www.arigram.gr

[arigram]

At last, the moment you all have been waiting for,

www.arigram.gr

is open for business.

Seriously, I would like your opinions.
What you like, what you don't like.
What is practical, what is confusing, what detail
doesn't quite fit, what doesn't work well.
The more information, the better.

Tell me about your:
- Operating System and version
- Browser and version

The website has been built with these things in mind:
- To be as compatible with the standards as possible
- To be fast
- Not to use proprietary commercial addons (such as flash).
- To use minimal javascript
- To have a minimalist design as to focus on the essential
- To be practical and user friendly
- To be able to change and grow
- To be updated easily

It has been tested successfully with Firefox 2 and 3 on
Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon (Linux), Microsoft Windows XP SP2
and on the cell phone Sony Ericsson W880i with the built in
browser and Opera Mini 4.

This website has been 18 years in the making (from the moment I first went online on the Internet I wanted to make one). So its kind of a big deal for me, mostly of sentimental value.
The reason I am posting here is not for advertising purposes (like anyone cares), but to get as many people to test it as possible, especially of photographic background.

So, please excuse this shameless plug.

 

[Steve Smith]

Excellent.

It looks good (I Like the links icons).

Everything loads very quickly.

Nice design.

I think you have achieved all that you wanted.

Views o.k. on Firefox.

Not being conversant in Greek, I have only looked at the English version.



Steve.

 

[clogz]

Hello Ari,
Pleasant website, no technical problems detected.

Regards
Hans

 

[Ole]

It also looks very nice in Opera v. 9.24.

 

[SuzanneR]

Firefox on a mac, and it loads quickly, and looks good. My only comment... you information page could be, well... a little more personal. Also... it's not clear to me what your business model is. Are you looking for editorial or commercial assignments? Portrait commissions? Print sales? I would spell that out somewhere at the start.

Good job.

 

[Sino]

Hello σύντεκνε,

First of all, congratulations on building the website and most of all, two thumbs up for the descriptions on how you work and why you prefer the equipment that you're using.

What I found in need of improvement is the "main block" of your website, that is too small in comparison with the content that needs to fit in it. In a 1024x768 screen it looks bulky, whilst in a larger screen it looks compressed. Another area that could be improved is the text at the info part of the website -- design-wise, it's a block of text that uses bold and regular characters in an unorganized fashion. The headlines should look as headlines, and the parts in the text that need some more attention can be emphasized with lots of other ways. A good idea, since you have menu selections both on the left and the top of the site, is to keep all text oriented in one way, to avoid clutter. This way the eye can follow the text in a more natural way. One last -and least- improvement would be to include a photograph when someone enters the gallery -- right now it feels 'empty' when you first have to pick a category in order to start browsing.

All in all, I believe it's a great start for a photographic website, since the visitor is almost "forced" to pay attention to the content of the site and not to it's build, which is what it's there for!

I used Firefox 2.0 on Windows XP & browsed only through the Greek section of the website.

-Sino.

 

[AgX]

Ari,

Consider your site `AgX-proof´, as my computer set-up seems to be the worst here at apug. I can no longer use the Kodak site, but yours works perfectly!

 

[arigram]

Firefox on a mac, and it loads quickly, and looks good. My only comment... you information page could be, well... a little more personal. Also... it's not clear to me what your business model is. Are you looking for editorial or commercial assignments? Portrait commissions? Print sales? I would spell that out somewhere at the start.

Good job.

Thank you all and I am glad its working for you.

You make two good points Suzanne.
I have thought about both a lot.

I mentioned that I wanted to built a website 18 years ago.
When I first saw the world online I was dazzled and wanted to join by making a personal website. It was the days that you most often used a text browser (such as Lynx) and the very fancy websites had a couple 20k GIF images and no background.
So, to make my point, the problem is that I had nothing to write about back then and have very little to write about myself right now. I also have found that after many dozens of drafts through out the years, I could never make an autobiography that didn't sound cheesy or pretentious.
So, for this website, I settled on elaborating on my artistic, mostly technical, details, things that would interest potential clients.
Maybe when I am twenty years older, my beard turn gray and with some professional background, someone else would be able to write about me.

Your second question should be answered by a shrug of the shoulders and an adolescent "don't know". I am very open to being offered work of many kinds and considering I am very new to the game and the chaos of the local market, I can't be more specific than my photographs say.
I would really like my photographs to speak for themselves, about what I do and how I do it and have potential clients request that kind of work from me.
To display artistic black and white and then go around shooting weddings with a cheap digital, like everyone else does around here, would be confusing.
Plus, I am not really well informed in the whole business aspect, including economics.

 

[Uhner]

I think it is a good site, and I do believe that you have accomplished your stated objectives.

Like Ole I find that it looks very nice on Opera

C

 

[arigram]

Sino,
we should talk!

AgX,
what is your set up?

The whole point of the WWW is that any device with a browser that follows standards should be able to access and display correctly any page.
At least, that's in theory, but unfortunately you have the proprietary crap that Microsoft and Abobe floods the web with, locking the free world to their business models and limiting the audience of a website.
I want everyone to be able to see my photos, on any device and any software.
If it can load on a cell phone, with a slow connection, tiny screen and simple browser, then it should work everywhere!

 

[JBrunner]

Hi Arri,

Works very well here. Marvelous images. Using IE on XP. I'll check it on Safari when I get to work.

I agree about the info page. It reads like a resume. A biography always sounds cheesy and pretentious to the person it's written about, however if it is factual, it is not, no matter how it sounds to you. You are not objective about yourself, you can't be.

Artistic photographers, many artists for that matter, seem to have an issue with promoting themselves. Don't.

 

[removed account4]

hi ari

great stuff !

looks good on my mac
i use safari, and camino ...


john

 

[arigram]

I agree about the info page. It reads like a resume. A biography always sounds cheesy and pretentious to the person it's written about, however if it is factual, it is not, no matter how it sounds to you. You are not objective about yourself, you can't be.

Artistic photographers, many artists for that matter, seem to have an issue with promoting themselves. Don't.

Well, I generally don't have a problem with self-promotion.
One of my most common lines is "Hi, I am a great photographer. Pose for me." and don't have trouble convincing people of my "high quality artistry", but when it comes to text, its like hearing one's voice recorded. I have been trying to get over that all this time, but nothing I've written pleased me. I may give it a shot later on.

I have many more photos I would like to share, including my Tango project, but those are enough for the moment. I am glad you like them.

 

[JBrunner]

Well, I generally don't have a problem with self-promotion.
One of my most common lines is "Hi, I am a great photographer. Pose for me." and don't have trouble convincing people of my "high quality artistry", but when it comes to text, its like hearing one's voice recorded. I have been trying to get over that all this time, but nothing I've written pleased me. I may give it a shot later on.

I have many more photos I would like to share, including my Tango project, but those are enough for the moment. I am glad you like them.

Might I suggest you gather all the relevant facts, and ask somebody else to write it. Then it's not you. You and your work certainly deserve the credit for your education and efforts, beyond a mere litany.

 

[Rombo]

Very nice.
No problems detected on Mac OS X Ver. 10.4.8 and Safari 2.0.4.

I think Your CV should have Your personal photo.
Photos are in good size, but only after I click on them.

I am missing basic information in "photographs". Maybe title or date/location should be added.

But these are only my opinions. Anyway, in general I think that You have made very good work! I hope that this page will bring You more contacts and business oportunities!

Best wishes, Peter.

 

[arigram]

Might I suggest you gather all the relevant facts, and ask somebody else to write it.

That's a good suggestion. There is a writer friend I could ask...

Very nice.
I think Your CV should have Your personal photo.

Yes it should and I wanted one, but it has to be a good portrait
and I don't know any photographer around here I can ask!
I am terrible with self portraits, always have been, photos or drawings.
And don't have any recent photos of me...

Photos are in good size, but only after I click on them.

The design had to fit a 1024x768 window.

I am missing basic information in "photographs". Maybe title or date/location should be added.

Now, that's something I would like to discuss with you and the others.
At the beginning I wanted to add all kinds of info on the photographs, not unlike APUG's gallery, but soon I changed my mind. For one thing, I rarely keep technical details down, I am bad with dates and I might even forget the particular place I took the picture at.

When adding the photos to the gallery, they come up with no titles which I later on add in both languages (it has a good thumbnail system). While I was testing the website, I realized that photos that didn't have a title somehow felt not only "cleaner" but the lack of textual definition gave them more pictorial power.
Thus, I removed all of them, but the "places" ones.
The truth is in general I hate titles and I dislike titling my artwork.
I thought of leaving the titles in the "places" with a short description of the place pictured, such as "rome, italy".

What do you think?

 

[pentaxuser]

Ari. Works fine for me on IE. Loads super quickly - much quicker than APUG but then most sites do compared to APUG. Just two very small points and these may not be mistakes on the site. You mention a camera being bought in Ethipia by your father. Is this meant to be Ethiopia? Secondly in your equipment section you mention Monoblock tripods. I think that the brand name spelling is without the k at the end so it's Monobloc but I could be wrong. May be worth checking.

Best of luck.

pentaxuser

 

[arigram]

Regarding the design size, the website was made to fit on a 1024x768 screen with a browser's toolbars and tab bars.
I tested it both on my desktop at 1920x1280 where the browser is a window usually smaller than the screen and on my laptop with a 1024x768 screen. A friend of mine reported that somehow he gets even less screen estate with a scrollbar coming up and need to query him on his set up.
I know it doesn't look perfect in all resolutions, but if I made the graphics SVG and the layout even more dynamic it would make it heavier and possibly less compatible.

PU: There are indeed some typos, even more than the ones you mentioned and will be corrected pronto. I must confess I was a bit sloppy with the text.

 

[CRhymer]

Hello Ari,
Great site!

One small item (perhaps it has been mentioned already). In the English version the word Τύπος is used and in the ελληνικά version the word Press is used (in the σύνδεσμοι pull-down menu)

Cheers,
Clarence

 

[arigram]

Thanks Clarence, fixed!

 

[davetravis]

Hi Ari,
Looks pretty good on my xp & ie7 box.
I think you should add a picture of yourself, and maybe one of you in your darkroom.
And congrats on finally getting it done, I know, been there done that!

 

[ooze]

Hi Ari,

The site loads very fast, no problems at all. I think the photos are a bit small to be fully appreciated.

My OS is Windows XP. Browser is Explorer.

Cheers, omar

 

[arigram]

Dave Travis:
You are right and I want to, but first I've got to clean up my darkroom (not presentable at the moment) and find someone good with a camera to photograph me.

Omar:
Try clicking on them. I thought of having some text or an icon to explain that but I decided against it.

 

[Edwardv]

Sino,
we should talk!

AgX,
what is your set up?

The whole point of the WWW is that any device with a browser that follows standards should be able to access and display correctly any page.
At least, that's in theory, but unfortunately you have the proprietary crap that Microsoft and Abobe floods the web with, locking the free world to their business models and limiting the audience of a website.
I want everyone to be able to see my photos, on any device and any software.
If it can load on a cell phone, with a slow connection, tiny screen and simple browser, then it should work everywhere!

Hear! Hear! Thank you for considering others using different devices and software for a browser.

 

[arigram]

Hear! Hear! Thank you for considering others using different devices and software for a browser.

No, really, I was doing it for myself.
I want the widest audience possible.
I mean, what's the point of having a website when I limit my audience by forcing them to use specific software that they might not have or work with their chosen system and require them to have powerful hardware and fast connection?
After all, all I want is people to look at my photographs and get some information on me. Simple really, why complicate it?
Why also, would I tie up my website and photos to a specific company?
"I am not a number, I am a free man!"

I have visited many websites of many photographers and often they are a pain in the ass. You have to put up with slow and heavy bling bling that takes an age to load up, then you are hunting down the means to navigate the site and before you even reached the photographs you are bored and fed up already.
If a site is slow and heavy, most people will not bother to look more than a couple photographs.

I have a top of the line desktop computer with a 24" screen and fast broadband (24/1Mbps) connection, but not everyone has that.
And I want people to see my photos.