# What do you think of my website?



## DGMPhotography

So I know I'm not good enough to go pro yet, I just enjoy making websites. Anyways, can you check it out and let me know what you think? D7 Photography - Home  In the future, I can purchase the domain so 'weebly' is removed and I believe I can get my email to go through it as well.

Thanks!

EDIT: 

New site idea - http://d7photo.wix.com/d7photo


----------



## shents

Hey,  I should be getting the nikon d5100 next week, Have all your pics been taken with that? I cant wait to get started, Good luck with it all


----------



## DGMPhotography

A lot of them, yeah. It's a great camera!


----------



## texkam

> So I know I'm not good enough to go pro yet


 *<Moderated>


*I wouldn't pay for either.

*I don't think anyone asked you to.*


----------



## DGMPhotography

texkam said:


> So I know I'm not good enough to go pro yet
> 
> 
> 
> Your website building and photography talents are consistent.
Click to expand...


Show me your website. I based this off a pro's website so you can stop being so snobby.


----------



## texkam

> Anyways, can you check it out and let me know what you think?


So I did and now I'm being snobby. Gotta love it.



OK, sorry.


----------



## DGMPhotography

You ever heard if you don't have something nice to say don't say it at all? There are kinder ways you could have phrased your comment.


----------



## texkam

Wasn't trying to be mean, just honest. Your site and photography are just not very good IMHO and for that reason I don't think you are ready to be charging for either. Had you been open to criticism and eager to learn why I felt this way I and probably many others would have been willing to spend some of their time and share some of our professional expertise with you.

Peace.


----------



## rexbobcat

texkam said:
			
		

> Wasn't trying to be mean, just honest. Your site and photography are just not very good IMHO and for that reason I don't think you are ready to be charging for either. Had you been open to criticism and eager to learn why I felt this way I and probably many others would have been willing to spend some of their time and share some of our professional expertise with you.
> 
> Peace.



Daaaayyyyuuummm.

Some of your photos are good OP in my opinion. But it's way too inconsistent. Like in your home page slideshow there will be one good one followed by 3 bad ones and then another good one.


----------



## DGMPhotography

See, now that's a kinder way of saying your original comment. I appreciate your input. I'm not charging for either yet, I'm still learning and having fun. Like I said - I know I'm not good enough yet. I just felt like making a website and so I did. I'm not going to be eager to learn when someone is rude to me, that just goes against common sense. I would like to know _why_ you think my website isn't good, and how I could possibly improve it. For comparison, what do you think of my friend Kyle's site? kylelaferriere.com


----------



## pic_chick

I checked out your site I dislike the background I actually tried to dust my screen. I like the lay out simply easy to find what I want but your about me while humble leaves me with the feeling you are not yet a pro as it seems focused on what you have to learn and how good your not. It opened well but I would edit it as follows....

     My  origin in photography is about as humble as anyone else's I suppose, I started taking photos of family and friends discovering how much I enjoyed my time behind the lens I began focusing on developing my skills and striving to harness a style all my own.

                                                     ( insert some training or skills you have be very positive )

    To do well with photography, or anything else for that matter, you have  to have passion and I have that passion for photography. I will go the extra mile to help you achieve your photography desires.

I would drop the potty talk out of your rates page as well and i would come up with a starting price to list there or something no rates on site always rub me the wrong way as a client.


----------



## Robin_Usagani

Okay.. so you pretty much talked down about your photography skill under your "about me".  But then you talked about you can do weddings, sporting events, seniors etc.  Just sound silly to me.  I would just get rid of the rates & services.  Do this for fun.. once in a while take a paying job.  Just my honest opinion.  It is also a little silly also putting a "rates" link but you dont mention anything about how much you cost.  Maybe info is more appropriate


----------



## Light Guru

texkam said:


> So I know I'm not good enough to go pro yet
> 
> 
> 
> Your website building and photography talents are consistent.
> 
> I wouldn't pay for either.
Click to expand...


How about giving some feedback that people can lean from. 

There are 4 main types of feedback. 

- Positive General
- Positive Specific
- Negative General
- Negative Specific

Positive general and negative general are useless feedback. You have given negative general. 

Now for my feedback. (Perhaps you can figure out which of the 4 types I am giving)

The website looks ok but does not really stand out to me visually. If you are on a trial period with that current web host I recommend checking out squarespace.com for building your website. I have found it the easiest to use of any service and the template look amazing. 

As for the content of the site. If you are tying to use it to get people to hire you, that's not going to happen from that site. Your about me page talks way to much about gear. People hiring you do not care what gear you have they care about the images you produce. Your pricing page is a joke, you talk about taking photos of toilets on it. Really? NOT professional at all. 

The portfolio you have on there does not fully match the things you say people can hire you for. You say you do weddings and receptions but you have no images of weddings or receptions. Yes you do say that you do senior portraits and musical events musical performances but the images you show of them are not all that good. Have different sections of the portfolio for different types of things. If I'm looking to book a wedding photographer I don't want those photos to be mixed with sports photos. 

The photos themselves also have several issues. Focus being the biggest one. I would say that at least 50% of them had focus issues. Nobody is going to hire you for senior portraits when your portrait examples are not in focus. Also the posing in your portraits is not good, not as big a issue as the focus but still an issue.   

I hope the things I have said help.


----------



## pic_chick

*Denver Wedding Photographer* - Usagani Photography just looked at your site saw your wedding photos my are about as good I did however have my mother and sister in-laws but hobbyist at the wedding and they saved the day with some great keepers..great site by the way.


----------



## Light Guru

Robin_Usagani said:


> Do this for fun.. once in a while take a paying job.  Just my honest opinion.



And a vary good opinion it is. Don't talk about selling your work until your work looks sellable and you can present yourself in a professional manner.


----------



## texkam

> So I know I'm not good enough to go pro yet, I just enjoy making websites.


You acknowledge in this statement you are not a good enough web designer to go pro.


> I learned that I was not that good





> I probably still don't know much of what I'm talking about, but I'm doing my best, having fun, and still learning


You acknowledge in these statements you are not a very good photographer.


> You have given negative general


I gave specific feedback. I stated that the OP's web design talent is consistent with everything that he was saying about his photography talent, and because of this statement from his website... "If you are interested, click the 'Contact Me' button below and fill out the following form with the appropriate information and I can give you an estimate." ...my specific take away feedback was, because of this lack of talent in both areas, that he not charge for either service. Feedback that others have agreed with BTW.


----------



## DGMPhotography

Thanks, I really appreciate your feedback, guys. Light Guru - your definitions of feedback are excellent! I would guess yours is positive specific? Yeah... haha, like I said, I was having fun and being silly. I will work on it and post something new for you guys that may actually be considered as professional.


----------



## DGMPhotography

NEW SITE: d7photo | Wix.com

Sigh, these take so long to make, but I made this new one based off my friend's style. Of course I will add more photos to the portfolio tab once I get some.


----------



## DGMPhotography

P.S. Scroll down a little to see my footer and social network links cause until if/when I go premium, the Wix ad is in the way.


----------



## aliyawar

I like the template you have used..it is simplistic(maybe too simplistic)...it is good if you are going to use the website just for fun...but if you want to attract customers you want something better...


----------



## Nikmal

texkam said:


> So I know I'm not good enough to go pro yet
> 
> 
> 
> Your website building and photography talents are consistent.
Click to expand...

Glad your tone sings with constructive criticism (not). I thought that  the idea for this swite was for people to give constructive criticism  and not snarky remarks and just plain hurtful remarks. Sad.


----------



## jamesbjenkins

There's nothing memorable about your site at all. It's about as vanilla as they come. You should only show your very best images in your slideshow, and right now you have quite a few weak images there.

You should redo the entire text of your rates and services page. You should be positioning yourself as an expert not fumbling through awkward self-deprecation and toilet jokes. 

As it stands now, the feel of your site and the quality of the images posted seem very amateur. Oh, and the "let's make memories" tag line was cool...for Olan Mills...in 1994.

You should probably hire someone to build you a pro quality website while you practice more on your picture-taking and business skills. You've got a long way to go there before I'd pay you to do anything.


----------



## Mully

You have to get your feet wet somewhere..... the good part is that others here gave their honest opinion and we all take dings to our creative ego some dents others craters but use this as a learning tool for you.  Now fix the ones you can and use the suggestions to better yourself..... you will improve!


----------



## pixmedic

pic_chick said:


> *Denver Wedding Photographer* - Usagani Photography just looked at your site saw your wedding photos my are about as good I did however have my mother and sister in-laws but hobbyist at the wedding and they saved the day with some great keepers..great site by the way.



yea, Robin is pretty amazing!


----------



## unpopular

I'm seeing a lot of photojournalism here, but not a lot of "for hire" type work. Your photography in general is OK, plenty of 'pros' out there that are just as technically good, but I get the impression from your subjects that these are a bunch of your pals ... going target practice, bumming around on ATVs, hanging out at concerts, singing in church choirs. I get a good sense of your midwestern lifestyle, I get a good sense of who you are - a kid in his late teens/early adulthood. What I'm not getting is a sense of confidence in your abilities to capture MY life and my family. 

OK, maybe you're thinking "but that's not how it is, these aren't my pals, they were paying customers..." it doesn't really matter, because that's how this website comes across - that kid in the clique with a camera.

The part about making memories is kind of silly, IMO. It almost sounds like you're suggesting that your presence and the act of taking your picture is to be a memory itself. People want photographers, especially event photographers, to be invisible. If you've ever been to a wedding where a seasoned professional was hired - how much do you remember about that photographer? Hopefully very little. Good photographers are unobtrusive objects, IMO the same goes for even portrait artists, though this depends on style and approach. 

But you don't want your client to remember you for you, they don't want to think about that grimey kid with a camera. I wouldn't even post your portrait. You want to be invisible. Your client wants to remember you only by the photos that you take; you're not helping them MAKE memories, you're augmenting the memories that they already HAVE with a tangible, symbolic object of the event, person or place.


----------



## DGMPhotography

Hmm, good input. I guess there are different takes on it, on whether the photographer should be invisible or not. Trust me, I'm not coming up with this stuff on my own, I based my ideas off other websites I've seen and one photographer did the whole relationship thing. As for making memories, I didn't copy that from anywhere, but of course it's so cliche, I know it's had to have been done a 1000 times, so it's more or less a place holder for now. James, did you check out my new site? d7photo | Wix.com


----------



## unpopular

unless you want run-of-the-mill marketing, I wouldn't snip run of run-of-the-mill techniques.


----------



## ronlane

I like the second version better than the first. Here's a thought though, I'm not trying to be mean with this, just giving you something to think about. You said yourself that you aren't good enough to go pro. Well first you were on here designing business cards and a logo/watermark and now a website. How about spending that time on taking photos and getting where you ARE good enough to turn pro? Unless you want to be a pro at business cards, logo/watermarks and websites. To be a pro, you focus on the skills that it takes to do that and let someone else handle the rest for you. That is why professional athletes have agents, they are focused on playing football not contract wording and incentive clauses.


----------



## DGMPhotography

Hahah, I know, but I'm not taking photos at 5am, so I fill my time with stuff like this xD


----------



## jamesbjenkins

ronlane said:


> I like the second version better than the first. Here's a thought though, I'm not trying to be mean with this, just giving you something to think about. You said yourself that you aren't good enough to go pro. Well first you were on here designing business cards and a logo/watermark and now a website. How about spending that time on taking photos and getting where you ARE good enough to turn pro? Unless you want to be a pro at business cards, logo/watermarks and websites. To be a pro, you focus on the skills that it takes to do that and let someone else handle the rest for you. That is why professional athletes have agents, they are focused on playing football not contract wording and incentive clauses.



^^  This.

I did the whole "web designer/graphic designer/photographer" thing too, I think most of us self-taught photogs do at some point. I came to the same realization that I was mediocre at designing anything and wanted much more to be a photographer. So I had someone design my logo and new website. OP, my best advice would be to forget about the website and focus on your photography.

I looked at the second version, and it's still quite poor if it's trying to be a "pro" site. From the font of the navbar, to the copyright text, to the "basic out of the box template" feel. If I were a potential customer, I wouldn't last 10 seconds on your site.

Frankly, you're not very good at web design or graphic design. No big deal. Focus on your strengths. Like Robin said earlier: do this for fun, take cheapo jobs for friends occasionally if you want.

That's my $0.02.


----------



## Light Guru

DGMPhotography said:


> Thanks, I really appreciate your feedback, guys. Light Guru - your definitions of feedback are excellent! I would guess yours is positive specific? Yeah... haha, like I said, I was having fun and being silly. I will work on it and post something new for you guys that may actually be considered as professional.



No mine was negative specific.  Not sure how you could get positive from what I wrote.


----------



## Light Guru

DGMPhotography said:


> NEW SITE: d7photo | Wix.com
> 
> Sigh, these take so long to make, but I made this new one based off my friend's style. Of course I will add more photos to the portfolio tab once I get some.



It does not have to take a long time to crate or revamp a website.  Again check out squarespace.com you can have a website up in 10 minutes that looks better visualy then what you have.


----------



## Awiserbud

I haven't been on this forum long as some of you may know, but the short time i have been here i have learnt a lot from reading the various C&C posts, when i say i have learnt a lot, what i really mean is i have learnt a lot about some of the members, I can't say i have learnt a lot about photography per-say, I'm not saying there isn't anything to learn, or that i don't have much to learn myself, i most certainly do, but i also feel that if i still have a camera in my hand in 40 years time i will still be learning and so will all of you.
there are many users on this forum that have only just found their interest in this hobby, (whatever you wish to call it) and i am sure that many of them when posting a photograph for everyone to look at and point out where it could be improved are reasonably happy with their efforts. 
It is all too easy to look at someones work and tell them where they are going wrong, to tell them how things could be better, to remind them of the rule of thirds, or how to position a subject correctly, but it is even easier to tell them its useless and not bother to point out why. 
There are many users on here guilty of just that, and while it would be logical to point out that we all had to start out somewhere, and our very first efforts we now looks back on with disgust it is easy to loose sight of that and understand that we are not all in the same league and if your not prepared to be specific and helpful even if your answers are negative then i wonder why you bother to respond to posts like this at all.
I totally appreciate that members who are new to photography have a lot to learn from the more experienced photog, not only with their photography skills but also perhaps with their blind ambitions, but isn't that why they are here.


----------



## Tuffythepug

Daryl, let me put this nicely.    I think you are getting way ahead of yourself here.   It's fine it you want to fool around with a website and pretend to be a professional for hire but, in all honesty,  nobody is going to hire you based on the shots I saw on your site.   Yes, there is some promise...  some day you will, no doubt, possess the skills to be able to charge for your photographs.  But that time is in the future when you've got a lot more experience under your belt.  The simple fact that you believe your shots to be worthy of marketing tells me you do not know how to distinguish between  fair-to-good shots and true professional caliber work.    Keep shooting and honing your skills but also try and learn what makes excellent, marketable photographs in today' market where virtually everyone can take a good picture with a DSLR.  You have to be better than the next guy.


----------



## panblue

jamesbjenkins said:


> I did the whole "web designer/graphic designer/photographer" thing too


 lol :thumbup:

1998: "what do we need a website for ?! we're a restaurant!"
2008: "what do we need a website for ?! we're on Facebook!"


----------



## panblue

Daryl, your adaptability is commendable, amazing how a front-end redesign can alter the persona.
That said, I personally would bin all the commercial silliness and just show static pictures; no slideshows, shi shi, a la carte typefaces, "because you're worth it" taglines. I feel that however you spin it, free DIY website overlays are going to take a big dump on your 'presence'. IMO switch to a platform that doesn't follow you around, wearing an "i'm with stupid >>" t-shirt and just build up a series of your very best pictures, in a chronological fashion. Keep it fresh and current using Twitter or FB. Explain who you via an About page, if you wish, but generally say nothing until you know what you are about and what you are definately trying to do. Good pictures speak for themselves and amazing pictures can even sell themselves, without a lot of fluff. Check out typical ads for fine art galleries in glossy magazines - they usually say virtually nothing; just show a picture and have a name and contact info. Play it something like this and you have the freedom to photograph what you like, without a commercial constraint.

BTW, the mouse-over menus went dead after I had used them once.


----------



## Derrel

If you really do want to get hired, I would pick one genre of photography, and attempt to become decent at it. Pick just one type of event, or one type of photography. Learn how to shoot that one type of event. Like, say "parties". Birthday parties and family reunions. BBQ's. Whatever. "Social gatherings". Get together the gear, lighting, and most important, the know-how and skill to actually shoot good photos at parties. Then try and get hired to shoot...social events. Build a web site that promotes you as a photographer who knows how to make good pictures at social gatherings.

The typical young professional says he or she can shoot weddings, seniors, products, babies, and a one or two other sub-genres out of a half-dozen...that kind of a pitch inspires zero confidence when I see it used.


----------



## KmH

Your avatar, which you also use on your contact page, needs to be color corrected because of the strong orangeish cast likely caused by a white balance issue (tungsten lighting with daylight white balance camera setting.)

The up-the-nostril shot on your about page might not be the best choice. The devil is in the details.







...


----------



## DGMPhotography

Thanks! Yeah, like I said, I KNOW my photography skills are not that good yet, and I indeed CAN tell that mine are not good in comparison to pro photos. With that being said, I am doing photography for fun. I just got a tripod for Christmas Manfrotto MKC3-H01 Photo-Movie Kit QR (Black) MKC3-H01 B&H Photo and am looking forward to using it. Right now, I know I am not good enough to sell my photography, which is why I haven't hired a graphic or website designer. Right now, I'm just making the website to give myself an idea of what I may want, after input from you guys. With that input, I will eventually come to a designer with my website idea and let him take it where it needs to be to be an effective productive website. Until then, I will keep shooting!


----------



## DGMPhotography

Btw, if anyone else would like to try out Wix.com and post their results... feel free!


----------



## janineh

I used to be with wix and didn't really like it. Its too limited. I am now with creativemotiondesign and much happier. Good luck with it all!


----------



## SCraig

DGMPhotography said:


> Thanks! Yeah, like I said, I KNOW my photography skills are not that good yet, and I indeed CAN tell that mine are not good in comparison to pro photos. With that being said, I am doing photography for fun. I just got a tripod for Christmas Manfrotto MKC3-H01 Photo-Movie Kit QR (Black) MKC3-H01 B&H Photo and am looking forward to using it. *Right now, I know I am not good enough to sell my photography*, which is why I haven't hired a graphic or website designer. Right now, I'm just making the website to give myself an idea of what I may want, after input from you guys. With that input, I will eventually come to a designer with my website idea and let him take it where it needs to be to be an effective productive website. Until then, I will keep shooting!


In that case I  would recommend that you take down ANYTHING on the site that makes any mention whatsoever to hiring you.  As you yourself have stated, your abilities do not put you in a position to try to sell anything however your web site states that you are.  When/if it starts showing up on search engines and people start showing and interest they will start to see this lack of ability and this is something that is going to follow you.  When your abilities do reach the point that you are able to honestly market yourself do you want this web site to come back and haunt you?  All you are doing is trashing your credibility before it even has a chance to get started.

Make it into an amateur web site to show what you can do, there's nothing wrong with that.  Have fun with it, learn with it, learn what looks good together and what doesn't.  Learn how to get exposure on the internet and what doesn't work.  But DON'T pretend to be a professional photographer when you aren't because all that is going to do is come back and hurt you in the long run.  Even if you can't get the "Hire Me" link off, edit it so that it says something along the lines of "I am not for hire since I am just an amateur however this template will not allow removal of this tab", but do NOT state that you are available for weddings and events when you are not!


----------



## DGMPhotography

Good point SCraig! I will definitely remove the stuff about hiring me, or at least say something admitting my skill level. Thanks!


----------

