http://www.jbmtbmedia.co.uk/JBMTB_Media/Home.html

Its not exactly paintball 😉

Nice use of the apostrophe on the site.

NOT!

I think you need a proof reader….

Serious suggestion: take it offline until you’ve proof read it and also worked out the exact purpose of an apostrophe…

videos (not video’s), photos (not photo’s) – the list goes on.

I haven’t really read the text, white on black make my eyes a bit funny! What I would say is that on your main logo thing on the home and contact pages, make the email address clickable, try not to embed text into images where possible!

edit: or better yet remove your email address from the site and create a contact page that uses a form, will help avoid spam!

Really trying not to be disparaging about this but…
You really need a proof reader – so many spelling mistakes and typos it’s not funny.
A d90 is not a professional video or stills camera – it is an old consumer camera with no video autofocus or decent audio recording capabilities.
Your logo and site still looks like it has more to do with paintball than mountain biking
Your design and photography skills need work.

Your enthusiasm is to be applauded, but that can only take you so far

And I think maybe you should look at getting rid of either the

Using high end professional DSLR camera’s

or the equipment page as it is a bit of a contradiction, D90 isn’t a high end DSLR I’m afraid, it’s mid range. That would put me off.

EDIT, beaten to it by Justin

There’s nothing wrong with using a D90 by the way – a friend of mine does excellent pro work using a Canon 40D and I’ve had plenty of pics published from a 50D as well but saying it’s a pro model is pushing things a bit…

+1 about the apostrophe’s 😉

We wish to keep things simple and to the point

300 words saying not very much suggests otherwise…

To be honest, I’m not sure what it is you’re trying to sell. The website copy reads that you have access to a lot of equipment but, in my experience of commissioning photography, it’s no the equipment we care about, it’s the artistic and technical capability. In reality, I could find many, many amateurs with much more expensive equipment than you describe but they wouldn’t be able to give me the results I need.

Spend more time on the copy, emphasising your photographic skills, not the equipment.

Rachel

Some of the terminology needs changing to be more captivating:-

We wish to keep things simple and to the point whilst dealing with customers and clients, meaning more time is spent doing the work rather than us coming back to you with the small details. We deal with everything our end and will keep in touch through out any project making you aware of where we both stand.

Could be

We focus on keeping things simple by maximising our time in addition to keeping the client involved in any key decision making throughout project inception and execution.

Or something like that

thanks guys, letting you guys flame on it so i can fine tune it, its my first website so i’m expecting loads to be wrong

I’m not flaming on it, and I don’t think anyone else is. The flaws on the website in question are basic and should be put right before going any further.

Seriously, you can take all this as flaming, or, you can take it as advice.

I’m not even getting onto the products you are selling – your design, photography and video all need work. Go and look at some mtb videos and photos, and seriously tell me you think yours are as good.

I’m sorry, and it sounds painfully harsh, but it’s true.

Not a problem with the site as such but why do you want to leave the photo printing to the customer? I would assume that you would need to increase your shoot prices to compensate for the fact that they’re leaving with a disc full of images which they can do what they want with?

The obvious alternative is to reduce the shoot costs but only include a very basic set of prints with the option to buy more/the cd.

Fair play to giving it a go, but take that site down. Check it thoroughly, remove the excessive ‘!’, no offence, but get much better work under the design section. Bad design, logo, layout, fonts. Looks like a take away menu. Photography and video looks very average and flat. And overall the site needs a serious redesign. I work in the world of advertising and can see so many mistakes, spelling mistakes, and bad layout mistakes. Sorry, but it does not encourage confidence at all.

gave up after

All of this ring trues under our motto

Good luck.

You need evidence of quality photography/videography which you appear to lack.

I’d forget about making money from your camera until you have the basics nailed.

Beaten to it by richpips. ^^
You need a gallery on there showcasing your work – you can pretty much do away with all the flowery words and phrases if you’ve got a few dozen top quality pictures on there.

“high quality pictures for peanuts”

What could go wrong?

Could you tell me why I should advertise with you?

Note you also have no SEO / poorly written on you apple with free template on there as well.

The worst thing is, you’ve placed the link on a really high value website, so far as Google goes. So, whenever people search for it, they will find this thread is one of the results. People will read this and wonder…

oops

Rachel

Just to echo the positive sentiments, good on ya for stepping up and putting yourself out there – best of luck with it all.

That said, please, please don’t go near anyone’s wedding quite yet – I held off on the previous two threads, but if you’re going to shoot a one off day, you’re going to need two or three of everything, for when they get knocked over by kids, get pints spilt over them or get nicked (all these things have happened to my cameras / lights at weddings!).

Commercial stuff can generally be re-scheduled – weddings not…. Not knocking you – just advising a spot of caution 🙂

Going back to SEO. Make your page titles meaningful, Home, Prices, Equipment etc just don’t cut it with Google.

Small thing: on the prices page, the nav bar at the top says “prices” but the title of the page and the text of the page itself read “price”. And not wanting to be a smartarse but you don’t state any prices.

“Any Business needs good representation, one often overlooked is visual.” A representation is often overlooked? That makes no sense.

I can’t download the flyer to get a better look at it. The photo on the sample flyer is the same as one of the two photos in your portfolio. The design of the flyer is WOB, the same as your website. Perhaps you should show more examples of your work so people feel a bit more comfortable with it.

This might sound a bit petty/vindictive but if you’re going to be in the design and photography business people will expect your own work to be primo fantastic.

I must admit, im intrigued to see this…you have only just bought the camera having only just borrowed an SLR from a friend before, and now you’re going to ask for money for your shots?!

I have been taking photos for a while, have a D90, and personally wouldnt dare accept to do a wedding shoot, or for that matter charge for any of my photos. But if you feel that you are a natural, and that you now know your camera inside out and are sure and certain that you know how to cope with all weather and light situations then go for it.

I know that we unfortunately wouldnt have used you for our wedding..not enough experience really. Not only with actual photo work, but your camera!

Want to advertise
here?

…on the front page, WTF?

I think the website looks alright, but I’m no visual afficionado (sp?) when it comes to websites and things like that.

One thing I like to see on photographers websites is an “about me/us” page. Gives you a bit of background on the person you’re hiring and inspires a little confidence as you get to know a bit about them. Maybe a portrait on there with you holding your camera in a suggestive way (suggesting you can take photos, not anything else).

As others have said, put more pictures up. Get rid of that advertising thing on the front page and put some photos on instead, maybe arranged in a classy way (tessalated?) which again tells people you can take photos and you know how to design stuff.

I’d love to start my own photo business but don’t yet have the balls to do it (or the equipment, and some might say the skill too). So good on yer for getting out there. Good luck!

I’d bin the kit list. You have (for someone advertising their services as a photographer) pretty much stuff all kit aside from a cheaper consumer video camera and a DSLR with a kit lens. To me, it looks like someone just starting out on a hobby rather than a professional outfit. Your equipment page goes on to state “What more could you need?”. Well, there’s actually a hell of a lot of stuff you could add!

I’d also change the picture on the home page. It’s pretty bland, with no points of interest. The only thing that stands out on that for me is that the horizon is not level. You’re trying to promote yourself here, so you can’t allow basic errors like this to be evident.

As others have said, you bought a mid-range DSLR a week ago – that doesn’t make you a pro photographer. Not knocking the enthusiasm, it’s great to see but most people get into this kind of thing almost by stealth.

Get out and take pictures, join a photography club, be super critical of your own work, get a Flickr account and organise it properly with Sets, Galleries etc and start getting your work out there. Build up the kit you’ve got gradually as you learn how to use it and you’ll find that a few jobs start coming your way.

Thinking you can buy a DSLR and charge for wedding shoots is a bit naive and I suspect anyone who does employ you would be a bit surprised to find a “pro” turning up with a D90 and a kit lens.

Problem with photography is that everyone has a cameraphone now, pics can be emailed/Facebooked round the world in seconds. This means that a) people think it’s easy and b) no-one can see the point in employing someone for it. There are so many people at events now taking pics for free, uploading them to websites etc that trying to charge for it means you have to be very good and very well known.

I think the site simply needs more images (and ones that can be enlarged). It isn’t a bad site (although the tone of voice is a bit naff and the punctuation is awful).

But you are selling photography and design services but all the user can see are images not much larger than thumbnails.

Get rid of the exclamation marks, they just look unprofessional.

for example, take a look at the photo post on here, there is some real quality work in there..

I would suggest focusing on one thing too, leave the poster/flyer design alone and concentrate on your photography.

+1 for a lot of the above.

First of all I think it’s great that you are just getting on with it and showing a lot of enthusiasm. I think you have set-up a good starting point to move on from.
But, I would class the pics on your site as snaps, and can’t see anyone paying for them. As mentioned already, access to DSLRs has never been easier and there are plenty of people out there who can take a good pic. Have you looked on the ‘photo’s I have taken recently that I’m proud of’ thread. Some of the stuff on there is absolutely stunning.

As mentioned, your kit list looks basic at best and the chainlink fence pic doesn’t really work.

Looking at the video page, I like the idea of the cable cam, but I wouldn’t have it on the site titled as ‘testing’. You should have an example of your best work on there, not a test. And in that video, the camera is pointing away from the rider’s faces so you can only see there shoulders/backs as they come past. Also there’s no kind of fade-out at the end of the vid, it just ends up with the camera ‘driving’ behind a bank of grass.
Have you looked at the mid-week movies on here?? Even the amateur stuff that gets sent in is really well shot with nice lighting, thoughtful angles etc.

On your design page, I’d change the ‘brief’ description from ‘small & basic’ and also things like ‘logo: design basic’. If I was paying for a design service I wouldn’t be wanting ‘basic’ anything.
Also the fact that you can’t enlarge the flyer means that I can’t look at it to make an assessment as to how good it actually is. This would put me off, as you’ve given me a taster, but not allowed me to delve a little deeper.

This post summed up my inital feelings quite well:

scotia – Member
I must admit, im intrigued to see this…you have only just bought the camera having only just borrowed an SLR from a friend before, and now you’re going to ask for money for your shots?!

I have been taking photos for a while, have a D90, and personally wouldnt dare accept to do a wedding shoot, or for that matter charge for any of my photos. But if you feel that you are a natural, and that you now know your camera inside out and are sure and certain that you know how to cope with all weather and light situations then go for it.

This means that a) people think it’s easy and b) no-one can see the point in employing someone for it.

This is very true.
I have a friend who is a prize winning wedding photographer and can’t get work.
I have just closed down a weekend business as it wasn’t making the sales, I guess I should take the fact the competition was giving away his photos as a compliment.
Take the comments here how you like, but also be aware that business is going to be cut-throat and the harsh words here should be helping you toughen up.
Go away and spend the week doing a very deep and truthful personal SWOT analysis.
Your general enthusiasm and attitude are both positive points.
Onwards and upwards.

And I have never heard of anyone who will design a leaflet but not handle the print. Fair enough with photography – some people like to know they have the ownership of the original so they can repeat print, but I would really consider offering a print service as lots of people will want a full service, not have to deal with someone else to print the images or leaflet etc.

This business needs YOU…

You are a little ray of sunshine in an otherwise dull and grey world TSY, I thank you.