Photography Portfolio

i couldn't find the 'click for full size' button the first time... It is too bright.

I like the site, but yeah i agree about the flash menu, make it HTML.
It would be really dumb to only need the flash plugin for the navigation, so if people don't have the plugin they can't browse your site.

And you should add a button so people still can bookmark your site.

side- about the caps, i capitalized company names and such, like porter cable and hampton inn. all but the "Royal Composition" that's a mistake.

Your thumbnails are way to big in file size. In fact they're the same size as their larger counterpart.

yep, i just fixed that.
i went with the cropped look, instead of stretching them down. check it out now.

i also made it where it loads the thumbnail on rollover, then you click the link in the menu to load the full size.

http://www.jimkiihnl.com/new

There's a big big problem with the way you do those rollover things.

Try rolling over an image towards the top of the menu, then move it down to click on the 'view large image' link. It mouses over 15 other links before you get down there, and then you are clicking on another picture. The only way to get the picture you want is to carefully move your mouse perfectly horizontal and two the right, so that you don't mouse over any of the other links. Big big trouble.

He made it so that if u click the item in the menu, it'll show the enlarged image in the main window.

yeah deker, i was going to use clicking the menu instead of enlarging it and remove the old "view full size link" but i didn't bother doing it in case i didnt like the way the rollovers worked.

i suppose i could make the whole info thing a graphic and do it as a disjoint rollover, but thats gonna take some time..

Heya Bona.... I definately like the 'look' of the site. Visually you are subdued, which is excellent for a photographic site. You don't want to detract from the content, which is the pictures. I also like how you went with the cropped look for the 'previews' at the bottom--creates a "ooooh, I wonder what that one looks like" feeling.

I don't like the 'feel', however. I feel like the flash nav is there, just because you could--not because it added anything. There is nothing you did with the flash you couldn't do without it, except for the "pinking" sound--and I find that annoying and I think it detracts from the site. [soapbox] Ultimately it's your clients decision (I had one recently that opt'ed for flash buttons so she could have "oink" sound when you click--EGAD), but part of your job as a designer is to help the client focus on the 'user'. Help steer them in the right direction for the end user and they won't hear complaints about your site later. [/soapbox]

Lose the 'view full size' link at the bottom--that screwed me up a few times until I figgered out I could just click in the menu. And at the bottom, your menu is on the left... not the right.

feel free to browse through the portfolio content by using the menu to the right

yeah i was definitely planning on taking that off, but i just wanted to make sure thats what i wanted to do before i start doing it to all 30 pages.

as far as the flash, do you think i should just do it in html and make it a disjoint rollover?

can you set a disjoint rollover to happen on click? becuase then i could do it for the main image as well.

What i don't get is that fact that this random image thing you have here loads in about 10 seperate images around the actual image instead of just the image itself. For low bandwith users (ie myself) this is very annoying, because as soon as the 10 images around the pic load in, it's time for another to pop up. Mybe juts make the actaul thumb change, leave the borders alone.

And like NL and others said, flash is definitely not needed, especially since it's a nav. Without your plugin, you have nothing at all. That's so simple to do in HTML, maybe not the rollover sounds, but who cares?

Otherwise I like it, i'm a fan of frames myself, they make everything much more organised and i applaud you.