Hosting and Site building help

[Matt_Hirst]

Hi,

I am often asked if I have a website for my photography, that I do as a hobby, so I am looking at either making one myself (not got a clue about how to do this) or look at the cost to get someone to build me one.

What I am wanting is a landing page with a link to a blog, a contact me link, about me link... The blog page would be a list of dates, title of image and a thumbnail image, when selected it would take the user to a larger image and the story behind the image it sounds very basic but so far I've looked at wordpress and their templates, they sort of offer what I am looking at but not quite and it's the same for squarespace...

My email is currently with Ionos and they offer a £1 a month option for 12 months but as I don't know what options I need is this a good cheap option to get started or should I be looking at something else? I am also concerned about my images being protected and not just there to be ripped off so how would I go about this?

So any pointers on what I need or how I go about getting what I need?

Matt

 

[hamesy]

I know you said Wordpress isn't what you are looking for, but there's thousands of different templates to choose from and you can customise them to a certain extent. I've got two websites, one for my business which runs on Wordpress and was designed by a local company and another I knocked up myself using a free Wordoress theme with some basic customisation.

Ionos do Wordpress hosting for £1 a month and if you decide to move hosts, it's quite easy to do. Where as the likes of Wix or Squarespace, you can't just migrate the site somewhere else.

 

[superleeds27]

I know you said Wordpress isn't what you are looking for, but there's thousands of different templates to choose from and you can customise them to a certain extent. I've got two websites, one for my business which runs on Wordpress and was designed by a local company and another I knocked up myself using a free Wordoress theme with some basic customisation.

Ionos do Wordpress hosting for £1 a month and if you decide to move hosts, it's quite easy to do. Where as the likes of Wix or Squarespace, you can't just migrate the site somewhere else.

I'd use Krystal/Stablepoint over anyone else.

 

[Matt_Hirst]

Thanks for the reply, I'll have a look through some more templates with Wordpress see if there is anything that is like what I want.

Will also take a look at krystal/stablepoint.

Matt

 

[Matt_Hirst]

Lol, been fumbling around with this wordpress on ionos for 2 hrs and getting no where - does seem very illogical for something that I think should be so simple.

More difficult than I thought it would be.

Matt

 

[Vandle]

I'm an absolute beginner at all this. Didn't have a clue and found it ever so difficult, I too tried WordPress and couldn't figure it out beyond some template, with someones else pictures in and a blog attached to it.

Ended up using Squarespace and its an absolute breeze, even for a no hoper like me. . I started with their template and just built on it. It looks so good, to the point my colleagues and friends don't believe it was me that actually did it! Which is the ultimate (backhanded and passive aggressive) compliment. Appreciate I sound like an advertising bot but give it a go, its super simple. It's like using powerpoint.

 

[visibleman]

Ended up using Squarespace and its an absolute breeze...

More difficult than I thought it would be.

If you're a beginner then a wysiwyg platform like Squarespace or Wix is a better bet. Sure there are some caveats with them, cost, can't move it to another host etc, but you'll get something produced and working within a few hours and it won't look like a complete dogs dinner - Squarespace even has a photography based tutorial.

Wordpress is a pain in the rear at the best of times and i wouldn't say it's beginner easy, even with some of the more supposed wysiwyg-like based themes/plugins (Elementor, WPBakery etc).

 

[radderfire]

Might be worth asking on a photography forum as well.

Also find photographers on Twitter and see what they are using. Some of their websites will be offering prints for sale, so see how they do that.

Protecting images is not that easy, but you can watermark them by using a graphics program, e.g. Photoshop.

Trying to build your own website with Wordpress is a lot of time and effort. Only do it if you want to learn web design. Using a web builder or whatever other photographers use will be much easier.

If you're interested in hosting your own website then here's a list of web hosting companies.

 

[Mr Oxide]

I'd add to buy your domain from somewhere like https://www.123-reg.co.uk/ so that you hold full control of it. Some cheap hosts offer a free domain but IIRC they own the name when all said and done.

 

[Matt_Hirst]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Got something roughly setup, not 100% happy but I guess it's work in progress...

 

[Matt_Hirst]

Still struggling with the blog part on wordpress, am trying to have a blog that shows last 6 posts and allows user to navigate either of these or once on one click to the next or previous blog post.

Website is extremely-amateur-photographer.co.uk note it is work in progress as I learn things and is just going to allow me to show a few images on it.

Just can't seem to get my head around it.

Any help appreciated.

regards,

Matt

 

[Mr Oxide]

Still struggling with the blog part on wordpress, am trying to have a blog that shows last 6 posts and allows user to navigate either of these or once on one click to the next or previous blog post.

Website is extremely-amateur-photographer.co.uk note it is work in progress as I learn things and is just going to allow me to show a few images on it.

Just can't seem to get my head around it.

Any help appreciated.

regards,

Matt

Something like this?

 

[radderfire]

If you are ever going to seriously market your domain name, then it would be better to have something much shorter than extremely-amateur-photographer.co.uk

No biggie ... just saying.

 

[Mr Oxide]

If you are ever going to seriously market your domain name, then it would be better to have something much shorter than extremely-amateur-photographer.co.uk

No biggie ... just saying.

I agree with domain name but I wouldn't choose that name. I'd use it as a platform to learn from which seems to be the case.

They could sell their really good photos on other platforms to do with selling photos/images.

 

[Vandle]

Sounds like a Readers Wives type site!

Hopefully all the women have bad fitting cheap clothes with a black band superimposed across their eyes for that added bit of authenticity and 80's nostalgia. Bookmarked.

 

[Matt_Hirst]

Lol love some of the replies, yes the name does sound odd for it's content but kinda summed up what I am, the website was just there to act initially as a test platform for me to create a website - never done one before - it may not last longer than a year, but may push me on with trying to get better images, improve my writing, I don't know?

History of it is I used to get asked if I could direct people to images that I have taken so I setup a flickr account, but it can be a pain to direct strangers to it. I was then asked if I would sell some images and have setup a place to sell a few images through but if I am honest I am a amateur photgrapher and just do it for me not for selling pics, finally a few months ago I was asked to provide a backstory to a particular image so after a lot of thought; I thought the only way I can do this is to setup my own website. As I have no intention of making a living from the images that I take I couldn't justify the expense of paying someone to build something for me so hence I am where I am with it.

Thanks for the link to the video I'll look at it later - I can never find helpful videos or maybe I just find Wordpress illogical.

regards,

Matt

 

[Matt_Hirst]

OK changed the website to a different template, now have another question.

The images I am uploading, as far as I am aware are jpg, SRGB but still appear very washed out - however the saved image to my computer appears bright and vivid any thoughts?

Matt

 

[On Holiday]

OK changed the website to a different template, now have another question.

The images I am uploading, as far as I am aware are jpg, SRGB but still appear very washed out - however the saved image to my computer appears bright and vivid any thoughts?

Matt

What browser? I've found Firefox colours wash out awfully but Chrome are bang on.

 

[Matt_Hirst]

Funnily enough I have just tried edge, edge looks fine, chrome looks really washed out.

 

[Matt_Hirst]

Done a reset on Chrome and it now looks same as edge, very strange.