Updating my website..... critique perhaps?

Hey hey,
I have been updating my website with my partner... I have added new photos in the children, adults and body sections..... still working on the events pages.
I have a lot of pictures and was wondering if a couple of you would mind checking it out and seeing if all the pictures take forever to load.... or if it's too much, and just basiclly your impressions of the site as a whole.
I would really appreciate it - as after a while of working on these things I get blinded by all the pics and info and start to get into the "that will do" mind set....
I still need to do my client list and load about another 40 pics from events.... but is there anything blindingly obvious that I have missed? If you were a Client would you hire me?


Thank-you my lovelies... again I find myself wondering what I would do without you!

oh yeah the link is under my avatar but I will post it here as well....
http://www.faceartbytash.com

It took about 4 seconds to load the home page and the photos in the gallery rolled down a little slowly but not terribly so.

Oh, don't pay any attention to my previous post. I just realized I'm downloading an iTunes update, so that would make anything load slower.

It's a very nice website! Very colorful. Do you have a logo for your business?? I would design a nice logo, and put that in some great colors at the top of the page instead of just plain larger type? The youtube video at the bottom is a little distracting...not to the page, but it's SO much, lots of effects, that you can't really see your designs, and that's what they're there for--to see your work. Personally, and this is just my opinion, I would put the descriptions that you have on the home page with the corresponding page that your describing, and not so many words on the home page. You want WOW on the 1st impression, not lots of words with a few thumbnails...know what I mean? I would put your best maybe 4-6 various pics on the front page to get their attention. Then they'll want to go see more on the other pages.
My husband is a graphic designer so I'm becoming more aware of what impresses on first site. But you have a GREAT start, and yes, I'd definitely hire you!!! I LOVE your MIke Wasowski!!!!! That's the best! Hope I didn't offend!

Looks good. No problem with speed loading at all.

My only comments - you have duplication of the photos in your galleries AND it probably is just me, but, I find it offputting when all the photos different sizes and orientations in a gallery - to me it looks better if they are uniform in layout... (but we all know I'm anal... )

The duplicated pictures in the gallery is something I would definitely change. There is a lot of writing on the first page, and I would probably try and cut some of it down a bit. I like having a video on the first page, but the sparkle background is kind of giving me a headache to read over it. I would put a solid coloured block over the background just behind the text... the sparkles can still be there, but they would be on the outside edges instead of just behind where you are trying to read.

It opened quickly for me & I'm on a netbook, not a full computer.