My Visual Logbook

This is my homepage of my current website. I designed this website on my own without the help of a graphic designer, just taking inspiration from other websites that I liked the look of and put my own spin on it. The templates and examples WIX provides also gave me some inspiration despite me not actually using the template, I brought aspects of them into my design. 

As you scroll down on my homepage at the bottom is a preview of my Instagram page. I really liked this feature and although I hadn't seen it on any photographers pages I looked at, its a nice addition and a good showcase to have at the bottom of my page, as you hover over an image it shows how many comments/likes it got, and you can click on it to open the image in Instagram. Above it are all my social media links which will take you to the corresponding platform, and a quick button to send me an email. 

I split my work into two; between portraits and travel. I'm still unsure weather to keep these two but it works for now as my work is majority portraits, and I got rid of my still life images from my website, I don't think they're relevant to my current practice and I want to refine my work down, and increase quality. 

Underneath the first slideshow of images I have a gallery which is split into individual models, something I have worked on this year has been working with more models and approaching and working with people who I don't know. Something which is very evident from my variety of images in this version of my website in comparison to my first website. You can click on each image and another gallery will open showing more images from the shoots (screenshot below). 

I kept the travel section of my website to showcase some of my landscapes from BA2a that I was particularly proud of. I love the amount of colour on my website and they work really well within it.  

I now have two more pages, a contact as well as an about. The contact page above has a contact form which can be filled in and I will receive as an email, or I have my email or mobile there too. This is something I've seen on other photographers websites and felt needed to be included. As well as another set of links to key social media platforms. 

On my about page I split up my previous contact page to have one separate one which has a short bio and some more info. I found quite a few people have these separate and it breaks it up nicely. I have left a 'lets work together' button which when clicked, takes you straight to my contact page. It just helps navigate a bit easier. I chose the yellow colour to keep within my images which mostly use a lot of colour.

Lauren Engel's website takes you to a home page which requires you to click on her name to enter the site. Although it is impactful and makes you remember her name more than you may have done before, its time wasting and immediately annoys me a little. Definitely will not be using this on my own site. 

Her menu is split into Personal, Travel, work, bio and BLOG. She doesn't have a contact me page, but instead her email is at the bottom of the menu itself on every page. I like the travel section of her website, it makes me reconsider removing mine from my website, and instead adding more images to it. I also like the idea of adding a blog to my website, maybe over the summer, as it will need updating quite often to keep it current. Maybe about my trips away and images I take there. I also like the idea of the images in my blog being on film? as it seems more personal and considered. 

To navigate, her images are again split by client name, which is a good idea however I am slighting lacking on my client base at where I am now. But this is definitely something to think about in the future. To slide between each image however, there are no navigation arrows and you have to slide across on the trackpad on your computer, something that took me a second or two to figure out. I plan to have navigation arrows on my website to make this easier.

engelauren.com

Cameron Hammond's a published photographer, and his website doesn't actually appear to feature a bio or any contact details which I am really surprised at. He must very confident that he is going to be commissioned regardless. I like how big his image preview is, and for editorials he shows each spread rather than a selection. 

I find his menu very hard to read and navigate, there are no sections but just a long list of clients. I think the type face is suited to his subject matter and style, (very raw, film shots) but it is too packed and unordered. Also there are no navigation arrows to move between images. 

cameronhammond.com 

Amber Grace Dixon is an editorial an fashion photographer who has shot for the likes of Wonderland and Vogue. I really like her work and think she's a very talented photographer, but when visiting her website, It just struck me as being very basic. When creating a professional website it is really important to consult a web or graphic designer to help choose a suitable type to represent your name: your brand. The type and colour and placement on her website just seems a bit too simple and doesn't do her work an favours; even changing it to black might help it seem more professional. However, in terms of navigation and for an editorial photographer, her work is set out really cleanly, and the simplistic style here works well. You can view each editorial in its entirety which is what you would want to see with an editorial, and the scrolling to view a next image is easy and convenient. 

ambergracedixon.com

Jacob Hodgkinson is a published photographer who shoots regularly for Vivienne Westwood, Surface magazine, Commons&Sense, Esquire UK, and Vogue Nippon. His website takes you straight to an overview, showcasing his best work organised by client, and a menu split into Personal Projects, Portraits and About & Contact. 

His bio is short but concise and tells you everything you might need to know, and three ways to contact him. Navigation wise, an arrow appears when you hover over an image to let you know that you can click to scroll. I found this way of moving between images very helpful, but if not all images are showcased in a tile format on each page too. 

jacobhodgkinson.com 

I really like the simplistic style of this website, and the use of white space. The menu is split into About, Portfolio, Blog, and Contact. Within 'Portfolio' it is split down further into Editorial, Commercial and Personal. Rather than have a client list in the menu each thumbnail is labelled with a client name, which is something I really like as it looks more simplified and more spread out. When clicked, each thumbnail opens into a gallery where you can easily click through the images. 

The only aspect of this website I wasn't sure about was that the homepage had images of flowers,  (first image) something which hasn't come across through the remainder of the site, and seems quite irrelevant, especially to her commercial practice.

www.ivyerlinger.com

Something I didn't like about Lucie Hugary's website was the same feature from Lauren Engel's; the first home page you were brought to you had to click to access the main site. This is time wasting for the visitor to the site, and doesn't give a really quick overview; you decide whether you like the website within the first 5 seconds. 

I like the overview aspect of this site, you can see a wide variety of work pretty quickly, and get a good idea of what her work is about. The menu is split into Fashion stories, advertising/celeb/other, and info/contact/social. 

www.luciehugary.com 

When I went back onto my website after quite a few months I didn't even know how to change the images on my home screen and it took me a couple seconds to work out that I had to click the buttons at the bottom to switch between five different images. Aspects like this navigation were things I wanted to change within my website. 

I split my work into three sections, Travel, Portraits and still life. This seemed to be the most straightforward way to section my images, I could have called travel landscapes but it didn't feel as fitting as any landscapes I take really are taken abroad as I just really find the english landscape uninteresting. I also had a home and an about menu option so it was easy to navigate and get into contact with me. Any message I got through my website comes to me as an email, and its simple for me to reply. 

My website stayed looking like this and pretty neglected to be honest; I was rubbish at updating it and it had very dated work on there when I was producing much better work already.