Where to go for peer/market review of portfolio?

Quotos page - three reds in a row if you let it run (2 Mo's and then the twins)... maybe two ... and mix one of the Mo pix into the middle?

The collages are slaying me now. In a really good way. Each one seems more individually marvellous.

The portraits are popping. Popping. The squash/pumpkin just jumps off the screen - makes me think of the best Country Living covers - from the days I loved their covers.

HUGE difference to my eye!

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sozobe wrote:

(This was a huge bone of contention for me when I was in art school, and I started what turned out to be a pretty interesting thread about this on another forum -- the idea that art has to be dark to be legitimate. That beauty and happiness make something un-art.)

Now THERE'S a subject that interests me: I think quotidian beauty/happiness per se is not dismissible as content of art, and, conversely, some tremendously violent-negative-horrifying-whatever stuff can have beauty.

Agree with suggested changes re Boomer's site, good eye, ehBeth.

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eBeth your advice was brilliant!

Thank you. Really. Thank you.

I think it made a lot of difference and I am excited about the changes.

I figured out how to get things to fit right and tweaked a few other things and I think it looks SO much better.

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You're very welcome!

Now I feel I want to stop and look at each photo ... which I think was the goal (as a marketing tool)

go boomer
go boomer
go boomer

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Lookin' good!!

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Thanks!

I have an unhappy weekend ahead of me so this encouragement is really super fine.

I would love to see a "happy art" discussion but I know that right now is not the time for me to open such a thread. I'm hoping someone else has more gumption.......

Post a link if you are that person and you start that thread.

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Took a stab at it:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=78683

I think that was the same title I used the first time, but the text here is a bit more muddled I think, hope it gets things started.

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it's looking wonderful - I've just said that on Shewolfs thread.

I think the slides shows are perfect, no scrolling and the potential customer is shown a great variety of your work,

I think the text you've put on is perfect as well, good advice, clear ground rules/guidelines etc

S'wonderful! why pay for a site when you can have this free? and with your own domain name,

Look up the tutorial on increasing your ratings - it tells you how to use key words, linking and text to maximise your rating.

Also submit it as site of the week and with a gorgeous site like this you'll get it and they'll give you a lot of extra free memory Smile

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Thank you Vivien!

For your comments and for pointing me to sitekreator. It really is easy to use and offers a lot of options.

I will check out how to increase hits for sure. I'm not quite ready to go public with it yet - I need to go back and add the details I took out so that I could post it for feedback.

The feedback from photography forums is still not so good. A lot of people don't like that tomato photo on the opening page. I think I need to change it. I reposted it to the portraits area because I like it and want to keep it around.

Should I do a slideshow on the opening page? Maybe something that zips along very quickly? Or should I have one single image? If so, then what image would anyone here vote for as a real attention getter?

Thanks!

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Why don't they like the tomato photo?

I think it goes perfectly with the text -- that you're not a conventional kid portrait photographer, etc. It's very "you," in a good way.

I don't think I like the slide show on the first page -- at least, if you do it, I think it should be only the portraits, not collages or quotos. Those last two make the whole slideshow look too busy.

Can you have a slow fade in/ fade out kind of thing? That might help.

If you're going for something a little more conventional (see, that's the thing, "conventional," you're not conventional!) this is one of the poppiest:

http://0301.netclime.net/1_5/8/X/2/skgi_1292848_17030.jpg

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Thanks, soz.

I've been playing around with a slide show at the top but it just really wasn't working for me (plus, it made the site redundant). Seeing your comment confirmed my suspicion.

I have one more idea for a little kind of animated collage thing that holds on the final image. I shot some photos the other day but I'm not sure I like them all enough to do a collage.

I don't know why people didn't like the tomato photo but one comment was that it reminded them of Marilyn Manson and that is certainly not the vibe I want to give off. Another said they thought the "vegetable photos" are creepy. Meanwhile, on a parenting forum the carrot photo was a big hit.

I don't hardly know what to think anymore!

Ah well. Back to work. I need to look at my new photos again. The idea I'm working on might be pretty cool but......

I think I need to quit listening to photographers and go back to listening to parents!

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boomerang wrote:

Thank you Vivien!

For your comments and for pointing me to sitekreator. It really is easy to use and offers a lot of options.

I will check out how to increase hits for sure. I'm not quite ready to go public with it yet - I need to go back and add the details I took out so that I could post it for feedback.

The feedback from photography forums is still not so good. A lot of people don't like that tomato photo on the opening page. I think I need to change it. I reposted it to the portraits area because I like it and want to keep it around.

Should I do a slideshow on the opening page? Maybe something that zips along very quickly? Or should I have one single image? If so, then what image would anyone here vote for as a real attention getter?

Thanks!

are the photographers professional like you or keen amateurs? I find that often the keen amateurs are too concerned with rule of thirds compositions and pin point focussing and imaginative original work like yours is outside their field of comprehension

Please remain true to yourself. Your work is special.

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They're anonymous poster just like me!

I guess I just want my peers to "get it".

The artists among them said there was not enough "angst".

The commercial photographers thought they weren't "adorable" enough.

It was really all over the map but they did make some good points and force me to look at things fresh. I want the first image to be attention getting so that people go on through the rest of the site but I don't want it to be so odd that I have to explain it.

Here is one I've been working on today that I'm starting to like. I may use it for the frontpiece as it is unconventional but doesn't require explaining. Let me know what you think!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v667/boomerangagain/beachlightdark3.jpg

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Both of them together, you mean?

I really like both of them. Lots of character to it.

What about reversing the borders? The one bordered in black is darker, the one bordered in white is lighter, seems too unbalanced to me as-is. Then (if the lighter one was bordered in black, and the darker one bordered in white) you could also get rid of the inner border.

But that's nitpicking, they're both really nice pics and I love them paired.

Vivien, excellent point about keen amateurs. That's a point I was thinking of (but hadn't posted yet) on my "does art need to be dark to be taken seriously?" thread.

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I think if you click on the link the composition makes a little more sense than it does on here.

I wanted a long, skinny image so that it filled the width of the screen but still showed the first line of text: "I confess, the portraits I take of children are not exactly traditional."

The site does have some limitations as to how the photos are laid out so I tried to compensate for that. They don't look quite so paired, there but right now I'm still experiementing with something eye-grabbing.

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You're so right -- looks much better in context. (I like!)

I do like your use of color, though, those are both more subdued, color-wise.

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Boomerang I love your work because it isn't sugary syrupy yukky 'adorable' - it's real, lovable, engaging, natural children, sometimes naughty, sometimes sulky, sometimes absorbed, laughing, whatever - but these are the memories that people will love in years to come.

There's a million and one taking 'adorable' images and cute doesn't stand the test of time. Your images have so much more depth.

Some photographers simply can't move on past the stock safe kind of image and 'cute' seems to be a particularly American thing! not with you or Soz I hasten to add. I visit an art forum with a photography section and they have occasional competitions - I'm frequently amazed at the winners - voted for by members - which are often the really unimaginative but technically good ones.

Be true to yourself as you have something over and above the run of the mill. I don't dole out empty praise believe me - if I don't like I either crit if I know the person will welcome it .... or say nuffin!

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Book mark.. Smile

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Where to go for peer/market review of portfolio?

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