my new site is live

[Reef Bass]

I used my desire to update my photography web presence as an opportunity to learn and to make use of the latest .net MVC and EntityFramework technologies. Version 1.0 of my new site is live now. Please take a look and let me know what you think. I know I need to improve photo load times. Once they are cached by your browser locally though things come right up.

Ken Bull photography

The site is not a commercial endeavor. It's just me the amateur photographer presenting my pics. There is no shopping cart.

I use a neutral gray themed interface so color comes from the photos. Based on the size of the photo, my code draws a neutral border around the photo and CSS rounds the corners and provides a dropshadow.

A random image is presented every with every visit to the home page, so one can cycle through images just hitting refresh. Click the photo for full size display.

I also created a metatag system with a database for use with searching the photos. Simply select a tag. For example, ORA Borealis will come up if one searches tags Reef, Coral or Acropora. If there are multiple matches for your chosen tag, thumbnails of the images will be displayed and one can click a pic for the full size image. If there is just one match, that photo will be displayed full size.

While I used small image thumbnails for navigation on KenBullImaging.com, this new search control is more simple, flexible and requires less screen area. Fits better on mobile platforms.

I hope you enjoy the site.

 

[woodnaquanut]

Same old, same old GREAT photos!

For the website...

navigation seems sparse. How about a slide show? I don't want to miss any of the great pics and going by keyword seems like I'm missing some.

The only navigation (search by tag) moves around and is absent if there is only one pic. How about a nav bar that is always present?

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks for the suggestions John. Very sensible and exactly what I was looking for. Much appreciated.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Site looks great it loaded really fast on my galaxy s4 so no lagging there..

Love the pic of grants garf that is amazing =)

 

[jalisco]

Very nice. I agree with woodnaquanut that a slide show would be perfect.

 

[ReeferItIs2]

Sweet site with some sweet pics...

 

[Reef Bass]

I made some changes to my site and addressed feedback from here while doing so.

Same old, same old GREAT photos!

There are now over 100 photos available, including recent non reef images.

...The only navigation (search by tag) moves around and is absent if there is only one pic. How about a nav bar that is always present?

There is now a consistently placed navigation control on each page. The position of the control is responsive to the size of your browser window. In a wide browser window, the control will be to the right of the photo. In a narrow window, the control will be below the photo, and the control layout reconfigures to conform to the more narrow display.

How about a slide show?

... a slide show would be perfect.

I added a slideshow. On the home page, one can click the Slideshow link and a random set of photos will be rolled into a slideshow. Click the Change Photos link to call up a different random set. Also, one's search results can be played as a slideshow as well. Simply click the View As Slideshow link on the search results page.

The slideshow will autoplay and changes images every 5 or 6 seconds. Depending on your connection speed it may take a few seconds to load. One can also select a specific photo from the tray of images in the slideshow below the photo.

In the upper left corner of the slideshow is a little italic i. Click that to open the title for the photo. It will remain open while the slideshow plays. Close it by clicking the x in the upper right of the title area.

Other changes:

The photo on the home page is now displayed "full size", so there is no full size image only page any more.

I compressed all the photos more so the full size images load more quickly.

I implemented photo thumbnail images in the search results page so those images load more quickly.

I added some taxonomic information for each image. It's admittedly more detailed for corals than other life forms. I intend to flesh it out some more down the road. The taxonomic info is also searchable by tag.

I added more tags and did a better job making sure each photo has all the appropriate tags.

Please check out KenBull.photography and let me know what you think.

Thanks!

 

[kodiak23]

Ken -
I really like your site, very cool pics. I want to see more corals! And the slide show is nice, besides having to see a flower every few pics

And congrats on reefer of the month!

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks Cody. Much appreciated.

Yeah, I would like to see more corals myself.

Glad you liked the slideshow. It is possible to control the images by searching for a specific tag and then choosing "view as slideshow". Then no flowers unless flowers were something you searched for.

 

[Dragonvale]

Ken,

That chalice top down is CRAZY! Beautiful man!

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks. That was Alicia's Strawberry Chalice. I shot it at her place in Napa. Totally awesome. She's super nice. She was willing to take it out of her tank in a small bucket and I had an easy time getting that shot.

I need to shoot more chalices...