As a photographer the website I am building will be used to exhibit my work on the internet along with personal information, my portfolio. As it may be viewed by possible employers the layout and functionality must be simple but attractive. By looking at other photographers website’s I was able to get an idea of what would be suitable for this target audience.
www.chasejarvis.com
All of the websites I visited had a very simple feel and they were not crowded with lots of information and graphics. The Photographers name was somewhere prominent on the page and there were as little as three navigation links on some of the sites. Other than the name and links the only other information on the index page was an image, usually dead centre or filling the background. Often there would be a quick running slide show of three or four photographs like with Chase Jarvis’ website, the photos changing about every second.
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www.jeffbrouws.com
Often the image on the index page would take up most of the screen which made for a powerful first glance.
With the bigger names such as Chase Jarvis, Steve McCurry and Mario Testino the websites were not as simplistic. They had more graphics and more complicated navigation on their sites.
Although others were simpler they still had some interesting navigation like roll over tabs and image enlarger, without the need to navigate away from the page. This would save time for any visitor making it more likely that they would stay.
www.stephen-gill.co.uk
www.stevemccurry.com
www.santedorazio.com
D’orazio had an intro, a slide show would play when you went to the site. Being a big name this is fine, but if I want people to look at my work I can not do anything like this. If my target audience has to wait I may lose them. I think simplicity is the key.
