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I remember when I first got started in photography, and I knew my photos were ok but not brilliant.
But I also knew my design and web skills were above par, so I could do a half decent job of presenting my work to look its best. I've gotten better at photography over the years, but still have to say that curating and presenting are actually more important than capturing.
Style matters.
Also should point out that I'm no genius when it comes to websites. My biggest talent is perseverance.
I keep at it. I keep polishing the CSS. I keep tinkering and learning. I put the hours in. It can take days to achieve any real progress, but sometimes it all just comes together and I love reaching that distant shore and feeling like I've created something of substance.
This page has been my latest obsession. Still one major component left to complete...
@ewen@photog.socialGathering your photos onto a website and experimenting with the layout and experience is really worthwhile as a photographer.
Social media is less so. The way your work appears on someone else's app is totally out of your control. Not to mention the algorithms in play. The constraints are artificial, and unrewarding.
Having your own website is an excellent way to express yourself, and it's unimpeded by pathological billionaires.
It's funny how little things can impact the aesthetic of a photo.
My current project is to make a landing page for workshops I'm running aboard an expedition ship. I just want the information to be easy to digest.
I needed three images, one for each of the destinations. When I tried the layout with 2:3 rectangular pix, it just felt meh. Making these images round instead, suddenly felt right. And not too big either, just modestly confident on the page.
I've travelled with other photographers before who totally lack an appreciation for curation.
They would dump dozens of photos into a slideshow, unaware that they were mostly repeating the same idea, same scene, same insight. You can't tell how good their photography actually is, when it's buried under so much derp. How you present is just so important. Don't show friggin everything.
@ewen When looking at pages of individual pictures, it might be worth to show full size image instead of a small preview size thumbnail. For example on https://ewenbell.com/editorial/Maji+Moto?040-Kenya_-_Maji_Moto_PECB0244 page, I had to right-click to open the image https://ewenbell.com/10k/hdcache/Maji%20Moto/040-Kenya_-_Maji_Moto_PECB0244.jpg on a separate window, since the large size background image version had dark grayscale overlay, and small thumbnail-sized version (on a white background) was too small for a 4K resolution display.
Those individual pages really only exist for SEO. Nothing more. The gallery pages are a better experience for humans :)
I also don't put 4K anything on the website. My photos get stolen and copied by other photographers as it is. A few times people have literally copied the PDF brochures and just changed a few words and claimed it as their own work.
So tricky to share your work, knowing that it's going to be stolen in the process.
@ewen Yeah, you don't need to publish larger images. Just let web browsers to do the image scaling, as that is often more than enough. Browsers often produce better image scaling than a lot of image editing applications, and you avoid having to publish any larger image files. Similar method is used by the largest social media platforms, as it improves user experience & saves traffic size.
Thing is, since you already are sharing the image files, give people the opportunity to actually see them.
@ewen I did a quick fix of the display issue with a few lines of CSS (using Stylus https://github.com/openstyles/stylus browser extension).
/* Override container size */
.container {
width: 1800px;
}
/* Override image size for larger previews */
.framedirect img {
width: 100%;
}
After those were added, individual pictures are a lot more easier to look at.
@ewen My website absolutely needs a refresh. Maybe webrings will make a comeback, like an old-fashioned salon.
I'm imagining a bunch of old fellows sitting around at a cafe, drinking black coffee, smoking cigars, and debating CSS:)