Comments and criticism on website wanted

Hello all. For my Professional Practices class we were all given a semester long subscription to the web hosting company Virb.com. There is a contest for who's site is the best at the end of the semester between everyone, and the winner gets a free lifetime membership to the site. I'm looking for any and all comments, criticism, suggestions, etc. on what you guys (and gals) think of my site. How well does it navigate, what do you think of the color scheme, typeface, blog, galleries, are the pictures to big or to small? All that fun stuff. It's still a work in progress so things my Bio aren't finished yet, but I'm always changing, adding, and trying new things to make it better so tell me what you think! The link is in my signature. Thanks!

Your header looks plain simple make the page colorful

One thing I'm worried about is a colorful scheme interfering with the viewing experience of the photographs. What do you think about a gray-scale scheme?

The one thing that really bothers me is the VERY long front page. Most people do not like to scroll, Scroll, Scroll to see content. Get a single home page that can be seen all at once. Put a short paragraph about what is on the site and easy to see menu system. If you have the skill set it would be nice to have it recognize iphones and present a modified version of the site for the mobile users. Most CMS's have the capability to do that now.

That complaint has actually come up a few times now. Do you think it would be better to have the home page be my Bio? A description of me, and what I do, and perhaps a simple portrait of me as well? Then I could have the blog be a clickable link at the top? Virb unfortunately doesn't support mobil browsers yet, but it is supposed to be an upgrade they are implementing shortly. I will definitely upgrade when they launch the new mobil support. Thank you for your input!

The home page should only be a attention grabber. Just enough there to make the person WANT to explore further. I am not interested in your blog. I only want to see your photos. RickSawThat only wants to see your art. rainbow9 only want to see your commercial work. Get the idea? The home page should adhere to the KISS principle.
Again, This is just my opinion.
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^ Awesome advice. I never thought about it like that. I'll definitely be changing some things this weekend! Thank you guys so much for the fresh outlook, keep em coming!

tracsoft said:

The one thing that really bothers me is the VERY long front page. Most people do not like to scroll, Scroll, Scroll to see content. Get a single home page that can be seen all at once. Put a short paragraph about what is on the site and easy to see menu system.

Click to expand...

yep another vote for the get rid of most of front page and as someone said KISS. My first impression was oh its taken me to your blog, so clicked the home page tab and yep that is the home page

This is just my personal opinion now, the self portraits erm as art i think they are brilliant, but they are selling you? are they portaying you in the right way? first pic reminded me of despair, second a little on the menacing side, third who or what are you hiding from? fourth are things really that bad? Now if those are emotions you want to portray to potential clients and customers that's fine but they don't give confidence, those are a total contrast to the other portrait pictures you have on there.

Me personaly I would prefer thumbnails with ability to choose which pictures to view (as you did in the portrait section) rather than the click and surprise. Having to view one picture at a time in full screen mode is pain in the rear. If i were viewing on my mobile (cell) phone or my tab i would have probably clicked one or two then left the site

but decent content

one little thing though what are you offering are you offering art for sale and purchase or photographic services such as portraits etc.

will have a peek in a few weeks and see how things are going but really is looking pretty decent at the moment