos!

As Jeff mentioned, I also utilized Dgrin for my customization. Lots of info on that site.

 

[Mckymousefn]

Looks good!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

My first reaction is quite negative - only because it reminds me that I need to do something about my page. I actually like it a lot.

I really like the style. It's basically what I want to do with my page, but I'm too busy sticking smilies in goofy posts about contest rules to get anything useful done.

One thing that I would consider is having the slideshow be all pictures of the same orientation. I think that would work better...either that or group them so that the orientation doesn't change very often.

You might also want to add some simple frames to the photos in the slideshow. I think that would help them stand out against the background. Just make the frame the same for all of the pictures with the same orientation so that it doesn't become a distraction. See http://barbierifamily.org/photos/ for a not very good example of what I'm talking about.

I think it would also look better if you put a frame, border, or edge effect on the header.

You have a tab labeled "About Me" but the content uses "We" instead of "I". I'd either change the table to "About Us" or the content to "I" instead of "We".

When you're on the About Me page, is there a way to drop the breadcrumbs (gregghall > Administrative > About Me)? Clicking on Administrative takes you nowhere. The same is true for the Guest Book.

Overall, I really like it. Now I need to get moving on mine. But first, I think I'll ramble some more about why greedy oil companies are really just trying to help you.

 

[Mckymousefn]

Gregg, i think it looks just fine!

 

[jann1033]

it looks good, only 2 things i would add (from articles i have been reading while ripping my hair out trying to get my website right, www.thepoetryoflight.net if you want to see) for what it's worth.....is they said always have some sort of contact page and contact info on your home, not so much to have someone use it but so people know you are an actual business and not a take the money and run type deal... guessing you might want to sell some of the pics....maybe i missed it if you do.. and if you have some type of conversion pages like the contact and the guest book it's supposed to help get noticed by some of the search engines. ( something like they view it as a back link i think if my memory serves me, which it usually doesn't)
zenfolio is supposed to get design you own type stuff soon and i hope they do, i like the auto slide show and stuff on smugmug better. my website is on microsoft office live( which stinks, i'm moving it as soon as i can redelegate my domain name) and the slide show on there won't work and zenfolio's home pages are kind of blah, ok for an album but smugmug looks like a website

and not to hijack but can anyof you computer geniuses tell me what a "cname" actually does? ( zenfolio uses them but microsoft office won't so i need to redelegate but don't know exactly what it is)

 

[Master Mason]

and not to hijack but can anyof you computer geniuses tell me what a "cname" actually does? ( zenfolio uses them but microsoft office won't so i need to redelegate but don't know exactly what it is)

I am not a computer genius, but I do know this one. Basically it is a forwarding alias.

So, you can have your site hosted at xyz service, but you can set up a cname to send typing in photos.yoursite.com to zenfolio or smugmug.

 

[Master Mason]

One thing that I would consider is having the slideshow be all pictures of the same orientation. I think that would work better...either that or group them so that the orientation doesn't change very often.

I work on this one, I can group them, but I want to add more of the shots I am going to start taking this weekend to the slide show, so that will come in time.

You might also want to add some simple frames to the photos in the slideshow. I think that would help them stand out against the background. Just make the frame the same for all of the pictures with the same orientation so that it doesn't become a distraction. See http://barbierifamily.org/photos/ for a not very good example of what I'm talking about.

There is actually a way to make the slide show put a frame around the shots on the slide show, but I haven't figured out where to put the code in the string to make it work yet, I'll keep messing with it

I think it would also look better if you put a frame, border, or edge effect on the header.

That I can do

You have a tab labeled "About Me" but the content uses "We" instead of "I". I'd either change the table to "About Us" or the content to "I" instead of "We".

Fixed

When you're on the About Me page, is there a way to drop the breadcrumbs (gregghall > Administrative > About Me)? Clicking on Administrative takes you nowhere. The same is true for the Guest Book.

There is, but I haven't figured out how to make it work yet

Overall, I really like it. Now I need to get moving on mine. But first, I think I'll ramble some more about why greedy oil companies are really just trying to help you.

thank you

 

[MarkBarbieri]

EGO iustus volo futurus vir meus canis reputo EGO sum

OK, I'm struggling with my latin. This is latin, isn't it? Is this something like "I want my dog to believe I'm a man/hero?"

The auto-translator I used had it as "I just I want to be man my dog to reckon I to be". which makes less sense than I usually do.

"EGO" is "I". "meus canis" is "my dog". "iustus" is something like "fair" or "just". "futurus vir" is something like "to be a hero/man/courageous man". "reputo" is "believe".

So what does it all mean?

 

[Master Mason]

OK, I'm struggling with my latin. This is latin, isn't it? Is this something like "I want my dog to believe I'm a man/hero?"

The auto-translator I used had it as "I just I want to be man my dog to reckon I to be". which makes less sense than I usually do.

"EGO" is "I". "meus canis" is "my dog". "iustus" is something like "fair" or "just". "futurus vir" is something like "to be a hero/man/courageous man". "reputo" is "believe".

So what does it all mean?

I just want to be the man my dog thinks I am.

 

[BorisMD]

Home page is nice.

Galleries have too many photos.

It depends on your goal. If you're trying to showcase work to entice people to buy your work, I would create a few smaller galleries of select shots to highlight your strengths. As a casual site visitor, I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of photos in the various galleries. I find this to be the case in many people's smugmug sites (mine included).

You could also then link to the bigger galleries with separate tabs for family, so that those larger galleries aren't out in view for prospective sports customers.

I'm no expert, but that's just the feel I get when I click on the galleries tab.

Hope that helps,

Boris

 

[steery1]

I pretty much agree with the comments Mark has made and also with Boris that there may be too many photos.
I keep all of my photos in private galleries and only open some up for public viewing. This way viewers dont get fed up wading through thousands of pics and go elsewhere. Then you can always refresh by removing a few and adding a few new ones.

Just one other point - I think the navigation bar is not centered below the banner. This was the very first thing I noticed as soon as your home page loaded.

But a great site filled with some wonderful images. I like that theres not any waffle and is concentrated on the photos. (I'm gonna have to reduce the waffle on my home page)

It can get quite addictive customizing your smugmug site cant it. I've lost numerous hours tweaking and re-tweaking, then got so frustrated I got a friend to help me out.

You can check it out here..........http://www.reflectionsby.smugmug.com/

 

[BorisMD]

Hey Steery1, those are some great photos! I just cruised through the resorts gallery, and I'm impressed.

So, do many people pay for your images? I'm just curious after the recent "Do photographers make any money" thread. I would think you get enough business to cover your smugmug costs.

Very nice site and great pics.

Boris

 

[jann1033]

I pretty much agree with the comments Mark has made and also with Boris that there may be too many photos.
I keep all of my photos in private galleries and only open some up for public viewing. This way viewers dont get fed up wading through thousands of pics and go elsewhere. Then you can always refresh by removing a few and adding a few new ones.

Just one other point - I think the navigation bar is not centered below the banner. This was the very first thing I noticed as soon as your home page loaded.

But a great site filled with some wonderful images. I like that theres not any waffle and is concentrated on the photos. (I'm gonna have to reduce the waffle on my home page)

It can get quite addictive customizing your smugmug site cant it. I've lost numerous hours tweaking and re-tweaking, then got so frustrated I got a friend to help me out.

You can check it out here..........http://www.reflectionsby.smugmug.com/

great site!

 

[steery1]

Hey Steery1, those are some great photos! I just cruised through the resorts gallery, and I'm impressed.

So, do many people pay for your images? I'm just curious after the recent "Do photographers make any money" thread. I would think you get enough business to cover your smugmug costs.

Very nice site and great pics.

Boris

Thanks for the nice comments.
No I dont make any money at all from the site. Someone from another board bought a few of my Irish photos ages ago but that was before I had upgraded my account to pro and I didn't see any of the money.
I use it as a nice hobby and can back up all my photos there, organise and link to them.
In truth I am considering downgradiyng to a power account as I'm not really bothered about selling my stuff. Not good enough really

jann1033great site!

Thanks jann.

 

[Master Mason]

Boris and Sterry

Thanks for the comments, I see what I can figure out about possibly hiding some of the galeries.

I originally simply got the site as my way of sharing photos as sterry said above, it wasn't until later that I decided to try and sell a few of the baseball shots.

What's sort of funny is the ones I am really trying to sell will be hidden behind a password, they will be of kids ranging in ages from 5 to 14 and we (there was more than me involved in that decision) felt it best to hid them behind a password so folks weren't bothered by having somone put their kids picture online.

Today is the first day of shooting for those pictures. Opening day and the first few games. It is sort of wierd for me though, this is the first year in 10 that I haven't had to be out there at the crack of dawn getting ready for opening day.