[turtle]

If you're gonna leave the music up then this is the highest I'd let it start. Thanks for that change. You might want to add a feedback section to your site too, then you'd see if you get any comments from other "real world" users too.

[danielsza]

Originally Posted by turtle2472 I like the hiding gallery thumbnails too, but wonder if you can make one gallery hide again when opening a new gallery rather than have the page get really long.

This now works per turtle's suggestion...

The ie6 issue (the scroll bars in the top frame) should be fixed...

[iFerret]

Daniel, I know this is going to make you scream, but I'm not a fan of the music either. The music itself is not too bad, but I do not like the fact that it autoplays and continues playing. Is there a particular reason you have the music?

As a web designer, I must also admonish your use of frames.

Other than that, your site is improving every time I look at it. I know you seem to be getting a hard time, but I think we're just trying to help (like you asked) rather than be horrible.

[Swox]

Yeah, I want to clarify too that I wasn't posting comments to be a prick, and I don't think anyone else was. Maybe it's my upbringing - praise is useless; point out the problems so they can be fixed .

[Bryson]

*Danger: Forced Metaphor ahead.*

Hey guys! I'm starting a restaraunt. Here's the main dish I'll use to entice people in:

It's a delicious fillet mignon, with dauphinoise potatoes, delicately cooked asparagus and a great big turd on the top. What do you think?

Oh, you don't like the turd? Good point - it was just some turd I found on the street. I've replaced it with a turd that I lovingly squeezed out specially.

Still don't like the turd. Ok, I've removed the turd, and just spread the fillet with a smearing of hand-selected shit.

You're not so sure about the smearing? Ok, now I've just spread the tiniest bit of the highest quality shit on the fillet. It's spread really thinly now. That's great now, isn't it?

Or, no matter what I do, and no matter what the rest of the content is, has it still got shit all over it?

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by danielsza 1) Yes I have a license for all the music I play... It wasn't that much $300 for a 99 years for ten songs...

Well, that explains it. Face it, you made a poor choice. You shouldn't have paid $300 to annoy people, but it's over now. If you're worth dick as a photographer, you'll make well more than that at your next wedding. Swallow the loss and let it go.

That said, I got married this past summer. We got married almost 100 miles from home, so Web sites were very important for photographers. If I'd visited your site, I would have browsed away immediately because I was annoyed. Do you really want to lose business because of that?

Or, look at it another way: Is that going to gain you more customers than it loses for you? That's what your Web site needs to be about, functionally. If something doesn't gain you work, get rid of it.

[Bryson]

Sunk Costs

[danielsza]

It doesn't have anything to do with $300.00... It's not much money, considering what I spent on other things.

I don't think anyone is trying to be a prick...

I understand that most people here don't like the music...

I also don't think most people here would be good clients for me...

When it comes to the design and code, there is lots of knowledge and experience here. So that is very valuable.

Ultimately, everything I do, show, write, etc... should represent me. At this time I believe this is the best thing.

If at a later point I don't feel it's working I'll make changes then.

[Fahrenheit]

Well, kinda, like, why ask for a critique?

Every person on here is saying they don't like the music. Even if we are not your customer base, that tells you nothing?

When I am using the net, I have music on in the background from iTunes or whatever. If your music choice is trying to fight it, I'm going to close your webpage, not my iTunes.

[danielsza]

I asked... to find out what everyone thought...

and lots of what has been said is very helpful... I've made many changes based on what I heard from here... (if we go back and look where I started from... to what I have now).

But the music is going to stay... so I don't think we need another 100 posts or so saying that the music should go...

I understand what everyone (almost, at least thegeriatric thinks it's good) is saying...

[Enki]

I respect your decision to keep the music, even if I think it is a bad one.

But by your same logic, if you still want feedback, you still get to deal with the 'music is a bad choice' posts. Can't have it both ways.

By the way, your updated watermark and positioning is nice. See sentences one and two for further feedback.

[FFL]

Originally Posted by danielsza I asked... to find out what everyone thought... and lots of what has been said is very helpful... I've made many changes based on what I heard from here... (if we go back and look where I started from... to what I have now). But the music is going to stay... so I don't think we need another 100 posts or so saying that the music should go... I understand what everyone (almost, at least thegeriatric thinks it's good) is saying...

Could you give us an idea of exactly what you believe the music ADDS to your site, besides the fact that you like it yourself? What's the upside of including the music?

I'm still not sure what it is about the music that you think balances out the annoyance factor that most Internet users (not just us AN geeks) have with auto-playing music.

[Gargoyle]

Originally Posted by danielsza I understand that most people here don't like the music...

It's not a case of not liking the music, but any website that automatically plays any music or sound effects.

The fact is that a very large number of visitors to any website will be doing so from work, probably on the side while they are working on other stuff. Nothing is going to make them close the browser faster than a site that draws attention to the possibility that they are not putting 120% effort into the boring day job.

If you are not going to heed the advice of people more experienced than yourself; then why bother asking? While your there, forget all the HTML and just save a bunch of bmp images of each page so your visitors have a 3meg download to go with the music.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by danielsza I also don't think most people here would be good clients for me...

Really?

Originally Posted by Wyatt That said, I got married this past summer. We got married almost 100 miles from home, so Web sites were very important for photographers. If I'd visited your site, I would have browsed away immediately because I was annoyed. Do you really want to lose business because of that?.

Huh. I think it looks like I could have been a client of yours. In fact, I think everyone who's getting married is a potential client. Or everyone whose kids or friends are getting married. Or their parents.

That said, I respect your right to make your own decision, no matter how stupid I think that decision is. Just know that you are likely to lose business. You're a photographer. Until you become famous, everyone is a potential customer. Everyone.

I wish you every success. I honestly do. I hope that consciously deciding to exclude people from your customer base when you're starting out doesn't kill your business.

[torifile]

The issue for me isn't necessarily the music, but the lengths you've got to go through to keep the music playing - frames. That's a very bad design/usability choice and goes right to the heart of what you're soliciting here.

Frames are bad. End of story. There's nearly nothing redeeming about them. Music is making you use frames. Therefore, the music is a bad decision.

[fiddler]

Another vote for ditching the music. My immediate reaction to such sites is an insta-close. I will not bother to look on the page to search for the stop button, nor will I go out of my way to mute the sound on my whole computer. I'll just leave. A lost customer. Because you were asking for a critique I took a longer look at the site, and it took me AGES to see the little grey music controls at the top. Bad bad bad.

Ok few more thoughts. The friend's suggestion for a different colour scheme was a good one. The curent brown is, to my taste, a bit grim. Put it this way - the current colour scheme would not be so inappropriate for funeral photos. Something more optimistic would be more inviting. The current photo with the couple wearing jeans in front of the graffiti wall? Doesn't fit at ALL. Please change.

Somebody has already mentioned the HOME PAGE graphic not lining up with the text. Another viewpoint - is it really necessary to announce to people that this page that they have navigated to is really in fact, a HOME PAGE? Consider removing that heading altogether and reorganizing the layout a bit. Alternatively you can think of a heading that is more descriptive, as opposed to one which is merely taking up space.

Somehow the navigation links in the right side don't blend well. I'd investigate different fonts, line spacings, and trying it again without underlines.

Stylistically speaking,

Daniel Szajkowksi Photography specializes in wedding photography. And is commited to meeting you and your families photograpic needs.

This needs to be one sentence, not a sentence + a fragment.

[ezkcdude]

So, I photochopped a bit and came up with this:



People want to see photos on a photographer's website. That should be the first thing they see. Put the text on your "Contact" page. Remember, KISS.

[iFerret]

Hmm I like the idea of having more photos on the front page, I don't know if I like the way ezkcdude has done it.
The navigation text looks ugly IMO, and the asterisk is nasty. I'm a fan of a more subtle, say using italics or bold or a soft glow to mark the current page.

The photos have also covered up the design motif thing at the bottom of the page. There's enough of it left to be annoying, but not enough to look good.

I know you just photochopped it, but just my opinion.

I also agree with ezkcdude's KISS statement - it's a really good idea. I also agree with the photos being most important.

With the navigation bar thing, I don't know about the bride at the bottom. I like her, but I wonder if she should stick to the bottom of the page, seeing as she has a flat edge. She does on the homepage, but on the portfolio page, once you open a gallery, there is an expanse of place below her.

Once again, I must comment on the music... Still don't like it - I had my MacBook speakers turned on (I wasn't listening to anything) but they were up. I opened the site to have a look to compare it to ezkcdude's mockup, and BOOM! Out came the music. It wasn't bad music, but I was rushing for the mute button ASAP when I heard it. I don't like being surprised by music, but that's just my thoughts (and a continuation of the echoes in here regarding the music I guess)

[ezkcdude]

Originally Posted by iFerret I know you just photochopped it, but just my opinion.

It's not like he's paying me! Sheesh.

Seriously, though, except for the menu items, all those images were taken directly from his website. On the "Portfolio" page, the photos are already covering up that "design motif" - it wasn't something I covered up. I basically just spliced his current home page with the wedding picture page - and changed up the menu fonts a bit. I actually kind of like the asterisk - but I know OS X folks have problems with glowing dots hi-liting menu items (*cough*Leopardtaskbar*cough).

Edit: I edited the image above with "tabs". I think it looks a bit more stylish and "portfolio-ish".

[colivigan]

First time I've popped into this thread.

I haven't looked at your site, but I'll agree with others here that auto-playing music is a bad idea. Nothing makes me hit my back button faster.

It has nothing to do with what your taste in music happens to be, It's just unprofessional. It's like myspace.

Dan,

I admire your willingness to allow such ongoing input to your website. It is deveolping to be very attractive.

While I share the oft-repeated perspective about music on websites, it seems that brides-to-be do not. I would retain music but keep it in just your portfolio pages and image viewer.

SEO is important to me so I would not have frames. Since your blog is WordPress, have you considered just using WP for the entire website platform? Along the SEO topic I would even add some more relevant content to your main page.

-Marc

[Fahrenheit]

If you insist on having music, please at least have it autofade up after a few seconds. The surprise rape thing is unattractive.