This is a good first published edition, but I agree that it has a few problems.
IE 5.5, Win2k:
The horizontal borders are really bad. Go grab the good digital photos they have and reduce them down to the same size and make a horizontal bar out of their work to show it off. Or something else. I would be fine with deleting them altogether.
I Find it strange that I can't click on top menu text that was actually hidden to me because it blends into the border. This also hurts the site in the search engines. You should always accompany image links with (if not opt for) text links.
The main image click is broken (as pointed out).
I think I understand the Senior Pictures and the possible misinterpretation, but I think that's right, that's how that is refered to in that industry and at school. But perhaps a little blurp on the front page with "Highschool Senior" like:
We specialize in wedding photography, high school senior portraits...
-might clear that up.
** Our calendar fills quickly for...
The double asterisks have me looking all over the page as if this is the condition for some offer. This is ingrained by commercialism.
For instance:
FREE WEB HOSTING*
FREE DOMAIN NAME**
(long contents here with sales pitch)
*First 500 MB of traffic free, $10.00 per GB charged thereafter. This is in fine print.
**First year only. Domain renewals are $50.00 per year. Also in fine print.
2004© - Red Snapper Photography (Jeff & Rachell Hoover & Creative Daze Website Design )
This is the standard copyright statement:
Business Name © YEAR
© Business Name, YEAR
There are many versions, but I have never seen yours before. It doesn't matter what you have, it's enforceable, but it would look more professional if it followed the rules (see the library of congress). I would change it to read:
© 2004 Red Snapper Photography. Website design by Creative Daze Website Design.
-The Copyright statement is correct. The design statement is separate and doesn't look like Jeff & Rachell Hoover, who work for Red Snapper Photography, also run Creative Daze Website Design.
The design statement only includes necessary info which are keywords, as a plus, and there is no reason to have names there, promote the company, not the artist. Unless this company was working with these two artists? Then it still needs to be seperate.
There are some things that should work as traditionally as they have always. When I click on Modeling I read the text there...
If you have any questions at all, please contact me.
...but "contact me" is not a link and so you have to search for it. The top ones don't work (seemingly), and this is frustrating for the user.
Jeepers, I see where the bad copyright statements come from. It's on the modeling photos. Nice looking gal.
When I click on thumbnails the photos don't open in the same window. No biggie, just a preference. I prefer the same window.
I would use a better format for displaying the image thumbnails. Group like photos, etc..
From the Modeling page (thumbnails), I can't click on the logo (or anything else) to return home because it was loaded as a new page. I understand why the photos load in a new page, why this one? As a user I wonder why I can't navigate because I forgot that this page loaded as a new one. This is a usability issue.
Oh, I can't click the logo to return home on any page. That's an oversight, IMHO.
Pricing page:
Individual Print Pricing is; **Images can be printed on Canvas and Art Print archival paper, please contact us for those prices.
That note should appear below the prices that are listed, not on the same line as the header.
I'm kind of finding navigation frustrating on this site. Links should be within the textual content when appropriate.
Sports:
Never use an Under Construction or Coming Soon page. If it isn't done, don't put it online.
Portraits:
Needs more textual content.
Everywhere:
The Red titles and headers are too dark for a black background. Make them brighter or find another color. Also, without visible links (aside from the bottom) this makes the red text look like links. I know it's supposed to match the logo colors, and it does, but that needs to be addressed as well. My monitor is brighter than most.
-Well some ideas to think about for you. Hope it's taken as insight and not crabby criticsm. As I said, you are on the right track, but a designer has to guide the clientele and help them chose the best path, not blindly follow the clientele (who usually has less of an art education) down the wrong design road.
