This post we are going to palaver a bit about the Bui Brothers, a pair of California photographers that know how to grab your attention with their website. On the landing page of http://thebuibrothers.com/ you’ll find a nice big inviting video player that states in bold red “Click to play.” I like this because it does not automatically play and start assaulting me with music and images which seems to happen more and more on photographers sites.
After I clicked to play I was expecting the standard slide show of photographs. And when the video started that is exactly what it looked like. But I was wrong. The video turned out to be quite a treat and made me want to watch another, and another, and… well you get the idea. Enough of me talking about them, check out one for yourself:
Fun huh? That little video did a lot. It showed me who the Bui Brothers are, what it would be like to work with them, and also the photographer in me got a glimpse at their lighting set up. After seeing that I would be much more comfortable hiring them. As an artist you should not be afraid to show the world who you are, people want to know. And they will trust you more after learning. And after they know you and trust you they’ll be more likely to give their money to you. Make sense?
That was the home page. Let’s have a look around the rest of their site. Next option on the nav bar is “store.” Which to be honest I did not know what to expect to find. What would photographers have in their store? Shirts? Used equipment? Greeting cards with kittens? The Bui Brothers had none of the above. What you’ll find is a series of video tutorials they have put together. A nice little video is offered as a sample if your a Mac user.
Moving on I went to “workshop.” Which was just what I expected. A list of workshops the Bui Brothers have available. A smart thing for any artist to offer. Offering workshops expands your audience. Instead of just catering to those who want to be in front of the camera the Brothers are speaking to those behind the camera as well. What workshops could you be offering?
Next down the line is the standard “about” and “contact” pages followed by two way for The Bui Brothers to stay in touch with you, “newsletter” and “subscribe.” The newsletter I assume is an email newsletter though it does not state that. And the subscription is the link to the site’s RSS feed.
I like that The Bui Brothers use a Wordpress blog as their site. It is easy to update, modify, and search engines like them. Just because your site is built with blog software does not mean it has to look like a blog. Their site is a great example of that. The look of the site comes from a premium theme created by press75.com. And it is a good example of why paying for your theme can sometimes be worth it.
I am glad that I found their site via Twitter. It is a nice clean site with all the fundamentals in place. Go check it out for yourself at http://thebuibrothers.com/ and tell them you heard an Art Palaver about them.
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