Captured

Captured

****- (Rated by 4 people, viewed by 110 people)

Captured is a photo blog. I love photography and love sharing my pictures online.

Added by Allie in Other

Captured has 4 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Captured. Jump to review form?

  1. [img: avatar]
    _cy gave it ***-- on 12th Feb 2009 and said:

    I'm a big photo fanatic myself and as a result, have gotten so that images captures my attention like words can't do anymore. Which means that photoblogs and the layouts of such excite me like they shouldn't, so I may be more critical than on a normal blog, because I think photos deserve special attention in terms of site formatting - m'kay?

    /PRESENTATION & FORMATTING
    The screenshot makes your site look really nice and clean - neutral, even. Unfortunately, viewed in real time, the design is too blue. Now, it's not just that I have issues against the color, but when it comes to presenting photos, you want your photos to really pop. Veering to one side of the color wheel prevents that, and can cause discoloration to your photos because inevitably, whatever cool tones are in your photos end up coming out more than you might intend. Take for example the current photo on your front page, which emphasizes warmer tones. Paired with your background & title color, the purple-tinge comes out stronger than it should. Plus, it just doesn't match. I would suggest a more neutral color in the future or at least a more balanced pallet in your layout.

    Don't get me wrong - I love your background texture. It's gorgeous where the text you chose for your title and 'photoblog' subtitle is not. In fact, the grungy font detracts focus from your photos once again and comes off very unclean, which doesn't quite match the more streamlined design elements/boxes of your grid layout.

    Another balance issue comes from the placement of your image: it's on the left side. There is empty space on the description column on the right, and what with your title on the left, it's an unsettling view and (yes, I'm repeating myself) your photo is not the main focus, mostly because there is so much color coming from it and the lack of it coming from your description column. I say center it and bring the description down under.

    I'm not so fond of your font choice and size. At the settings you have on, the display comes out too generic, unstyled, and crowded. Perhaps some line-height would provide some breathing space? Also, you have way too many lines - I've realized that this may be the main problem for the unbalance. Try to tone those down and reserve some for your photos. ;)

    Now for what I do like: the contact form, the presentation of the top navigation & your use of the YAPB plugin - it's my favorite as well!

    /CONTENT
    Macro shots are great. :) You lose some sharpness on your more recent pics, though, though, and there's some aberration on a few photos. My favorite is the one of the bridge against the blue sky - really stands out from your other ones, and even against your layout! That's what I meant by pop. Also, good job keeping up consistent descriptions of each image. I know how much easier it would be just to pop in a photo without talking about it.

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  2. [img: avatar]
    Bri gave it ****- on 27th Nov 2008 and said:

    First, I like the title of your photoblog. It's to-the-point and not pretentious. I don't mind the current layout, but I'm not a huge fan of the navigation. When I clicked on the "About" tab on the upper right hand side of the page, I was a little confused when I was redirected to the tiny little section at the bottom of the page. I guess I'm just too accustomed to navigation links opening up new pages, not just being redirect anchors. Eventually I'd love to see the "About" section moved to it's own page and fleshed out a bit - When did you become interested in photography? How long have you been shooting? When did you get your first camera and what kind was it? - that sort of thing.

    The actual content, the photos and small bit of accompanying text, is worth visiting for. I checked the RSS feed and noticed that it only displays the photo and not the bit of text. Was this by design? If so, you may wish to reconsider - I think the text could help keep feed readers interested, and may make them more likely to comment. Also, you seem to live in a beautiful location, so it may be tempting to stick with the nature shots, but as a viewer I'd love to see more variety in your photo subjects in the future.

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  3. Julie gave it ***** on 26th Nov 2008 and said:

    First Impressions
    Simple and clean. In pretty much any other case, I would have said it is a bit too simple. However, as it is a photo blog, the photos (which are part of the content, not of the layout) act as a counterweight and perfectly justify the simplicity. The name is also a good choice. Simple, not overly cryptic (well, not cryptic at all, actually) and short.

    Layout
    This blue is awesome. It's pretty much the best blue ever (and blue is already the best color ever, so imagine how awesome it can be).

    I like how the footer has a different background than the rest. It makes it look important without taking over the main focus of your site.

    Content
    One of the things I like is how you managed to use Wordpress without having a site that screams "Hello! I'm powered by Wordpress!" It's not that I find Wordpress is a bad thing; I only mean that you have managed not to use near-clichés of WP.

    By the way, hurray for unique page titles! This is something that is so often forgotten by people, and makes me very confused, because of my love for opening multiple tabs.

    As for the photos themselves, you definitely have talent! You seem to have a preference for macro photography? Or maybe you just happen to have posted more photos falling under that category.

    I really don't know what else to say. I'm not exactly your photography teacher. :P

    Coding
    At first glance, your coding looks clean. One thing I noticed is that your images (the photos in your blog, that is), all have the same alt text, i.e. "A Capture Photo". Is it the plug-in you use that automatically puts that in? Because it looks kind of, well, automatic.

    Oh, I really like the way you coded your form. Now, if there ever were to be Geek Sentence Awards, I'd certainly nominate that one. I hate when people don't put labels ("name", "email", etc.), and even more so when they put it in the input boxes and use Javascript to make them go away when you click inside the box. Anyway, I like that it's clear to people with fancy CSS-enabled browsers, while not being meaningless when you look at the source code.

    Your stylesheet is also good. One thing, however, is that you use .hidden {margin-left: -9999px;}. There is however a CSS property to make things invisible. While you might think visibility:hidden; will do the trick, it will actually only make the text invisible, but the area it would occupy will be blank (so if it would take a height of 20 pixels, there will be a blank space of 20 pixels). If you want to pretend like it doesn't exist at all, use display:none;.

    Overall
    That was certainly short, but it is not because your site is lame or something. On the contrary, I think photoblogs are a great idea when the author has talent, and it's the case with you. Your site isn't littered with errors, which is also
    on the plus side.

    So go on and I hope you have fun with your site (and with CUTE LITTLE FLUFFY CATERPILLARS!).

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    Allie's Response:

    Macro photography is definitely one of my favorite things to do.

    The alt tag is generated by the plug in. I've played with it some to try to get it to read the same as the entry title but I don't know that it's possible with the way the plug in is written.

    Using .hidden {margin: -9999px} is for accessibility reasons. I had looked at different ways to make that information visible when viewing the site without CSS. So far, it seems that method works best for screen readers because some of them ignore display: hidden;. Who's to say which is 'the best', really. Plus I'm still learning things about accessibility.

    I'm glad that you like the form. Originally it was rather dull because I hate styling forms but then I decided to make the extra effort to pretty it up.

    Thanks for the review!

  4. [img: avatar]
    Shadow gave it ***** on 25th Nov 2008 and said:

    First Impression

    I saw this site last night, before you submitted it. It's a very simple layout. The textures are very subtle and doesn't drive your attention away from the actual photoblog. It serves its purpose and doesn't distract from the actual photos. The only gripe is the line that separates your titles and the rest of your text. I don't know if I like that it gets thicker at the end. It should be progressing into it perhaps.

    Blog

    Wow. I love your photos. The catepillar one is just adorable. Too bad you can't touch it. I would love to see your archives in a thumbnail type set-up rather than the set up you have now which you have on the front page. But either way, wic-ked!

    Your tabs direct to your footer bar. I thought I'd be taken to another page, but it's fine this way, because if you don't have much to say in the pages, you might as well leave them out anyway.

    All in all...

    I really can't say much about this site, because the layout is nice and doesn't draw your visitors away from the real reason of the site. Your photos are beautiful! Hopefully you really do update regularly! Good job!

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    Allie's Response:

    Thanks for the review!

    Yes, I put the about + other information in the footer because there really isn't that much to it. Also, once I mess around with the Wordpress plugin I should be able to get a thumbnail archive page up. So far I only have 7 entries so there wouldn't be many to show there yet anyway =)

    As for the divider beneath my titles… maybe it will stay. Sometimes I have ideas like that that work better in my head.

    UPDATED 26 Nov 08:
    Oops. … should be an ellipsis ^^;

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