Site Redesign; Prints for Sale

I’ve been working on assembling a portfolio for awhile now, and Friday afternoon I decided it was time to finally put it all together.  I had it narrowed down to around 30 images, but I really wanted to trim it down to about 15. I’ve never put together a portfolio before, so aside from reading a few generic articles, I was mostly going by my intuition.  If anyone has any pointers, or sees an image they think doesn’t belong, please speak up. 

Originally, I had two galleries, one for portraits, and one for nature/landscape photography, but as I started taking less portraits, and started having more images in general, the galleries became cluttered, diluted, and ultimately ignored.  Now when new visitors come to my site, they can quickly have access to what I consider my strongest images.  Along with that, all of the photographs in my portfolio are now for sale!  If one strikes your fancy, you can quickly and easily purchase it through Fotomoto. If you click on an image in my portfolio, there are links on the bottom left of the image that immediately let you buy a print or card.  I scoured the web for other photoblogs, investigating how other blogs were handling selling their work, and Fotomoto seemed above and beyond other methods in simplicity and accessibility.  Many photoblogs sell their prints to their buyers via e-mail, and while this may save them on middleman costs, (Fotomoto charges a straight 15%) it seems clunky and not as user friendly.  I feel that Fotomoto can help me sell enough extra prints in the long run to offset their 15%.  For the record, I stumbled across Fotomoto on the excellent and well regarded photoblog, Chromasia.

Along with uploading my portfolio, I also undertook a small site redesign.  I had been using the Lightword theme for WordPress, and while it was straight forward and minimalist, I wanted something with more options, more flexibility.  Both Jon and Leanna are using Suffusion on their respective blogs, and after checking it out I decided to give it a go.  I couldn’t decide on whether or not I wanted to use a light or dark background, but I’m testing dark out for now.  As usual feedback is appreciated here.  I also got rid of the sidebar, because it was serving no purpose, and removing it allows for wider images.  If anyone is having problems with viewing the new format, just let me know, and I’ll do what I can do to fix it. 

I do plan on uploading more images to sell, and I may end up setting up another tab for those images.  I’ve started to go through and tag all my images on the website, and on my Flickr account, so that they will be searchable.  If anyone has any more ideas, or links to other photoblogs they think are doing things right, point me in the right direction.  I hope everyone enjoys the new layout, and you can expect more images on Wednesday.

Ryan