# My portfolio.



## Life

Hey everyone. I have a 500px.com portfolio: Benjamin Holthaus     If you could all kindly go and check it out and review it that would be great, thanks!
I also have a website but it is not finished yet. I'm still troubled with how I will post the photos.. Thanks everyone for opinions in advance!


----------



## Life

Bump.. - No comments -


----------



## e.rose

You're not getting comments, because you're not posting photos.

Post individual photos and you'll start getting comments.


----------



## Life

Click the link -_- You know, the colored "Benjamin Holthaus" is a link lol. And I asked kindly to have the entire portfolio rated, not only the photos, because how they are presented is also very important. Thanks


----------



## e.rose

Life said:


> Click the link -_- You know, the colored "Benjamin Holthaus" is a link lol.









I had no idea! :greenpbl:



> And I asked kindly to have the entire portfolio rated, not only the photos, because how they are presented is also very important. Thanks



Your portfolio is all over the place. There's not really any consistency except for the flower stuff. That's not to say that the images are bad or anything, it just doesn't give me a real sense of what you do.

ALSO... my statement of how you're not getting responses, because you didn't post photos still stands. :greenpbl:


----------



## sscarmack

Hahahhaha. 

O rly. 

I laugh out loud at that!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## JohnnyWrench

I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered?  You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.

My 2 cents.


----------



## astroNikon

people here don't like looking at webpages.

If you want C&C normally you have to post those specific photos here .. especially if you want really critical C&C


I zoomed through it but I wasn't really liking the "layout" of the photos .. of lack there of.  The overlay that covers the lower half is really annoying.

I only recall one photo off the top of my head ... some barn .. kinda far away .. with electrical lines at the top of the photo.  Needs to be cropped and made interesting.


----------



## robbins.photo

Life said:


> Click the link -_- You know, the colored "Benjamin Holthaus" is a link lol. And I asked kindly to have the entire portfolio rated, not only the photos, because how they are presented is also very important. Thanks


A link you say.  hmm..  like sausage?

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk


----------



## Life

JohnnyWrench said:


> I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered?  You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.
> 
> My 2 cents.


Religious aspect is very necessary  More dynamic, hmm... I'm not sure what you mean? Because I make sure all my photos abide by the "rule of thirds".. Can you explain more please? thanks.

@e.rose, if you knew to click the link then why did you post the not so thought out response... And I can't post photos, so maybe before insisting and blurting it out you could maybe ask if I could do it.. thanks. And what do you mean by all over the place? A portfolio from what i've understood is that you only have the images that you think pop out most? Like it's only there to show a variety. That's what I know anyways, so if you could explain what you mean better that'd be nice, thanks.


----------



## e.rose

Life said:


> JohnnyWrench said:
> 
> 
> 
> I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered? You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.
> 
> My 2 cents.
> 
> 
> 
> Religious aspect is very necessary  More dynamic, hmm... I'm not sure what you mean? Because I make sure all my photos abide by the "rule of thirds".. Can you explain more please? thanks.
> 
> @e.rose, if you knew to click the link then why did you post the not so thought out response...
Click to expand...


Because I had no intention of responding with a thought out response, because there are too many photos to critique individually, and I didn't really have any valuable specific feedback to add to your site other than "It's all over the place". Which I then stated. Because you demanded a response about your portfolio.



> And I can't post photos, so maybe before insisting and blurting it out you could maybe ask if I could do it.. thanks.



Ask if you could do what?

Post individual photos?

I think I did:



e.rose said:


> You're not getting comments, because you're not posting photos.
> 
> *Post individual photos and you'll start getting comments.*



If I put it in the form of a question, would that help?

"Hey... Life... could you post some photos so that we can give you comments?"

:greenpbl:

Also, if you're offended by my very non-offensive remark, telling you exactly why you weren't getting comments, you better hold onto your hat. Because there are TONS of intentionally offensive people here. 



> I told you And what do you mean by all over the place? A portfolio from what i've understood is that you only have the images that you think pop out most? Like it's only there to show a variety. That's what I know anyways, so if you could explain what you mean better that'd be nice, thanks.



A portfolio is meant to show your best work... and variety, sure but not necessarily stuff as varying as yours.

For example...

My best friend here is a commercial photographer.

He shoots weddings, engagements, portraits and head shots as well, but if you go to his website *ALL* you see in his portfolio are commercial-type photos. Bands and models.

That's what he wants to shoot, that's how he wants to represent himself, so that's what he shows, and only what he shows.

To randomly throw in the weddings and engagement sessions would confuse his "brand" and his portfolio.

There *are* people who have a few specialties, but even then, their portfolios are separated by genre. 

There's usually a wedding gallery, an portrait gallery, an engagement gallery, a maternity gallery, etc. It's not just one gallery with all that stuff thrown together.

Now those are admittedly more extreme examples than what I'm referring to for you, however, "Landscapes and everything else" is not a good way to display your landscapes... OR your everything else (which in my opinion your portfolio can do without. The everything else, I mean).

The things in that gallery are so random and unrelated, it doesn't at all demonstrate who you are as a photographer, or what you do.

The whole layout of your portfolio in general is confused, cluttered... and all over the place. I don't know how else to put it.


----------



## e.rose

And *why* can't you post photos? You have 91 posts... that's well beyond what is required of new TPF members.

Do you just not know how? You can always ask, you know.


----------



## tirediron

You'd do well to pay heed to some of the advice posted, especially e.Rose's; she's a very skilled and knowledgeable poster, and spot on with her comments about posting images vice links.  

FWIW, I did have a look at your portfolio, and IMO, while there are a few nice images, most have basic compositional flaws and/or exposure issues.   If you want truly meaningful critique post 1-4 of your best images in a new thread, and you will get lots of good responses.


----------



## TamiAz

> I'm not sure what you mean? Because I make sure all my photos abide by the "rule of thirds".. Can you explain more please? thanks.



Do some research on composition and you'll see that there is more than the rule of thirds..


----------



## Derrel

Let's all rip a 15 year old kid a new one, shall we? 

"Srsly" and "o rly?" notwithstanding... why not *cut the boy some slack*???? And back off on the anti-religion advice too. His beliefs and his faith are NOBODY's business here on TPF.

You're doing fine kid. Keep working on your craft. You'll get there.


----------



## Patriot

I believe your work is nice.


----------



## Life

e.rose said:


> And *why* can't you post photos? You have 91 posts... that's well beyond what is required of new TPF members.
> 
> Do you just not know how? You can always ask, you know.





tirediron said:


> You'd do well to pay heed to some of the advice posted, especially e.Rose's; she's a very skilled and knowledgeable poster, and spot on with her comments about posting images vice links.
> 
> FWIW, I did have a look at your portfolio, and IMO, while there are a few nice images, most have basic compositional flaws and/or exposure issues.   If you want truly meaningful critique post 1-4 of your best images in a new thread, and you will get lots of good responses.


If you post it in a question " can I Post photos" Yes actually it does help, BECAUSE I CAN'T. I live out in the boonies, with the worlds worst internet. We are offered 15gbs a month, however dishnet only actually gives us 5gbs. after those 5 are gone, it's hardly even a kilobyte per sec that we get. Too slow for any pictures. That goes for both of you because you just assume everything lolz.  @ e.rose that you. Now that you actually explained about the portfolio, I know what I mean and I can work on re arranging, taking out, adding new photos and so on, so thank you for your input. and fyi, all this " Because I had no intention of responding with a thought out response, because there are too many photos to critique individually, and I didn't really have any valuable specific feedback to add to your site other than "It's all over the place". Which I then stated. Because you demanded a response about your portfolio. If I put it in the form of a question, would that help?

"Hey... Life... could you post some photos so that we can give you comments?"

:greenpbl:

Also, if you're offended by my very non-offensive remark, telling you exactly why you weren't getting comments, you better hold onto your hat. Because there are TONS of intentionally offensive people here. " was all a waist of your time...If you didn't want a "well thought out response" then you could have just waited until you are ready, and then post. It doesn't matter if I push. And i'm not "offended" I just don't understand some of the whole point of posting stupid remarks like that. It doesn't show professionalize or give you a good face. Even with a tons of smiley's 

@ Derrel. Thank you. I do not mind crit, only nonsense  And Tbh this is one of the reasons I hate posting my age anywhere. I'm here to learn.


----------



## Life

e.rose said:


> And *why* can't you post photos? You have 91 posts... that's well beyond what is required of new TPF members.
> 
> Do you just not know how? You can always ask, you know.





tirediron said:


> You'd do well to pay heed to some of the advice posted, especially e.Rose's; she's a very skilled and knowledgeable poster, and spot on with her comments about posting images vice links.
> 
> FWIW, I did have a look at your portfolio, and IMO, while there are a few nice images, most have basic compositional flaws and/or exposure issues.   If you want truly meaningful critique post 1-4 of your best images in a new thread, and you will get lots of good responses.





Patriot said:


> I believe your work is nice.


Thank you


----------



## The_Traveler

Let me suggest a possible question.

Life: "_*We live out in the country and my upload capacity is very low. How can I post pictures for comment*_."

Lew: There are really two answers to that.  Pictures sized correctly for display here are really quite small in file size. You just need to learn how to resize your pictures correctly. https://computing.artsci.wustl.edu/resize-images-web
But, if you have pictures online anywhere (like your portfolio) - then you can post a live link to them (http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...forum-functions-pictoral-guide-using-tpf.html)


----------



## Life

I'm afraid even a 500Kbs file would take an hour just to upload. Thus why I haven't uploaded new pics to my portfolio or 500px. 500px has it so that you can transfer pictures from your main page to your portfolio without uploading anything at all. Not to mention not being really able to see what i'm doing because of that :/  The other way i'll look into and see if that works. ( and I do know how to resize, but it still won't help. but thanks for the info!


----------



## AceCo55

I must admit I'm a little confused with the comments asking the OP to post photos rather than a link to his website.

This section of the website is described as:
*"Personal and Professional Photography Websites
Promote your personal and professional photography web sites by posting information about them here!"*

The OP is looking for opinions about his website ... which seems to be exactly what this section is supposed to be about.
I am unclear as to why he is being told to post photos instead????


----------



## Life

That's pretty much what I asked myself...


----------



## Virgil

JohnnyWrench said:


> I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered?  You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.
> 
> My 2 cents.


You were "put off" because he mentioned God?? Why does that bother you?


----------



## Life

Virgil said:


> JohnnyWrench said:
> 
> 
> 
> I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered?  You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.
> 
> My 2 cents.
> 
> 
> 
> You were "put off" because he mentioned God?? Why does that bother you?
Click to expand...

You'll be surprised how many people will avoid someone because of his/her religion.. I've seen people fired for mentioning God, so to me it is no surprise.


----------



## Virgil

JohnnyWrench said:


> I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered?  You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.
> 
> My 2 cents.


Wow !!! You have 3 flickr pages and not a single comment.


----------



## tirediron

OP:  Okay, fair enough, you're very band-width limited and that impedes your ability post images.  I'll buy that.  A couple of things you need to bear in mind:  Just like every social group, a forum, especially an active one such as TPF develops over time, conventions and ways of doing things which are considered 'right' on that board.  One of the things that TPF members, for the most part, consider 'right' is posting of images vice links.  Why?  Because as photographers, we want to see images.  Links aren't very interesting, and, many people are hesitant to follow off-site links simply because they don't know what might be there.  For all I know you could have had pornographic images on your 'site which, had I opened them on my work computer, could have got me fired.

Now, as far as the critique goes, it's very difficult and time-consuming to critique an entire 'site/portfolio.  When I'm doing portfolio critique workshops, it's easy to spend an hour on a ten-image portfolio; and on-line portfolios are no different.  I typically spend at least five images going over an image when offering C&C; why?  Because I feel that it can take that long to really 'see' an image, and to formulate my opinion of it.  "That's nice" really doesn't tell you much, and like many others here, I want to help other photographers.  

What I would suggest is that you pick up to four of your images, and create a new thread in the appropriate forum, asking for "C&C" and listing the names & descriptions of the images and a quick "This is why I don't post images" explanation so that people understand.  This will help you grow your talent far more than a few very general comments on a large group of images.


----------



## memento

AceCo55 said:


> I am unclear as to why he is being told to post photos instead????



because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me.


----------



## The_Traveler

AceCo55 said:


> I must admit I'm a little confused with the comments asking the OP to post photos rather than a link to his website.
> 
> This section of the website is described as:
> *"Personal and Professional Photography Websites
> Promote your personal and professional photography web sites by posting information about them here!"*
> 
> The OP is looking for opinions about his website ... which seems to be exactly what this section is supposed to be about.
> I am unclear as to why he is being told to post photos instead????





Life said:


> That's pretty much what I asked myself...



The simple answer to this is that comments on people's web sites are generally about the overall look and functionality of the site, as opposed to the pictures on that site.
The pictures might be mentioned _vis a vis_ their appropriateness and size but they are a small part of a web site review.


----------



## PixelRabbit

I also have to be very careful of bandwidth because of my connection being in a rural area, you mentioned you transfer images within 500px, might I suggest using Flickr for your future uploads, from there you can post easily here on the forum AND you can transfer them to various sites including 500px without having to upload multiple times!


----------



## tirediron

The_Traveler said:


> AceCo55 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I must admit I'm a little confused with the comments asking the OP to post photos rather than a link to his website.
> 
> This section of the website is described as:
> *"Personal and Professional Photography Websites
> Promote your personal and professional photography web sites by posting information about them here!"*
> 
> The OP is looking for opinions about his website ... which seems to be exactly what this section is supposed to be about.
> I am unclear as to why he is being told to post photos instead????
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Life said:
> 
> 
> 
> That's pretty much what I asked myself...
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> The simple answer to this is that comments on people's web sites are generally about the overall look and functionality of the site, as opposed to the pictures on that site.
> The pictures might be mentioned _vis a vis_ their appropriateness and size but they are a small part of a web site review.
Click to expand...

500px is NOT a personal or professional website; it is an image hosting service.  The OP has no control over anything other than the images he posts.  The intent of this particular forum is actually to allow for critique on individual's websites and to make suggestions for changes or improvements.


----------



## robbins.photo

Derrel said:


> Let's all rip a 15 year old kid a new one, shall we?



Where do we go to sign up for that.  At the very least could I yell at him to get off my lawn?  I just live for that, I really do.


----------



## robbins.photo

Ok, had a chance to look through some of the animal shots, I stuck with those since they are a little more in my own personal wheelhouse.  The first pic, puppy dog - the eyes are pretty heavily shadowed and it makes them appear soft as a result.  All in all it's a pretty good pic, if you have access to photoshop normally what I do for pictures like this is copy the eyes to a seperate layer and use the shadow/highlight tool to reduce some of the shadow and then blend that layer back into the original.  I do this a lot for gorilla pics in particular, they have very heavy set brows and as a result their eyes are generally pretty heavily shaded.

The second pic, ready to pounce - I would probably have framed this one a little differently.  I think this would benefit from a closer crop on the cat, the extra branches on either side really aren't adding a lot to the photo.  Also if possible less space above the cat and more space below, since he's "pouncing" from above.

On the bird shots, again if you can crop these a bit closer that would be my recommendation - not really much in the background on these that really stands out so making the bird a larger percentage of the image would probably be my recommendation.

All in all some pretty nice shots there though, a lot of potential.  And that having been said, "GET OFF MY LAWN!".  Lol.. sorry, but I really do live for that.


----------



## Life

tirediron said:


> The_Traveler said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> AceCo55 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I must admit I'm a little confused with the comments asking the OP to post photos rather than a link to his website.
> 
> This section of the website is described as:
> *"Personal and Professional Photography Websites
> Promote your personal and professional photography web sites by posting information about them here!"*
> 
> The OP is looking for opinions about his website ... which seems to be exactly what this section is supposed to be about.
> I am unclear as to why he is being told to post photos instead????
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Life said:
> 
> 
> 
> That's pretty much what I asked myself...
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> The simple answer to this is that comments on people's web sites are generally about the overall look and functionality of the site, as opposed to the pictures on that site.
> The pictures might be mentioned _vis a vis_ their appropriateness and size but they are a small part of a web site review.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 500px is NOT a personal or professional website; it is an image hosting service.  The OP has no control over anything other than the images he posts.  The intent of this particular forum is actually to allow for critique on individual's websites and to make suggestions for changes or improvements.
Click to expand...

the PORTFOLIO IS 100% mine. THe ONLY connection it has to 50px.com is that their name is in it because they host it. I have 100% site editablitily over it. So it counts as my own, ontop of the fact that there is about 1 or 2 or maybe 3 threads under me a person who did the 100% same exact thing as me. Now if you look in that thread, EVERYONE clicked the link to her 500px portfolio. So all this discussion is absolute idiocracy. I can understand if you don't have time or want to click the link. But please don't start coming up with nonesense. FYI, you must not know the first thing about 500px either, because they are a professional site. And a 500px portfolio is 100x different from their actual site.

[h=2]@Pixelrabbbit. People say flickr is good, but I just can't get myself to use it.. Not only would I have to upload all my photos again, but i'd have to also spend more time on that, and I hate flickr and everything yahoo stands for. I'm so tied up with working on my actually .com website, my 500px, photos, researching, learning, and since i'm 15... Chores.. Lol. Thanks for the suggestion but I really wouldn't want to go to flickr..[/h]
@The_Travler.  I understand, however as other said this part of the forum is mean't for links. The portfolio is an actual professional site that I have all control of, thus making it my website. If people don't want to crit the photos, I guess I can understand that as it does take time. But I assumed anyone who even looks in this part of the forum would be looking to crit websites..

@memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?

@Robbins.  I see exactly where you are coming from. I can try cropping, but these were originally hand held "snapshots" that I didn't think would be good. Thus being handheld my camera doesn't handle cropping too great. The one bird on the bird feeder ones is cropped, and look how bad the pixels look. But I will certainly pay more attention when I take photos, not just to take them, but also be in the position of the story i'm telling. Like with the cat, I could have right away said to myself, " if he's going to pounce, I should have him higher in the picture.. and so on. So I thank you, very useful insight. 

 Ok ok, i'm going. DON'T SHOOT! :lmao:


----------



## memento

Life said:


> @memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?



I don't feel like I'm causing any trouble. I'm just explaining why people don't like to click random links on an internet forum.
And no I can't wait until I get home. If I don't want to click a random link at work, why would I want to on my personal computer?
Clearly your link is legit, judging by other's comments but I'm not interested. 
Good luck in your future!


----------



## robbins.photo

Life said:


> @Robbins. I see exactly where you are coming from. I can try cropping, but these were originally hand held "snapshots" that I didn't think would be good. Thus being handheld my camera doesn't handle cropping too great. The one bird on the bird feeder ones is cropped, and look how bad the pixels look. But I will certainly pay more attention when I take photos, not just to take them, but also be in the position of the story i'm telling. Like with the cat, I could have right away said to myself, " if he's going to pounce, I should have him higher in the picture.. and so on. So I thank you, very useful insight.
> 
> Ok ok, i'm going. DON'T SHOOT! :lmao:



No worries, nobody gets the shots they want everytime.  Believe me, wish I had a dime for every time I shot something in the field and thought, Oh my!  Now that is going to be a spectacular shot!  Then I get home and look at it and it's.. meh.  Yup, not much I can do to save that one.. lol.

Not sure what image editor your using, but one thing I've found that helps a lot in cropping is to load the image in it's original size and copy the entire image in it's original size.  On my D5200 the file size starts at something like 6000 x 4000 - it's just huge.  So I take the original 6000x4000 picture, once I have it copied into the cut and past buffer I then resize the file to 3000 x 2000, and then paste the original 6000x4000 image back into the smaller frame.  Gives you a pretty dramatic crop without IQ loss, and then you can resize the original image from there as needed.  I don't generally need that much of a crop so I usually end up reducing the size of the original, rather than trying to increase it.

The smaller file size is more than enough - way more than enough really for computer backgrounds, viewing on the web, etc - so it works pretty well. 

On the issue of handheld, well pretty much everything I shoot is handheld.  I have a monopod and a tripod but it's a very rare thing for me to carry either.  Trick to shooting handheld is to keep your shutter speed up and learn how to brace yourself when possible to get the steadiest shot you can.  In general you want a shutter speed at least equal to the focal length your shooting at or higher to avoid blur from camera shake, so if your shooting at 200 mm you want a shutter speed that's 1/200 or higher, etc.

When I can I actually prefer to shoot at shutter speeds that are 3x or even 4x my focal length - not always possible but when I have enough light it really does make a noticeable difference in the final results.  So if I'm shooting at 200 mm and I can get my shutter speed up to 1/600 or 1/800 without the ISO getting way to high, I will.

Hope that helps.


----------



## e.rose

memento said:


> Life said:
> 
> 
> 
> @memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I don't feel like I'm causing any trouble. I'm just explaining why people don't like to click random links on an internet forum.
> And no I can't wait until I get home. If I don't want to click a random link at work, why would I want to on my personal computer?
> Clearly your link is legit, judging by other's comments but I'm not interested.
> Good luck in your future!
Click to expand...


Shhhh, it's okay. He's 15 (apparently). He knows everything. :greenpbl:

Didn't *you* have all the logic when you were 15 Momento? I did. What's wrong with you?   :hug::


----------



## Life

e.rose said:


> memento said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Life said:
> 
> 
> 
> @memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I don't feel like I'm causing any trouble. I'm just explaining why people don't like to click random links on an internet forum.
> And no I can't wait until I get home. If I don't want to click a random link at work, why would I want to on my personal computer?
> Clearly your link is legit, judging by other's comments but I'm not interested.
> Good luck in your future!
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Shhhh, it's okay. He's 15 (apparently). He knows everything. :greenpbl:
> 
> Didn't *you* have all the logic when you were 15 Momento? I did. What's wrong with you?   :hug::
Click to expand...

You push it to far. Grow up.


----------



## memento

must... bite... tongue...


----------



## JohnnyWrench

Life said:


> Virgil said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> JohnnyWrench said:
> 
> 
> 
> I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered?  You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.
> 
> My 2 cents.
> 
> 
> 
> You were "put off" because he mentioned God?? Why does that bother you?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> You'll be surprised how many people will avoid someone because of his/her religion.. I've seen people fired for mentioning God, so to me it is no surprise.
Click to expand...


He asked for opinions on his portfolio. I gave mine. Not everyone is a believer in such things and when you lead with that, it sets a tone, an expectation of what's to come. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with what he or others believe, I just don't think it belongs in a portfolio. You wouldn't put that on a resume, why would you lead-off your portfolio with it.



Virgil said:


> JohnnyWrench said:
> 
> 
> 
> I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered?  You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.
> 
> My 2 cents.
> 
> 
> 
> Wow !!! You have 3 flickr pages and not a single comment.
Click to expand...


I made that page less than a week ago. Feel free to be my first.


----------



## fooby

I would personally work on your selection process. Your portfolio should be a small collection of your VERY BEST work, not just everything you shoot. That said, you could easily make a decent more focused portfolio with what's on your page. I'd personally recommend narrowing it down to around 50 images, or say 20 per category if you don't want to show off a particular niche.

May I also mention that it seems like a very bad practice to review somebody's website based only on screenshots - user experience is just as important as appearance. An amazing looking website that is far too slow to load and hard to navigate is useless.


----------



## Life

fooby said:


> I would personally work on your selection process. Your portfolio should be a small collection of your VERY BEST work, not just everything you shoot. That said, you could easily make a decent more focused portfolio with what's on your page. I'd personally recommend narrowing it down to around 50 images, or say 20 per category if you don't want to show off a particular niche.
> 
> May I also mention that it seems like a very bad practice to review somebody's website based only on screenshots - user experience is just as important as appearance. An amazing looking website that is far too slow to load and hard to navigate is useless.


Screen shots? I hope you clicked the link  Also, I did edit it, I put everything in more/different categories. And sorted them as well. So if you didn't see the new version then take a look again and see if it's better


----------



## astroNikon

Maybe you should wait until you finish your website which would contain your best work ?

Many people have critiqued websites .. offering help on improving it, making it more apparent for customers and help drive the customer to want to use services.


----------



## pgriz

"Life", TPF is a forum that's probably 80% social, 20% photography.  Whatever your merits as a photographer, telling long-standing members of the forum (including at least one moderator) to "grow up" or call their comments "nonsense" isn't going to win you many fans or make people want to help you.  There ARE members in this forum who can help a lot, and give excellent advice.  However, your attitude, as expressed in your replies, does not seem (at least to me) to invite people to willingly contribute their time and knowledge so that you can benefit.  Your age is quite irrelevant as far as your abilities are concerned, but it does reveal a certain immaturity in terms of your interaction with others.  As far as limiting your own options (flickr, yahoo) due to your perceptions of the organizations that they belong to, you may find that much of what you come in contact with may be tainted in one form or another.  The way the world works is much dirtier and messier than we usually want to acknowledge.

The band-width limitations you experience are real, but they are irrelevant to most people who have access to the internet. If people find that this is a significant friction point, they may choose to skip interacting with you, even though it may not be directly due to you or be under your control.  You inform people on your site that you are "available for hire".  If you are truly as remote as you imply, does that mean that people will need to trek to your location for photo-shoots, or are you planning to drive out/fly out to wherever the shoot should happen?  Once the shoot is done, people often exchange images to make sure that everyone's on the same page.  If you have limitations on the bandwidth, how will you make that work?  Basically, be very careful about promising what you'll have difficulty delivering.


----------



## Life

If e.rose IS a mod, then that is bad for the forum. I'm not going to suck up to a person, well I don't even need to go there. And yes if someone hires me, I CAN fly, they just need ot pay the ticket. And for hire is also for locals, because i'm advertised locally. So a lot of local people are the ones who do/will see my website. It will be a long time before I come close to needing to fly for photoshoots..

@ astro that will take a while because i'm running into a problem with files on there..


----------



## astroNikon

No  e-rose isn't a moderator.  Look at the avatar/aliases on the left and underneath it can be a description .. like "Watch the "Birdy!
Site Moderator"  and all around great guy.

Is the basic structure of your website up and going  .. sans photos ?


ooh .. duh .. you have a link to it in your signature now.


----------



## e.rose

He said:


pgriz said:


> telling long-standing members of the forum *(including at least one moderator)*



Not, "who IS a moderator".

Hell no, I'm not a moderator. I couldn't put up with all the bullsh*t. 



Life said:


> I'm not going to suck up to a person



Something we can agree on!


----------



## Life

Well then I didn't tell a mod to grow up lmao. And yes the site is up. Just having problems with the pictures.


----------



## hombredelmar

your photos are great!


----------



## Life

e.rose said:


> Hell no, I'm not a moderator. I couldn't put up with all the bullsh*t.


Yeah because you'd have to constantly delete your own posts.


----------



## The_Traveler

Life said:


> e.rose said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hell no, I'm not a moderator. I couldn't put up with all the bullsh*t.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah because you'd have to constantly delete your own posts.
Click to expand...


Whoa
Take a step back and consider that e.rose has been here a long time and has a good reputation for knowing what she is doing.
You, OTOH, seem to know a great deal less and you are quite new here.
If I were you, I'd rethink the idea of saying smart-assy things to people who have only been honest with you.


----------



## ronlane

The_Traveler said:


> Life said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> e.rose said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hell no, I'm not a moderator. I couldn't put up with all the bullsh*t.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah because you'd have to constantly delete your own posts.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Whoa
> Take a step back and consider that e.rose has been here a long time and has a good reputation for knowing what she is doing.
> You, OTOH, seem to know a great deal less and you are quite new here.
> If I were you, I'd rethink the idea of saying smart-assy things to people who have only been honest with you.
Click to expand...



Words from the wise.  Kids (shaking head low and walking away)


----------



## e.rose

Life said:


> e.rose said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hell no, I'm not a moderator. I couldn't put up with all the bullsh*t.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah because you'd have to constantly delete your own posts.
Click to expand...


Now, why would I do that? I own what I say. I own it proudly. 

I also didn't say anything offensive according to TPF standards. If I had, it would have been deleted already. So there's that.


----------



## e.rose

ronlane said:


> The_Traveler said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Life said:
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah because you'd have to constantly delete your own posts.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Whoa
> Take a step back and consider that e.rose has been here a long time and has a good reputation for knowing what she is doing.
> You, OTOH, seem to know a great deal less and you are quite new here.
> If I were you, I'd rethink the idea of saying smart-assy things to people who have only been honest with you.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> Words from the wise.  Kids (shaking head low and walking away)
Click to expand...


KIDS today!


----------



## Life

The_Traveler said:


> Life said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> e.rose said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hell no, I'm not a moderator. I couldn't put up with all the bullsh*t.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah because you'd have to constantly delete your own posts.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Whoa
> Take a step back and consider that e.rose has been here a long time and has a good reputation for knowing what she is doing.
> You, OTOH, seem to know a great deal less and you are quite new here.
> If I were you, I'd rethink the idea of saying smart-assy things to people who have only been honest with you.
Click to expand...

....


----------



## limr

Derrel said:


> And back off on the anti-religion advice too. His beliefs and his faith are NOBODY's business here on TPF.



No one said anything that belittled his faith, only that its prominence on a site about his photography was a bit off-putting. People have every right to their faith and to proclaim their faith. People also have every right to be put off by it.



Life said:


> Also, if you're offended by my very non-offensive remark, telling you exactly why you weren't getting comments, you better hold onto your hat. Because there are TONS of intentionally offensive people here. " was all a *waist *of your time...If you didn't want a "well thought out response" then you could have just waited until you are ready, and then post. It doesn't matter if I push. And *i'm* not "offended"*.* I just don't understand *some of the whole* point of posting stupid remarks like that. It doesn't show *professionalize *or *give you a good face*. Even with a tons of *smiley's *
> 
> I'm here to learn.



I've highlighted your errors in the above post. I don't do this to be mean or petty, but actually because you asked for comments on your website and I have one piece of advice if you want your work and website to look professional: *proofread. *I saw errors similar to this on your website. Plural words, for example, do NOT take an apostrophe. If you ever get to the point that you want to charge for your services, errors like this on anything that represents you as a professional - a website, a flyer, a contract, an advertisement - are absolutely going to count against you. Get used to it now and it will be easier later. And yes, you should proofread more carefully even in the less formal contexts, like a forum. Make it a practice to always conduct yourself professionally, not only with the actual photography, but also with the way you express and conduct yourself, because you never know what's going to come back and bite you in the ass.



pgriz said:


> "Life", TPF is a forum that's probably 80% social, 20% photography.  Whatever your merits as a photographer, telling long-standing members of the forum (including at least one moderator) to "grow up" or call their comments "nonsense" isn't going to win you many fans or make people want to help you.  There ARE members in this forum who can help a lot, and give excellent advice.  However, your attitude, as expressed in your replies, does not seem (at least to me) to invite people to willingly contribute their time and knowledge so that you can benefit.  Your age is quite irrelevant as far as your abilities are concerned, but it does reveal a certain immaturity in terms of your interaction with others.  As far as limiting your own options (flickr, yahoo) due to your perceptions of the organizations that they belong to, you may find that much of what you come in contact with may be tainted in one form or another.  The way the world works is much dirtier and messier than we usually want to acknowledge.
> 
> The band-width limitations you experience are real, but they are irrelevant to most people who have access to the internet. If people find that this is a significant friction point, they may choose to skip interacting with you, even though it may not be directly due to you or be under your control.  You inform people on your site that you are "available for hire".  If you are truly as remote as you imply, does that mean that people will need to trek to your location for photo-shoots, or are you planning to drive out/fly out to wherever the shoot should happen?  Once the shoot is done, people often exchange images to make sure that everyone's on the same page.  If you have limitations on the bandwidth, how will you make that work?  Basically, be very careful about promising what you'll have difficulty delivering.



Listen to pgriz. He's got a long record of being the voice of reason and wisdom.


----------



## limr

Life said:


> .....





limr said:


> *Make it a practice to always conduct yourself professionally, not only with the actual photography, but also with the way you express and conduct yourself,* because you never know what's going to come back and bite you in the ass.



Or not.


----------



## e.rose

Life said:


> .....



WHOA, whoa, whoa...

Who the hell is running around here telling people I'm *not* a smartass?!

YOU FESS UP NOW.

I have a reputation to keep and you're RUINING it.

One of you told this poor kid I'm not a smartass, and I'm highly offended at your lies.

.
.
.
.

Also, hate to break it to you kiddo, but I've probably been reported more times than the amount of posts you have. And it's probably been mostly from people who didn't like the way I told them their portfolios were "all over the place."

Or from people who didn't like the way I said, "Hey... your image is a little underexposed", or "You missed focus on that one."


----------



## tirediron

... and we're done here!

OP:  Pleae keep your comments polite and respectful.  You are free to disagree with anything you like, but remember that TPF is a privately owned entity.  If you don't like the advice you received, you are free to disagree and/or go elsewhere until you find someone who agrees with you.


----------

