Top 5 Websites

Why I like each site and what would I use from their design:

1) Jerry N. Uelsmann has a great flash slide show on his site where one can choose to go at his pace or their own using simple arrow keys. The options to see his work at various stages is inspiring as he has a category called "Still Wet" along with "Recent, Middle and Past."

2) John Goodman's photography website has no loading time and the home page begins right away with a slide show of his images. Then you can click on one of his portfolio categories (ie. Portraits) to see a selection of thumbnail images in a geometric tile layout that looks very professional and it's easy to navigate to your favourite image with no waiting time to load.

3) Sean Kernan has options to choose three different flash formats for his website (full screen, normal or classic screen). When the full screen one is clicked the size and quality is very impressive and it's very quick to load. He has lots of categories to click-on to see his work and he has a link to a very insightful blog, where he reviews literature related to image creation.

4) Emma Woolrych has a cutting edge design with a drop-down portfolio of images that one can scroll along to see larger thumbnail examples of her work. Then when you click on an image a triptych appears showing a small series from that same shoot- very interesting- the Europeans are always pushing the boundaries on colour and cropping. Setbacks: The load time per image is long and the viewer cannot scroll through the portfolio category we have to click on the drop-down menu again and wait for the image or series to load.

5) Douglas Fisher has a site set on black background which allows the viewer to really be drawn in without getting tired eyes from a bright screen. He uses a splash page at the beginning and then there's very quick loading of small thumbnails of the different portfolio categories (ie. People, Locations, Personal Work). When one image within the portfolio is clicked then the viewer has the option of seeing the whole edited series of that shoot by clicking on numbers 002, 003 and so on, or we can go back to the main portfolio choosing page and click a different category which loads instantly. Setback: The font used to click through the portfolio is too small and being the colour white often blends into the image and so nothing can be clicked to keep going through the images as the buttons are hidden against the white area of the image.

Addresses to view the Top 5 Websites:
1) http://www.uelsmann.net
2) http://www.goodmanphoto.com
3) http://www.seankernan.com/
4) http://www.emmawoolrych.com/
5) http://www.douglasfisher.co.uk/