CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Yes, that was my point about looking at the images of the competition. OP's images are just not up there with the others. AS you say - not bad images - just not as good as what he has to compete against.

deej

When I used my IPad for veiwing, I was unable to load or see any images from the veiwing gallery. I also did not receive any message that informed me it was flash supported. Maybe it was me but that was a quick turn off. By the way, good luck and keep trying!!!

achammar Loc: Idaho

Thanks St3v3M and MWAC!
Well, it looks like I have some work to do. I have got many great comments here and have made me take a new look. It does look outdated since it has been mentioned. I had a hard time with removing the music, but I did it. To me the music is a huge enhancement and adds emotion, and most of the other wedding sites have music, but I took everyone's advice here and removed it from my home/start page. I can't remove it from the videos unless I redo them all because the music is integrated right into the video, but I will probably do that too over time. I have a lot of hours into building the page, and will take some time, but I do have different plans now.
I made some font, text, and color changes to the headers, and added an image...everything I could do quickly for now.

St3v3M:
I am going to brighten my page and probably completely change it. Since I removed the music (and all the "Like" buttons) it does load faster. Thanks for pointing out the color scheme. That is very helpful!

MWAC:
Don't worry...you don't sound mean. I need the advice and suggestions. Saying that my page looked like it was from the 90's was probably the best thing you could have told me, along with St3v3M's comment on the 60's font. It made me realize that it really does look that way after it was mentioned to me. I took care of #2 and 3 of your suggestions. I didn't get my location added yet, but I will.

This was a well worth posting for me. I knew if I could see this from other peoples perspective, I could improve this a great deal. I am not a web page builder and have to do lots of trial and error to do anything with it and takes me a long time....but I have some different plans now thanks to all of you that I think will help. When I am done (which will be awhile), I'll post here again and let you know just so you can look at it if you want too.

Thanks again to all who have given me their thoughts and let me see this through other eyes!

achammar

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

The page loads faster and the top banner is much more pleasing. Oddly the lack of music is noticeable. Maybe a nice background melody rather than what you had before. Any way, I hope we helped!

achammar Loc: Idaho

Thanks again St3v3M! I'm glad you went and looked again. Yes, I defineately notice the music being gone too.

Looks like I missed a couple posts that I owe a thanks too...

MLMH:
Thank you! I have already made most of the changes you mentioned, but not all. Some of those are coming though, it's just going to take me awhile. One of my plans was to have more large photos on my start page. I will remove the "NO SECOND CHANCES" line that is all caps. I will also make my contact info more convenient to see.

hlmichel and CaptainC again:
Thank you! Ya, I wondered about the quality of my images. I have compared them to other sites. I do have an awful lot of images I can choose from and hopefully I can find some that are competible with other photographers from around here when I change my page more to images than slide shows, and display them in higher quality (which I was limited on because of page load time). I still don't think I have quite as good as some of my competition, but I can only pick out my best ones and go from there.

I haven't done a lot of weddings, and started out doing my first ones for free... But I"ve done about 15 now, and a couple anniversaries (complete renewal of vows), and a couple Quinceaneras. Without trying to brag, I consider myself good enough to at least get paid now. I know all about using manual camera settings, when to use them, shoot in RAW, pretty good with Photoshop, and the whole works. There are a lot of low income people around that would like to have nice photos but can't afford it. That's kind of who I am targeting (but not only them) and why I am trying to at least direct them to the pricing page where they can see my special price package which is very low. But I do have full packages there too and do indicate that they are just a base starting point and many changes can be made to any of them...(except the special..I had to have something different about the special so they wouldn't wonder why it was such a low cost and still include as much as it does)

Thank you all again!
achammar

photoshopmikey Loc: Boston Ma.

these wed. pro's might help you.


http://www.cmphotography.com/
http://www.davidziser.com/
http://jasmine-star.com/#/weddings/

Boo Boo Loc: Mass

Ok I have to say unlike everyone else, I kinda like the music and for the most part I liked the music you picked. It felt more sentimental, but not everyone is gonna like the music you pick, so I can see why everyone is against the music and I'm sure not for this particular reason and is something to consider. Personally I like to scroll through my own pictures at my own leisure, although I did enjoy the slideshows, but I see you also had the option of viewing just the pics too, so having the slideshow was actually ok in this case. I had no problem logging on so that wasn't an issue for me. Some people maybe don't have high speed, so maybe that was an issue for some people. You had beautiful locations to shoot at (that's always a plus) I wasn't too fond of your web page though. Black and yellow for a wedding page isn't really a great idea. You must have fixed the spelling errors, because that is my pet peeve, and I didn't see any of that, but I agree with "Captain C" I think it was. YOU DON'T EVER WANT TO SPELL ANYTHING WRONG WHEN YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING PROFESSIONAL!!!!!!! That would be a huge turn off for me, seeing as this is my pet peeve. It just doesn't look professional and makes it look like you didn't even take the time to look over your site! I may have turned away right away for that reason. I think you definitely captured the moments, the special moments of the weddings, but some of the pictures weren't really that great. The quality was off, being blurry or fuzzy. That's not something you want to portray on a professional website. If I saw even one, I would turn away, because that is what I would expect if you took my pictures, and who wants fuzzy pictures? Especially on your wedding day! If it even has a little fuzz, don't advertise that on your website. Overall nice pics and keep up the good work! Wedding photography is extremely hard, not that I would know, but that's what I hear and very time consuming. Definitely change the website to different colors!!!! I hope this helps and sorry soooo long:)

ole sarg Loc: south florida

I find the photos concentrate on the Bride and Groom. Where are the fund photos. Also, all are set up shots. Where is the spontaneity. Folks today seem to want some of that. How about the mother and father, they will probably help pay!

I agree with HL Michel to me of the shots appear out of focus.

Does the cloud thing sell in your area? It seems dated to me.

Again, look at the competition.

Good luck.

Dria Loc: Ohio

The pictures just look like typical snapshots. Not paid professional quality.
Lately almost anyone that buys a d-slr calls them-self a professional.
I take decent pictures BUT I would want a real professional photographer for my child's wedding.

mknmemries54 Loc: Missouri

What I noticed was I didn't want to wait for the images to scroll. I wanted to see more of the wedding party. I'm sharing a link. In this page there were a lot of variety of settings with lots of people having a good time. I'm not a prefessional just am ameture. http://www.bobbiandmike.com/blog/index.php/kristenjohn-2/

r_remus

I would agree with others - your photos are not that good. I would suggest that you look at http://pro4um.com/ . You will get a lot of information that will help you professionally and you will get some excellent ideas.

I know that when I did weddings, I found it well worth it.

greymule Loc: Colorado

Check out this fellow's site-

http://www.kentmeireisphotography.com/

sploppert Loc: Rochester, NY

Ok, after viewing your website and looking at your samples I was not impressed. You really need to work on your posing what you show is very amateur and your pricing reflects that. I would suggest getting some instructional videos from David Ziser or Clay Blackmore for more formal posing. Your pricing is far below the going rate for professional wedding photography. People have learned when shopping they look at the lowest and highest pricing in their area and will choose someone in the middle. If you want to put pricing on your website I would say packages start at $xxx.xx give people a reason to call so you can get them into your studio so you can show them what you can do and show them that you are their best choice.

GH2man Loc: Portland Oregon

I was glad to see some real honest dialog of all the posters. No one got all bent out of shape about anything and a lot was learned.
Larry

Coker Loc: Havana, IL

Wow! Amazing replies. I don't think you told us your objective. I call this the 'Question behind the Question". What is really being asked and what is REAL question you are asking. Here's what I mean. It is obvious that you don't want people to see your web page, you may really want more weddings.. Am I correct? I too, dislike the music and not having the ability to view your pictures as I wish. The pricing stuck out to me. I average $200 an hour for my work and get it. You are even advertising your $21 per hour. No body cares what your hourly rate is. In fact, by stating it, you have just added another issue in the buyers mind to think about. Your packages are not prices right. They are too low. If you want to generate leads, check out Eventective.com All my business comes from them. In closing a sale, you not only need good prospecting, A good presentation (which is your website) and know how to ask questions to get the close. No bode ever tells me NO. And remember, your quality is fine. I have never had a photographer like my work.. LOL But not one complaint on my weddings from my clients. So, your work is good and will get better. Get more people to your site with lead generation and your percentages may stay the same, but your sales and income will increase. Wish I had more time. smile Now that I have said all this check out what has, is and will continue to work for me. I do about 40 weddings a year at www.cokerphotos.com