It’s been a long time coming but I’m almost ready to roll out changes on my portfolio. Many additions, tonnes of edits, and new groupings. This has been way too long overdue but I’m thrilled with how it’s come together, in large part due to Livebooks. These will be accessible on the blog through the portfolio link at the top, and soon also directly at DavidduChemin.com.
I’m almost finished. A couple days ago I invited people on Twitter to feel free to watch the site as I built the galleries. If you’re interested, though there’s not much action now – just nearly completed galleries – you can find the galleries here at this temporary URL – http://davidduchemin.sites.livebooks.com/ I always hated those Under Construction pages people put up on their sites, so feel free to poke around while I sweep up the dust. *Update, October 27 – The galleries are now live at http://gallery.davidduchemin.com/
Surprisingly, after all my raving about Livebooks, I got a call from them asking if they could help. I said they could and that I’d like a Livebooks subscription to giveaway to my readers. We’re working on details but I’ll be giving away a couple Livebooks subscriptions in the coming days, one connected to the release of the next eBook this Thursday, another with no strings attached when I launch the galleries officially. In the mean time, feel free to drop by. 🙂
Comments
The new stuff looks good and it makes me whatever the opposite of homesick is (travel-sick?). But I had one question, if you’re going for a custom wordpress site for non-flash platforms, why not just use it for everything?
David,
Love the new site! I’ll miss the old guy with the prayer wheel, and your “click both, we won’t tell”. I like the new logo! Fit’s your “new direction” (aren’t we all shifting our direction all the time?) Nice to see some new portfolio material up!
Just wanted to offer up some kudos for your new site going up and how beautiful it is. With the exception of a few minor issues (mostly centered around Flash in general–not being able to open links in a new tab instead of wholesale in a new window for example), I would say that the site offers total funcionality, and fits perfectly your gospel of a photographer’s marketing being as great as his/her photography.
I’m also thrilled to report that the html version of your gallery displays just fine on my Samsung Highlight, a smart-ish phone with a fairly basic browser that is non-flash compliant. Thanks for that!
Anyway, congratulations on this new phase of your personal path and growth as a photographer.
I did wait for this to load because David’s images are worth taking the time, but I have to say that I am becoming increasingly impatient with Flash-based photo galleries. Maybe the increasingly instant satisfaction of the net has shortend my attention span. (or maybe it is just I have a crappy internet connection; highly possible in fact). In any event, not at all a criticism of the new galleries, or of the images, just a frustration with the wide trend among photogs to use flash sites (and no, this is not a paid message from anti-flash Apple!).
BTW, re ipad sites, slideshowpro.net just released an update to their Director product that streams non-flash portfolio sites for mobile. Of course it would mean maintaining two portfolio databases, but might be worth it (btw2, I actually went to load galleries first on my ipad to get to the images faster than my desktop was allowing me, and I didn’t mind livebook’s mobile distribution of the images)
John – Livebooks does have a default iPad/iPhone site but I’m looking for something better. Right now I’m leaning to a custom WordPress site.
So did you find a gallery APP for the iPad/iPhone? I saw your question on Twitter and am curious what you found other than the Gallery app from Apple.
David,
Nosed around a bit at the new portfolio. I have to say, I really like it. Very simple and fast. I like that the images pop up quickly and the operation is intuitive. Although I liked your other portfolio, this is a good move (not that you need me to tell you that).
Also, a lot of times the Portfolio-popup doesn’t appear when you put the pointer over it. You can click it, but that just brings you to the homepage and not the portfolios. After the click, however, you can go elsewhere with the mouse, come back and the animation appears. Very strange. (I’m om XP with latest versions of Firefox and Flash.)
Your pictures are fantastic, of course, the logo is really nice and the idea of keeping the design of the page minimal to allow the pics to shine through is apot on.
Having said that, I must say I don’t like all the animations and stuff at all. To me it looks cheap and distract from the pictures. It happens very often with flash: “look, I can make things move and fade!” It’s tiring after just a few clicks. I almost always prefer a simple html page without the fluff that comes with flash.
I don’t know if thess things come with Livebooks or why they are here, but I would absolutely prefer to have the links to the portfolios visible at all times instead of the animation. That, in my view, would go better with the minimalistic design.
So sorry to be negative, but I seem to be alone and I think you can take it. 😉
Looks fantastic. Very clean, very manageable. Great looking website David. Can’t say I like the gigantic + and – upon rollover though.
You need a little more contrast on the “portfolio” “login” “info” “contact” links at the bottom of the page. My old eyes couldn’t see them. I was clicking all over the page trying to get something to happen until I accidentally stumbled across one and then finally noticed them.
Hi David,
I like the new look. But I dont like the color of the logo and text. It gives me a bit eyestrain when I look at it, may be because of the background color ( sky very light blue) and logo color are bit same. May be you should change the color of the logo and text.
Ey David,
Me loves the new looks, even though, between you and me the look of the old site/blog never bothered me, it’s you I’m interested in, what you’re saying, what you are photographing and how you are photographing and saying them.
That being said, really cool looks, the only other as clean interface as this was for me PixelPost but apparently the project died somewhere along the way.
Anyways, all the best and may the redesign help you and us share even more if your love for life, people and photography and move more and more people around the world, only God know how much we need it.
Take care 🙂
Very cool new website – congratulations!
Hey David. Love the new logo and changes you have made to the website.
I’m liking it but have one question in regards to your decision to allow your images to be printed. Why did you decide to do that?
Loving the new image and banner at the top of the blog, David!
I just love that image of the boys on the bikes.
I was just checking out how you processed it in your Lightroom tome last evening.
HI Serge. Yes, I did. In fact I have an account with Photoshelter and an ongoing relationship with them as well. I love Photoshelter and will be using them to store my images in the cloud, but for galleries I wanted something different. What I have been thinking is to use Photoshelter for the iPhone/iPad site as Livebooks is flashbased and right now I’m not wowed by the default iPhone/iPad site they provide.
David, I forgot to ask a question in my previous comment. Did you also consider Photoshelter? Or other solutions? And why did you choose Livebooks?
Thanks.
i like the incorperation of the vision theme into your site, you have a very well constructed “brand” and it is very authentic. keep it up!
Checked it out on the iPad and it looked nice, so they apparently suport something other than flash. It said it was the iPhone site, but it used the full screen of the iPad.
I often think about writing a leadership book about photographers and the profession. It’s kinda up for grabs now but that’s alright.
Great work as always David.
Thanks all.
Serge – Yes, Livebooks has SEO implimentation but to be honest I don’t pay much attention to this kind of thing at this point. My blog is highly indexed and pushes more traffic my way than I need. If at some point i want more, I’ll begin more mindful of the whole issue, but SEO is really not my big focus.
Very beautiful pictures, I love the flash implementation, bit slowness I detected, but still, very nice.
Looks very neat and professional!
I’m wondering about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) though, experts say that it won’t work well with 100% Flash websites. Did you take this factor into account when choosing for Livebooks?
A couple of days ago you asked which photograph most inspired you…
I would have to say “all of the above”. Stunning work as usual and I’m so glad I get to see enjoy both your work on screen and in print.
Would love to win a Livebooks subscription so I shall be keeping my eyes peeled!
Well, it’s good to see Livebooks reduce their prices. I looked at them a year or so ago and was astonished at the high prices. Though, they have, in my opinion, the best website available. Now, they have more realistic pricing for the “photographer of un-rock-star type status”. Way to go LiveBooks!
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of your work! I absolutely love the blog and your writing, particularly the glimpses you give into some of the photos from your trips, so being able to see even more would be great!
I’ve always built my own websites in the past, but I am impressed by the quality of Livebooks, and considering it myself.
Love your photography and your writing. Not to brush aside your impactful images, but like Mike Johnston’s TOP and Kirk Tuck’s VSL blogs, it’s your writing that makes me want to read your blog. I don’t think you get enough credit for that.
But it’s not about your grammar or sentence structure, or any technical aspect of your writing… It’s what you say, it’s how you think, what you feel… your approach to people, photography, and life that shines through and speaks from the heart.