[PaulDiv]

October 8, 2008 at 8:12 pm

Nice one. There are some lovely Black and White shots of Connemara and Kilkenny.
The site looks smart and is quick loading for visitors on dial up.

[PaulDiv]

October 8, 2008 at 8:01 pm

Nice Photos Mark and Good Black and White work.
Site is easy to get around too.

Thorsten- the text is fine. All you need to do is press (CTRL and +) to increase text size. No big deal.

[PaulDiv]

April 27, 2008 at 12:17 am

Hi Dee,

You can get pre-cut double mounts from Midland Frames. Google them and create an account because you need to sign
up before you can see their price list. You are automatically added to the their mailing list and they use this from time
to time to let their customers know about any special offers they have.

The double mounts start at €1.20 and go up to €9 so this might be the best option if you just want to get started.

I bought the cutter only because I didnt know of anyone in Ireland selling pre-cut mounts.

With regard to suitable print sleeves it would depend on the size you refer to.

[PaulDiv]

April 26, 2008 at 5:09 pm

Thanks John, I am glad you found the comments useful.
I really like some of your photos and think that your web site will really show them off
to their full lf you make a few minor changes.

[PaulDiv]

April 25, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Welcome Peter,

I didnt know about it either but it is great forum and one you will enjoy.

[PaulDiv]

April 25, 2008 at 7:04 pm

Thanks for the thumbs up on the writing everyone.

I joined a writing site a few months ago and it helped me improve quite a lot.
Some people in the forum on Helium claim to be making decent pocket money
but I have only earned 10 cents so far!
Surely a man can get more than 10 cents for his labour these days.

I see an Arsenal supporter replied and noticed that there are a lot of soccer fans in this forum.
If you like talking football then thats great because it is my game too.

Where you all from?

[PaulDiv]

April 24, 2008 at 5:13 pm

Thanks for the tip Brian. I have added my URL to my signature so hopefully you can all find my site now.

[PaulDiv]

April 24, 2008 at 4:43 am

Hi John,

I just thought I would offer a few pointers to add to the good advice Jody gave above as
I was asking similar questions to yours not so long ago. Anyway here is my observations:

The site has a lot of potential and the changes I suggest are very easy to do.

The boxed layout is good and easy on the eye – the colours are lovely and set the mood plus
navigation is solid.

The homepage needs the most work and it has to do with colour balance and too much content.

Your site layout is fine when you are in any of the galleries but the gallery plug in is narrower
than the web page. Thats no big deal but it would look much better if they were of the same width.
Just tweak the HTML and maybe it will fix it.

The plug in is nice and easy to use. However, it would look much better if you changed the colour
of the plug in to match with the main colour scheme. Cream would look nice.

You use lime green and red as highlight text and this also looks off.
Why not just use the colour that you used for your email address for all your important points?

If you use this colour across the whole site it would keep all your important info looking consistent and
more readable.

There is far too much going on the home page.
If you imagine the home page without the welcome message and everything below it you can see
an improvement right away – no more scrolling for your visitors.
Id put these things in separate pages.

On the navigation section I would put some vertical space between the end of the gallery links and the other links
for About, Sales, Contact etc. I would also reduce the number of galleries like Jody suggested.

Now you would have the home page with only 4 boxes.

The box on the top left is good and is the first thing people will see. It would also be easy to generate a random image
from any of your galleries to fill it. This means that returning visitors would get something different to look at each time
they come back. It keeps a site fresh looking.

I would change the text at the top right to read just “Beautiful Irish Landscapes” and drop the words “for sale”.
People want a visual experience first and will look at your works of art first and if they like them they will go looking for your about and then (hopefiully) the sales page.

Think of something that defines you and your photography and get this into a paragraph or two and put this in the main box on the home page. The pic you have there is too large and does not serve any real purpose.

Finally, Id change the page background graphic, change the copyright year to 2008 and put the hit counter and recent visitors thingy out to stud.

[PaulDiv]

April 24, 2008 at 3:23 am

Hi,

I had the same problem and ended up making my own mounts.
The problem was finding a cood cutter and I found one at FrameCo.

If you buy the cheapest cutter, which costs about €60, you can cut mounts
up to 24×24 inch.

The cutter comes with a 26 inch steel rule that has a grove along one side that
the cutter slides along.

Making mounts is very easy with this kit and double mounts are just as easy.

You will pay about €4 – €5 for each sheet of board from various Irish suppliers.

Oh and the mounts this tool cuts are very clean and professional.

Have fun.