images from my journeys through India

[sunil]

Dear Friends,

I am a Bombay based photojournalist who specializes in covering people, cultures, and travel. My love affair with words and images spans a decade. I am currently working on a photo essay that explores the symbiosis between the rivers of India, and communities that live along it.

To see samples of my work please visit: http://www.riveryatra.com/portfolio/default.htm (http://www.riveryatra.com/portfolio/default.htm)


To follow the course of the great Indian rivers with me please visit: http://www.riveryatra.com/home.htm (http://www.riveryatra.com/home.htm)

AND PLEASE SUGGEST SOME DESIGN CHANGES TO MY SITE.

Cheers

SV

[annc]

Love the photos!

[George]

The website is a work of art. The photos are superb. The layout is calm and serene. You are gifted.

What kind of camera do you use?

The site is somewhat confusing. And it's hard to read as you use a serif font, but that adds to the beauty of the layout, especially with the contrasting font/ background colors. Still, readability comes before artistic effect in web design.

George

[sunil]

Thanks a million mate! Want to change the entire design, am doing it with a little help from a pal who is a programmer, I am a dummy when it comes to HTML and ASP. As for the cameras, I do a mixture of advertising shoots and photojournalism (concentrate on the latter these days...) Thus I work on multiple formats ranging from large format sinars, medium format Horsemans, and the bloody digital camera. The work on my site is shot on a mixture of film and digital. ALL NIKONS ;-)

[ktinkel]

PLEASE SUGGEST SOME DESIGN CHANGES TO MY SITE.
What stunning photos — you do a great job of capturing place and time with your images.

The main problem I have with the site is that it is fixed width, fairly wide, and I need to scroll horizontally to read your text. And white on black is very sparkly and hard to read.

I would suggest that you make the text portions more conventional, black type on a light (though not necessarily white) background, and let them be liquid (able to adjust to anyone’s browser window) to make the text more accessible. Black on white will enable you to use a smaller type size as well.

Then explore the possibility of using some sort of gallery software to assemble and present your images with easy navigation back and forth. Here is one, called Gallery (http://gallery.menalto.com/gallery). I have no idea how good it is, but if you Google on « gallery software » you will find others, many of them Open Source (and probably free).

I will move this thread to the Web Design & Layout section so more web developers will notice it.

[sunil]

let them be liquid (able to adjust to anyone’s browser window)

Thanks a million! But am confused, how can the text be liquid (and how can it adjust to other browsers) ??????

[ktinkel]

let them be liquid (able to adjust to anyone’s browser window)Thanks a million! But am confused, how can the text be liquid (and how can it adjust to other browsers) ??????The site uses tables, with specified widths.

However there are other problems here. The site does not begin with a DOCTYPE declaration. It should have one, and it should declare that the page is written in HTML 4 or XHTML.

Nor does it use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is now the standard method of building web sites.

The doctype tells browsers what to expect on your page; using it also lets you use validation services to determine whether your page will likely be accessible to any browser on any platform. Without it, every browser has to do its best to present your page. (See my attachment to see what Firefox does with it on my Mac — some of the text lies on top of other text.)

CSS is useful for several reasons: It lets you separate content (your text) from codes, which saves coding time, server space, and usually makes pages faster to load. One CSS file can control hundreds of pages, maintaining consistency, and making changes and updates much easier.

Other problems: your site specifies Garamond. That font is not available on many (most) of the computers used to view your pages. On mine, I am seeing my default font, which is Verdana (see the attachment). In fact, sans serif fonts are easier to read on-screen. And you will have more control if you choose fonts that are commonly available so you can see what some portion of your viewers will see.

I would also skip the justified text. It cannot work well on the screen, mainly because we do not have control over hyphenation and kerning. You get large ugly gaps between some words, which impedes reading.

Could also use a better navigational system — viewers shouldn’t have to go back to Home to move to a different topic.

The more I look at your photos, the more striking they become. A better site would make them more accessible, less frustrating for viewers.

[sunil]

I never ever knew that the text looks like that---oops oops oops, sorry guys, will make changes soon

THANKS MANY BILLIONS.

Sunil

[sunil]

Although I confess that I do not understand half of what you say, I think you are really amazing. Woo hoo

Can you help me with this stuff, in exchange for a amazing pic of you the front page of our site. ;-)

MANY BILLION THANKS

Sunil

[ktinkel]

I never ever knew that the text looks like that---oops oops oops, sorry guys, will make changes soonI remember that the most difficult lesson of learning to make web pages was to really underestand that what I was seeing while I worked was not necessarily what others would see. I am a graphic designer, and accustomed to controlling every little thing — but that only works in print!

Good luck with it.

[dthomsen8]

Although I confess that I do not understand half of what you say, I think you are really amazing. Sunil

Yes, we can provide you with a lot of techie information, but you don't have to make use of it. Instead, you really should be passing this on to whoever will be doing your web site. If they understand it and will mostly do it, fine, but if not, you need someone else to do the site.

You have great photos, but you need a better site to go with it. Your font specification, once it is in CSS, should provide for secondary choices for Garamond or whatever font you have as a primary choice. Your ad for your business is entirely in an image, meaning that search engines never see it, when it should be in text, where they will pick it up. There is more I could say, and others will probably add to my remarks, but find someone to do the site, and keep up the great photography.

[sunil]

Thanks DT,

I am touched by the response.

Warmest regards to the DTP family.

S

[Franca]

Hi, Sunil,

I am completely ignorant of the inner workings of web site design but just wanted to add my admiration of your photos along with everyone else's comments. They are beautiful! I was immediately drawn in by the photo you chose for the introductory page of the Indian river journey.

(My husband is a Nikon guy, too - film for years and now digital as well.)

[sunil]

Yeah Film is much much better, I don't like shooting on digital. Used to work on large format film cameras for many years. That is real photography. I always kiss my large format cameras good night. :-)

SV

[iamback]

Sunil, thank you!

I've long been addicted to travel (In fact I'm just back from a month in Yemen) but somehow India never attracted me. But looking at your site, the light, and how you use it, is amazing; the people are interesting - for the first time, India is on my list, thanks to your photographs.

[sunil]

Sorry guys,

Was out of town on assignment.

Will post some more interesting pics soon.

regards

SV

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

As everyone has said, stunning pictures!

A couple of small points -- it might be good if the small images at the bottom of the Home page were active links to larger images or into Portfolios and an irritation that I experience in many places --

In the portfolios there's an image with a Heading above it and Next / etc to move on below which on my screen I have to scroll down to reveal. When I do that and click on Next the next image comes up showing the header and the Next is below screen so I have to scroll down and so on infinitum.

How you resolve this I don't know but it might be with the "liquid" that was referred to, or by putting the Next controls at the top?

But those are details compared to the quality of the photographs ..... once I found them <g>