I decided to diversify the site a little and devote exclusive space to Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and Portraits. Now, each category has it's own website and it's own unique design and style. Check it out for yourself.
There are so many competing opinions about photography website design that it's tough to decide what's the best route to take. Two of the biggest issues for me are "sound and size."
A lot of photographers use websites that automatically open to full-screen size. I understand the thinking behind this: it makes your images bigger and also has a "cinematic' feel to it. The problem I have with it is that I personally don't like it when it happens to me. I resent it when a website hijacks my computer and forces my browser to full-screen ratio. If I wanted my browser at full-screen, I'd have it there already thank you very much!
The other issue is music. You may notice that I used to have a song on my website and now I don't. I would like to say that it's an artistic decision but it actually has more to do with the price of music. Now that I basically have three websites instead of two I will need to buy two more songs if I want different music on each one. At $60 a song, that's not cheap. The real question is wheteher or not clients like the music on the website at all. I personally know that when I visit a site with music I almost immediatly hit mute, but that's me. Am I buying music that no one listen's to?
I would appreciate any feedback you can give me on these two issues. What do you think? Full-screen? Music?