New wedding photography site

Scottpics

Hello ladies! I was wondering if you could help me out. I'm a wedding photographer based in Dublin, and I've only just finished my new site. It would be nice to get a few opinions about it that aren't from friends and family :rolleyes:

Essentially, what are couples looking for when sifting through photography sites? Have I given enough information? Is it easy to navigate? etc. Thanks girls!

Shawna

BC

There are no prices.
It really irritates me when suppliers don't put prices on their websites!

Edited to say - best of luck with it all!

jethrothe2nd

I'm not a lady, but nevertheless, I agree with BC. Maybe there is some logic to not putting in prices, but whatever that logic is eludes me. It p****** me off when I can't get a price from a website, mainly because I don't want to start giving out my personal details (email address etc) just to get a quote.

Aside from the lack of prices, the site is great.

Scottpics

Yeah, I was a bit ambivalent about putting prices up. I didn't want people to NOT contact me if I was slightly out of their price range, but I also don't want people to not contact me because there aren't any prices up there either.

tricky D

You've disabled right-click. That's irritating, annoying and pointless. I can download your images anyway. http://www.shawnascott.com/images/89.jpg If you want to protect your images, put a copyright notice on them or don't publish them. Best not to worry about it at all.

+100 on prices. While your price is the length of a piece of string, even an idea or typical package and price really helps the user. Price is far too important to omit. People having to contact you for prices is another hurdle for them and far too often they won't bother and your potential job is gone.

Your email address should be @shawnascott.com which is more professional than @gmail.com. Fairly easily done on Blacknight.

Make the location information more prominent.

There could be more text for information and for search engines. Try to avoid the trap of you talking about you too much and imagine yourself engaging them in a shop scenario. You need to address your potential clients needs and issues, demonstrate that you have the solution at a price that provides value, reliability and quality. You do have some text on the wedding page but the first para uses 'I' too much. The second sentence puts negative thoughts into potential clients' minds. Better to say something about reliability and flexibility. Similarly 'I’ve never objected to a bit of traveling,' is better as 'I love to travel' or 'I like to travel to broaden the mind'. It's a psychological thing, mentioning 'double booking' and 'objecting' put negative thoughts into people's heads.

The second para gives some detail of how you work and processes. This reassures and gives confidence. You could give more detail or a walkthrough of a typical job.

The gallery has way way too many photos. There's an article somewhere (can't find at the mo) which demonstrates that users begin to turn off after about 25/30 gallery views. Be ruthless and cut your selection down to only the most impactful.

gotta go

hth/gl

stimpson

+1 on prices. There is so much to organise when getting married - you don't want to have to sit through a sales pitch to realise they are out of your price range. It applies to more than photographers. We looked at many venuees online and quickly got tired of ringing up to find they were out of our league. The place we settled on had a fixed price for a basic wedding for 100 people and you could add to it. Likewise, our photographer gave us a price for the day, plus options for 3 different albums.

I do like the site, but it doesn't say to me that you are a wedding photographer. The first photo shown is of a band. It looks like weddings is a side line. I'd split into 2 dedicated sites.

Also, when you do click on the wedding link, the text appears below the bottom of the screen - you have to scroll for it. I would put the photo's to the right or left and have the text visible as soon as you arrive on the page and the user should never have to scroll (asuming a reasonably sized monitor). Also, a gmail address and mobile number wouldn't fill me with confidence that you're not going to disappear overnight. Also, a bricks and mortar address would inspire more confidence.

jethrothe2nd

Scottpics wrote: »

Yeah, I was a bit ambivalent about putting prices up. I didn't want people to NOT contact me if I was slightly out of their price range, but I also don't want people to not contact me because there aren't any prices up there either.

Fair point. In my opinion though, there is an increasing level of expectation that service providers will be willing to negotiate prices, so I personally would be more likely to make contact if the price was outside my budget, than if there was no price at all.

Scottpics

stimpson wrote: »

I do like the site, but it doesn't say to me that you are a wedding photographer. The first photo shown is of a band. It looks like weddings is a side line. I'd split into 2 dedicated sites.

Yes, someone has said that to me before. Unfortunately, I can't afford two separate sites at the moment and I'd really like to show people that I'm a well rounded photographer, but you're probably right. I should really have my strongest wedding photo up there first.

I will definitely get in touch with my site designer about setting up my email address. This is all such fantastic help. Thanks guys!

RoadRunner

I'd limit the number of photos displayed. Only show the best ones.

edit:i see you've already mentioned that tricky

artyeva

while they're not *exactly* the style i'd be in the market for, i do like your wedding shots. they show a great level of skill and confidence, they adequatley portray that you're able to capture those little moments and details - and that's something i personally want to see on a wedding photographer's site.

so i would only have 3 small issues :

- you say that you've travelled all over the place but you don't say where you're based
- prices. you don't have to give it to us to the euro but i want to see if i can afford you before i go to the bother of e-mailing you for a quote
- the image on the front page doesn't reflect your best shot. i see what you're saying about wanting to come across as a more rounded photographer who does more than weddings, so maybe you could split the front page image in two? one band and one wedding? or something.

if i was googling ''wedding photographers in dublin'' [assuming that's where you are] and i clicked through to your site i probably would discount it as you have weddings in a menu link rather than your first page so i would [quite wrongly] assume you were a band photographer that *also* does weddings.

just my €0.02 btw. and i speak as someone who's eyes have gone square in the last few months googling a photographer for our wedding.

genie_us

Hiya Shawna

am getting married soon and must have searched hundreds of photographer sites so here's is what I would suggest without repeating too much of what others have said!

I really like the look of your wedding shots but again the first page wouldn't appeal to me too much as a bride, someone suggested splitting the screen and I think that's a good idea.

How about putting a few sample albums on the site of couples that you've worked with - one thing I was wary of was if a site had only all the hand-picked photos of the photographers best shots, but I was looking for a full(ish) sample album so that I could check all the shots were good if you know what I mean?

The price should definitely be displayed - after a while during my search I just immediately discounted anyone without prices displayed.

Also I would suggest that you give more info on what exactly people are getting for their money - do you give the couple all the photos that you take on the day on the DVD or do you charge extra for extra ones? (I hope not as that's a definite turn off!)
Does the price include an album?
Are you willing to do CD only packages?

Finally my last suggestion would be not to charge people outside Dublin for travel expenses, within Ireland at least, this annoys me, it's only a small country!
The worst site I was on your man actually had it on his site that not only did he charge for travelling, but he expected the couple to provide him with a meal during the day as well! Whether or not this is the case it was actually part of his 'terms and conditions'. I thought that was a bit cheeky

Overall I think you should add more text about what your style is as well, and that you're happy to meet with the couple at any stage to discuss ideas or any requirements or queries they might have. A lot of our suppliers make us feel like we're the only couple they've worked with before which is nice as it's our only wedding and it makes us feel a bit special!

Good luck!

buckwheat

Definitely change your e-mail address. Most people will be put off by a gmail / hotmail / yahoo address. It comes across as amateurish.

Best of luck with everything.