Website for wildlife/portfolio

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smaximo

smaximo

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Hi,
For a while I have been thinking about the possibility of creating my own website to and use it has a personal portfolio. I am not a professional so it will not have a commercial use, and I understand that the reach/visibility is limited, but it will be a great way to have your work online with good quality, instead of just publishing something on social media.

What do people think about this kind of websites and what would be the alternatives if you want to create such platform? I guess there are some companies that offer some pre-built websites that you can adjust to your taste and needs.

Any thoughts on this?
 
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Building a Photography Website

Do you have your own website to showcase your photography? If so, did you code it from scratch, use a website builder like Wix, or do you use a template for photographers like Zenfolio or Smugmug? What has your experience been using your particular method, and would you recommend it? Who is your...
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I recommend you develop a website. I did this a few years ago. It provided an insight to me about website behaviour, design and cemented what I like and dislike when viewing other photographic sites. It is subjective and particular to me, but this is how I wish others to experience my images. I started with a pre-built site but soon migrated to my own site (read steep learning curve). This move was primarily cause I did not like the limitations on what I could do and restrictions on what couldn't do on the initial commercial site I was utilising.

My current site is: https://www.craigmcgowanphotography.com/

On a technical aspect you need to secure a domain name. This includes ongoing costs to maintain ownership of the name. Plus ongoing maintenance of the site every few months. But more importantly I suggest, it allows you to display your imagery as you wish others to view it. You curate your site and is a landing place for anyone who may be interested is seeing your photography. This in itself for me is an interesting ongoing project on my site.

I am not a commercial photographer. In other words, photography is not my full time day job. But I have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of traffic it experiences. Much of it directed from my Instagram account, but also a percentage from non-social media searches. Every so often I receive enquiries that culminate in purchases for either prints, or digital file sales for particular publications/use. For me, this is nice recognition for my photographic efforts.

Now a few years old, I am currently rebuilding my site with what I've learnt and what I currently like in showcasing my imagery. I hope to have this completed and online by next month.

Good luck with your decision and hopefully, your newly established website.
 
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smaximo said:
Hi,
For a while I have been thinking about the possibility of creating my own website to and use it has a personal portfolio. I am not a professional so it will not have a commercial use, and I understand that the reach/visibility is limited, but it will be a great way to have your work online with good quality, instead of just publishing something on social media.

What do people think about this kind of websites and what would be the alternatives if you want to create such platform? I guess there are some companies that offer some pre-built websites that you can adjust to your taste and needs.

Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

As I don't have a clue about building a website I used to have a photium website where they provided the hosting and their software was template based so you could build your own site. They looked after the backstage stuff and had great support.

This worked well but I eventually wanted to reduce the costs, so looked at several website building options and settled on Website X5. Back then they had 3 tiers and the entry level was very low cost, but would do the job. I then wen to the EVO level that I think is the one for most people. The Pro one has a lot of features that I don't need. Beware the free trial is for the Pro level one.

I used it to build my camera club website but left the hosting with 123 REG but my own site is also hosted by Website X% as they had good deals at the time.

It will do commerce if you want a shop too https://www.websitex5.com/en/
 
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smaximo said:
Hi,
For a while I have been thinking about the possibility of creating my own website to and use it has a personal portfolio. I am not a professional so it will not have a commercial use, and I understand that the reach/visibility is limited, but it will be a great way to have your work online with good quality, instead of just publishing something on social media.

What do people think about this kind of websites and what would be the alternatives if you want to create such platform? I guess there are some companies that offer some pre-built websites that you can adjust to your taste and needs.

Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
Fortunately there are a number of very good options for building a nice website without specialized knowledge or skills. I've tried several, and finally settled on Adobe Portfolio, which is free, easy to use, and suits my needs perfectly (https://bynaturephoto.org/copy-of-home). My primary objectives are to have an online presence for family and friends, and to serve as a reference point for folks who inquire about my work. I'm sure that others will recommend other web tools, but I found Adobe Portfolio to be simple and easy to build an attractive website without too much difficulty.
 
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Craig McGowan said:
I recommend you develop a website. I did this a few years ago. It provided an insight to me about website behaviour, design and cemented what I like and dislike when viewing other photographic sites. It is subjective and particular to me, but this is how I wish others to experience my images. I started with a pre-built site but soon migrated to my own site (read steep learning curve). This move was primarily cause I did not like the limitations on what I could do and restrictions on what couldn't do on the initial commercial site I was utilising.

My current site is: https://www.craigmcgowanphotography.com/

On a technical aspect you need to secure a domain name. This includes ongoing costs to maintain ownership of the name. Plus ongoing maintenance of the site every few months. But more importantly I suggest, it allows you to display your imagery as you wish others to view it. You curate your site and is a landing place for anyone who may be interested is seeing your photography. This in itself for me is an interesting ongoing project on my site.

I am not a commercial photographer. In other words, photography is not my full time day job. But I have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of traffic it experiences. Much of it directed from my Instagram account, but also a percentage from non-social media searches. Every so often I receive enquiries that culminate in purchases for either prints, or digital file sales for particular publications/use. For me, this is nice recognition for my photographic efforts.

Now a few years old, I am currently rebuilding my site with what I've learnt and what I currently like in showcasing my imagery. I hope to have this completed and online by next month.

Good luck with your decision and hopefully, your newly established website.
Click to expand...

Your website is great. I like the downward scrolling function you use. I don’t see an index of the photos within each section. A lot of sites have one and I’m not suggesting you should have one but what went into the decision to omit it? By the way, one of the reasons your site is so good is because every photograph I looked at was fabulous. Congratulations and well done.
 
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There are two main companies that host websites.....Zenfolio and Smugmug. Both have fans. Both offer templates and the ability for you to customize the site.

My experience is with Smugmug. A link to my site is in my signature below. It is extremely easy to customize the look of the site. And the Smugmug Support personnel are very knowledge, willing to help and respond very quickly to questions. If you have your own URL, you can link the site to your personal URL. There are various pricing levels. I use the Power level with does not offer selling. But there are other levels that do facilitate selling.

I have limited experience with Zenfolio. Several years ago my husband had his website there and I tried to update it. I stopped out of frustration. Eventually my husband allowed me to create a website for him on Smugmug and he is now extremely happy with how his site looks and functions.
 
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PhilG said:
Your website is great. I like the downward scrolling function you use. I don’t see an index of the photos within each section. A lot of sites have one and I’m not suggesting you should have one but what went into the decision to omit it? By the way, one of the reasons your site is so good is because every photograph I looked at was fabulous. Congratulations and well done.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much Phil. With my new site soon I think it will be easier for the viewer to quickly see the overview of images and drill down into the image(s) of particular interest. For me, less is more with a website...
 
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ButlerKid said:
There are two main companies that host websites.....Zenfolio and Smugmug. Both have fans. Both offer templates and the ability for you to customize the site.

My experience is with Smugmug. A link to my site is in my signature below. It is extremely easy to customize the look of the site. And the Smugmug Support personnel are very knowledge, willing to help and respond very quickly to questions. If you have your own URL, you can link the site to your personal URL. There are various pricing levels. I use the Power level with does not offer selling. But there are other levels that do facilitate selling.

I have limited experience with Zenfolio. Several years ago my husband had his website there and I tried to update it. I stopped out of frustration. Eventually my husband allowed me to create a website for him on Smugmug and he is now extremely happy with how his site looks and functions.
Click to expand...
I purchased a domain a long time ago and the first tool I used to support it was Frontpage. I then switched to DreamWeaver. I now I use Smugmug as you do. I found that its easy to get the structure of the website established and a lot less hassle to make image changes with the interface between Lightroom and Smugmug. Since I'm using the site more for a collection of items that I want to see, it has images I wouldn't include if I was someone selling their images.
 
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Im a Zenfolio subscriber for over 10 years.
It used to be very good however now they've introduced automatic archiving of images over 12 months old.
The images can be reinstated however the process is time consuming and has to be repeated.
I wouldn't recommend Zenfolio
 
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