Hello, as of a couple weeks ago I just got a website up. It's basically a portfolio of the different kind of work I do: photography, photo illustration, and retouching.

http://devonwillson.com

I don't have much information up except my email, does this bother anyone? I'm not sure if I should add more information or let the images do the talking.

Thanks in advance for taking a glance.
Devon

Welcome to RetouchPro, Devon!

I went to your web page and as far as I can see it is well concepted, but S.L.O.W!!! I don't know if it is your host server or your site itself (did you use high res graphics, because they take FOREVER to load and I'm running at 5Mps DSL.?) It's so slow, I don't want to look at any more of your site than the one or two retouches that I did look at.

Site is clean and simple, but the images, for the size on screen take way way too long to load

Ah yes I'm pretty sure it's the server. The images themselves are saved for web and small, so I'll probably need to look into changing servers. Maybe right now it's being particularly slow as well :/
Thanks!
Devon

Layout looks good. Definitely a slow site. If you are looking to change, tigertech.net has been very good to me and friends of mine.

Thanks! I'll check that out :)

pm me if you are going to go with them. i'd like a referral. They may not be the cheapest, but they have excellent customer service, fast servers and never go down.

I love your website, the pictures are great.
You really had a great style :)
It's not slow in here...

wow, it IS slow... i'm at work which has a pretty good connection and it's been about a minute and still can't see it....actually it's given up. I'll have a look when i get home, what is it built with? HTML, flash?

Anyway, about having no text on your website. The only problem that you may have is that no one will find it using a search engine. The way they work is by looking through the text on each page and decide whether the information is relevant to your search. And as this is largely done by computers, they are unable to recognise images. This is also a problem for sites made with flash because flash files are technically annimations which is the same problem as being made up with pictures - and therefore have to make an HTML version to go alongside the flash one. Google's new software is also now able to recognise the relevance of word combinations, so just putting keywords in the meta fields is becoming obsolete.

If this isn't a massive concern, then it doesn't matter. Personally i rely more on handing out business cards and word of mouth, or posting links directly to my website. But saying that, it is usefull for people to find me without having to do any of the work myself. It is always tempting to let the images speak for themselves, but a bit of text can go a long way to keep people interested.

hope this is usefull,
Mike

it works fine actually, VERY slick by the way. Great images!

Hmm in general I've been hearing that it's slow from half the people that visit, and the other half has no problem. I'm looking into other servers now and will definitely change. I was thinking about the search engines and having no text, but I rely on business cards and other forms of promotion as well. Although I do need to figure out how to add meta tags, possibly that will help?
Thanks everyone for your input. I really appreciate it!
Devon

It loaded a little slow for me, but not bad. I'm using Firefox with Vista.

The photos are beautiful.

I too am looking into a website for all the pictures I take at soccer events and dance competitions, but haven't been able to justify the costs.

I would find words that are google "friendly". As I told a friend who recently started a web site for her digital layouts for scrapbookers - make sure your wording is appealing to all age groups who surf the web.