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My new web portfolio/site

Bob Carnie

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Apr 18, 2004
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7,735
Location
toronto
Format
Med. Format RF
This site has been made to use as a calling card for Laura (my lovely wife) and my work. We are sending print portfolios to gallery's and it
seems to be mandatory for the gallerists to see the work before you can even send in a portfolio.

This is not a commercial website in any stretch... I would appreciate any constructive critisism, there are changes being made now and in the future to the grammar and
some of the images, but I am most interested in hearing if the site is effective in communicating what Laura and I do as photographers.

Our goal is to have the portfolio on the West Coast in January and start moving back to the east coast to different potential gallerys.


Here is the site www.patersoncarnie.com

PE - I know you are going to hammer me on the word solarization, but its not changing.
 
Very nice site. Easy to navigate and I like the idea of both of you on the site. Great idea! Also, your wife's IR work is gorgeous! I didn't think IR in the winter would look good, but now I'm going to try it.
 
I like it a lot, Bob.

Question, is the word "printing" supposed to be in this sentence in your bio?

"...where he has developed an international reputation for traditional and digital fine art printing for acclaimed photographers, galleries and museums." It seems to beg a verb there. Otherwise, I am very impressed; nice and simple. Makes me want to take a hack-saw and cut all the extraneous crap out of my site.

Well, done, sir!
 
you are right... this is why I am putting it out there..I will have my guy add this.

thanks for the kind words.

 
Overall I liked your site but there is a small thing that kinda bothers me and it's on the start site, your wife's image is as wide as the text and square whereas your image is smaller than the text and rectangular this makes the site look a little unbalanced imo other than this small thing nothing to complain about. The difference between your wife's and your work as well as your styles are clearly communicated right from the start.

congratulations

Dominik
 
Dominik

Thank you I will contemplate this.

I work with 8x10 and 4x5 aspect ratio and my wife works with square or 35mm aspect ratio and I did find this concerning each time we make invite cards for shows and yes I was a bit
concerned about this.. very good observation.
 
Bob: I think this is a very clean, easy to navigate web site that showcases you and Laura's wonderful work very well. My only critique is that on the portfolio pages it is very easy to click through landscape-oriented images, but when a portrait-orientatation is encountered it is necessary to scroll down a bit (at least on my MacBook), then scroll back up to click to the next image.
Best,
Dan
 
Thanks Dan

and all ... this is exactly what I am looking for as the site is still in testing phase.

Bob
 

Hi Bob:

Site looks great, as does the fine work.

The thumbnails are quite small on my 1920x1080 monitor - you may want to adjust them slightly.

And while I'm not going to hammer you on the "solarization" thing, for the search engines you might want to add something like this: (NB solarizations are referred to by some as the Sabbatier effect)
 
Only and I mean only if Ron insists.

I will be deleting some of the images to reflect the work that I am exhibiting and making the thumbnails bigger is a good idea.
 
I love the website. (one more edit) I really like the contrast between both of your work

My only recommendation would be to to either have a sampling of your work to the right of your bio (as your wife has) when you first click on your name, or arrange your portfolio sections vertically to the right of your bio. Otherwise (having clicked on your wife's section first) I'm kind've waiting for your thumbnails to load before I realize your categories are up at the top.

also, I think someone might have said this already, but with your portrait oriented pictures I have to scroll down to see, such that the picture navigation arrows are unavailable to me (and I have to scroll back up). Small complaints but it would be nice if the navigation controls were closer to the photo.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Bob, I'm a fan as well

I echo the sentiment expressed by a couple of other people regarding the unequal size of the photos on your home page. It just seems to throw things off balance a little; but otherwise, all good!

I know you said you're only putting up this site for the sake of galleries being able to see your work online but I do have a suggestion for the "guy" you spoke of who was going to "add things" for you. It's in regard to Search Engine Optimisation. I'm unsure of how interested you are in directing people other than gallery owners to your work, but assuming you'd like to be found as easily as possible, there are a few tweaks to throw into the meta data. Primarily (and the first thing I noticed) is that your home page is entitled simply "Home". My suggestion would be to make this a tad more descriptive, e.g Home of Laura Paterson and Bob Carnie's Fine Art Printing - or something along those lines - just to get your names up there and out there. Along with this, keywords can be added into the meta data so that when someone searches on Google or any other search site, your web page will be offered up when it matches the terms listed. Google's little bots have a tendency to only read, um, twenty or fifty (I can't recall which now) of the first of your keywords, so get your most important ones in there first. A description for the site can also be placed in the meta data. With your photos, each and every one of them should have a title tag and alt tag (they're visible only to search engines but don't show up on or below the actual image, so you needn't worry about the clogging up your nice clean page!). You can, of course, add captions below those you'd like to provide visible information for as well.
These are all things search engines pay attention to and will help make your site more visible and more easily located.

I don't know if those ideas have any interest and use for you; I just thought I'd mention them

Okay, geek talk done with..... lovely images from both you and Laura, Bob, and a nice clean site within which to view them.
 
Beautiful work by both of you! Are Laura's IR images shot with the Kodak infrared? I so miss that film! And, what is the problem with calling it "solarization." I don't get it...that is what we always called it back in my darkroom days in the lab...

I happen to like the juxtaposition of her square image next to your vertical one and I think it is complimentary. My critique is that I think your header bar/menu tabs should be centered. Otherwise, I think you have done a very good job of representing the artwork while at the same time giving some descriptive info about it. Good luck to you both!
 
The problem with calling it solarisation is that there is another, quite different phenomenon that has had that name longer .

And that the Sabbatier effect is actually the correct name, even if it isn't the colloquial name.

But I still would really like to see Bob's prints, even if he has to call it the Carnie effect!

PS: Here is what wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarisation
 
Well Matt , you probably will as our work is going to be in Calgary in Feb then its being shipped to Vancouver.. We are hoping to have a show next spring/summer/or fall in Vancouver then down to Los Angeles.

Mmmm Carnie Effect I will have to ponder this one.

Bruce what the hell is smaltzz

Molli - points well taken.. this project is in its baby steps and we are putting this out here and on Large Format to get exactly what all of you are saying.

marenmgowan- yes the film is Kodak IR- Laura has over 26 binders full of INNOCENCE images shot on IR, we are mining the archives now and it will
take a couple of years... We will be making enlarged negatives and printing Carbon over Palladium for all this work. The colour holga work will be done
tri colour carbon.

kenneth - the arrangement of type is an area where I will discuss with my web guy.



Thank you all , I appreciate all the nice comments and suggestions.


 
I know many people who would call me Bob schmaltzy Carnie then.
 

What is the Yiddish word for short and/or surly?

That may be more appropriate for Bob.
 
Oh that is so cute... dinesh has come out of his little cave.....
What would be the Yiddish word for incredibly ugly... I need one for Mr D.

Dinesh said:
What is the Yiddish word for short and/or surly?

That may be more appropriate for Bob.
Click to expand...
 

Bob;
Michael R sums it up very well, it's like malarkey.
 
Bob:

You would really sell out the house if you and Dinesh would both show up together for the opening of your show
 
Bob, I am more interested in why you make photographs than in the technical details such as what paper you use. People that collect photographs will be too. By reducing the work down to the technical details such as you have it on your site you are presenting it as a exercise in craft rather than an expression.

Overall the site looks good. I don't know why the menu is offset though. That bothers me a little. I think the menu system needs some work. It is very confusing, especially for your images. The eye has to go down then back up then back down. It isn't intuitive at all. It needs to be simplified.

You should also put some type of separator between your names, otherwise people who don't know you will think your name is Paterson Carnie!

The different size images on the front page don't bother me.
 
Hi Patrick

Good point... I guess is that since I have been printing for others for so long, I figured it was relevant talking about the end prints.. specifically in my work, not so much in Laura's case.
In my work I am not trying to say anything, and why I make photographs may come off as sounding corny or silly. Some of the end product process both Laura and I are working are are
very esoteric**big word** and I feel it may be relevant to the gallerists when considering seeing our work.
I am not trying to sell the images from this site btw.

I prefer people look at my images and enjoy them immediately or walk away immediately. When I first started the Alchemy of Light series I was calling it CONSUMED .. a reflection of society throwing away
things easily or in the food case, eating without really understanding where it comes from.... but I could not over time support this line of reasoning with my work as I really am not that deep( Dinesh will certainly contest to that} and my only real skill in life it seems is putting light on film or paper so therefore we moved the name to Alchemy of Light.
Friends of mine have become quite huge in the photo world with their projects , and now after 25 years they have found out the reason they photograph and all their images start making sense within a descriptive prose. When you are not telling a story with your work * Alchemy of Light* it is a bit more difficult to say why you photograph other than I have nothing to do every Sunday and I decided to expose film rather than Golf.

The web name will stay the same , unless of course she smartens up and gets rid of me... This site is specifically aimed at gallerists to have a look at work before they decide to accept our portfolios or
not for show consideration. So there will be an obvious email communication clearly defining whether paterson or carnie is calling.

I was also concerned about the menu system , my person doing the site is using a canned system and may have limitations as I did not want to purchase a full blown web design from scratch.. I think there
is some wiggle room though. Which in January we will look at and modify the site.

Bob



 
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