I need to have a new website built for my work, so I need to find some examples of good looking photographers’ websites, to show the lad that’s going to be doing all the boring stuff that makes it work. Thought it might be good to ask on here. I’ve got a few in mind, but I’d welcme any examples anyone on here might have. Your own, even!

One of my faves http://www.natezeman.com/

Thanks Dan86.

Only ONE example so far? I’m surprised!

Any more?

Most of my fav photographers don’t have very good websites, so I can’t say I’ve ever gone looking for the ones with good websites.

I find most frustrating to navigate. Many try to be too clever.

One thing I can’t stand is when a site crops all the thumbnails to the same aspect-ratio. Unfortunately, this is the easiest way to get a grid view, so it’s quite common.

What type of work do you do? Assuming you are a photographer what type of photography do you do? Good looking is a very subjective brief.

I’d taken clear, functional and easy to navigate over fancy looking any day of the week.

to show the lad that’s going to be doing all the boring stuff that makes it work.

I hope your being facetious, if not that’s a pretty shit attitude to take into any kind of collaboration.

I find most frustrating to navigate. Many try to be too clever.

Very much so.

The guy who did our wedding photos went pro and this is his site…
Magnus Bogucki

Dan Milner’s site is pretty nice too…
Dan Milner

One more, from my bookmarks…
Art Brewer

I mean even Flickr can’t get a good balance on their thumbnail views and they must have a whole team working on that! Their layout makes landscape images 2-3 times as big as portrait!

“What type of work do you do? Assuming you are a photographer what type of photography do you do? Good looking is a very subjective brief.”

Mainly portraiture/reportage, a bit of wildlife stuff, and I used to do quite a lot of architectural photography. So, a fair mix. My whole portfolio is under revision at the moment, so what goes in could change a fair bit until I’m happy with it. I’m not a ‘professional’, but I do want something that is accessible on various platforms, not resource heavy, and easy to navigate. Basically, what anyone would want really!

“I hope your being facetious, if not that’s a pretty shit attitude to take into any kind of collaboration.”

That’s just my view. I find the technical stuff of websites interminably boring. Fortunately, the lad finds it fascinating, so it’s all good! 🙂

I liked the Art Brewer site, Beanum. Mainly because the content is of superior quality to the other two though (in my opinion). The wedding one made me feel nauseous.

Most of my fav photographers don’t have very good websites, so I can’t say I’ve ever gone looking for the ones with good websites.

I have to say that this is so true.

Clodhopper have you looked at Wix and Squarespace? Having control yourself is so much better than being at someone else’s behest. These two services are really very good and make setting something up incredibly simple.

My site is built using Squarespace, specifically using their ‘Momentum’ template but if you go onto their site, you can browse templates by application so they have a load of customer’s sites that use a given template you can see live.

When it comes to photography, I honestly think that simple is best. I have a load of sites that I really like (but mostly because of the work) so I will add these to this post (or email me directly) and I can share them with you.

“Clodhopper have you looked at Wix and Squarespace?”

I hadn’t, but I will. Thanks. A quick peek looked promising.

“Having control yourself is so much better than being at someone else’s behest.”

Tbh it’s a few quid for the lad, and some experience gained on both sides. The idea was to find some good examples, discuss the various merits, then bash something up that involved the best aspects of the sites I like. For example, I like the following cursor directional arrows thing on the Art Brewer site. I’ll say what I like, and he can tell me how easy/difficult it is, or if it will work on ‘phones, tablets, MS-DOS machines* etc.

*I am not worried about it working in MS-DOS. 😀

Oh, feel free to post anything up on here; it will only add to the ‘discussion’.

Paul van Bueren

Nial McDiarmid

Laura Panack

Anna Hardy

Chad Wadsworth

Oh thanks Geetee, I was hoping you’d be along! 🙂

I’ve got a collection of example sites to discuss with the lad now. He thinks bits of code can be copied from aspects of sites that I like. I suppose it’s a bit like taking bits off several bikes to make a new one.

Don’t have a slide show.
If you want to make money from it then do have contact details on the front page.
Simpler is better, up to the point where you’ve removed the useful bits.

I prefer the ‘one page’ approach, rather than having several separate pages for different albums, contact details etc. So yes I think having contact details on the ‘home’ page is the best way. Adopting a principle of Occam’s Razor in regards to various elements, is an essential part of the process. Re ‘slide shows’; I am really not a fan of automatically playing things; I prefer to browse at my own speed.

Probably not quite what you’re looking for but my brother does food photography (and a blog) so this is a chance to give him a plug 🙂

Le Petit Oeuf

There’s a link to his Instagram & Flickr feeds on the main page.

Personally, I don’t like his website. Things happening in front of me, beyond my control. Some splash screen popping up over the main content. Irritating. The standard of photography is good, but it’s not a website I’d want to spend any time on, purely down to the irritating way it loads up. Sorry.

have you tried looking at some wordpress templates?

I’ve had a go with Koken, rather simple effort though

http://www.polarisandy.com

So simple, all I can see is a black screen with some white text top and bottom. 😕

So, having perused literally hundreds of websites, I’ve come up with a rough idea of a few styles I like. Was messing about in Photoshop to create a blurry overlay on mouseover. Will try to knock something up in Dreamweaver later, to see if/how it will work.

Then there’s mobile devices; some of the above suggestions simply do not work on ‘phones. That’s very important. Functionality is key. No good having a beautiful website, if people can’t access it’s content.

Then there’s mobile devices; some of the above suggestions simply do not work on ‘phones.

Mine works really well in that regard. Automatically adaptes to a mobile environment and makes everything still really accessible. Mine of course being built using Squarespace.

Just out of interest, what do you think you’ll get by having someone build something specifically for you versus using a pre-built template based service like Squarespace or Wix?

Keep in mind that these services are so simply to use that you can update your site any time you like in minutes. If you’re beholden to someone else doing that for you, it’s going to make your site very static.

Nothing against online web services. Happy to pay for someone to help me out though. A play with Wix yesterday, taught me that if I want it looking/functioning exactly as I want, I’ll probably need someone to do a bit of extra technical stuff. The Wix website suggests some really good looking sites, but the actual templates don’t offer the same. Plus I can get someone else to do some ultra-secure stuff so it can’t be hacked.

Needed an update installed

http://www.polarisandy.com

should work now…

So, having perused literally hundreds of websites, I’ve come up with a rough idea of a few styles I like. Was messing about in Photoshop to create a blurry overlay on mouseover. Will try to knock something up in Dreamweaver later, to see if/how it will work.

I’m in a similar position. TBH I’m almost resigned to going down down the WP / Koken / Squarespace route purely because they’re adaptive. I can usually sort the CSS to alter the bits and pieces I want, but the whole web/interactive thing is moving so fast I don’t have the time or inclination to stay in touch.

Should add, print designer by trade, (previously) reasonable amateur photographer. Current (read out of date) homemade photo page using Flickr feed: neilcain.co.uk/photography

If you want an adaptive website, [the lad should] look at Bootstrap.

http://getbootstrap.com/

I used piwigo which appears to be a decent freeware php package for putting together a photography site.

We’re looking at some online services with a view to seeing what can be changed if necessary. so far, some things I want aren’t possible in a templated site, although what I want might not actually work very well anyway. 😀