I have now added a version of the site with black text and a white background.

See it here http://www.geofflawrence.com/site_white_bg/index.htm

As i said before I don't want to alienate anyone. I shall be keeping a watchful eye on how many people use it in preference to the main site. The only pages I haven't converted are the forum and the quiz. I thought it would be too confusing to have two versions of the quiz going at once as it keeps an ongoing note of your average score each time you use it.

When you have had a look at both please take a moment to vote in the new poll and tell me which one you like the best. Here are links to both versions of the site.

Black on white http://www.geofflawrence.com/site_white_bg/index.htm

White on black http://www.geofflawrence.com

Don't forget to come back and vote.

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http://www.geofflawrence.com

White on black shows off the images better on your site and creates the mood of working in a darkroom.. : } Great site BTW

White on black may remind you of working in a darkroom, however from a more practical point of view, black on white is easier to read.

Someone sent me this site link earlier tonite ... first thing I thought when I entered the site is "myGod... another black photo site .... not spending long here" surely whoever came up with this stark white on dead black has got to be kidding ... too much contrast, everything screaming for attention at the same time ... confusing.

After about two mins I started looking around for a contact link to ask a simple question ... if I can be notified when the site colors are changed to something a bit more pleasant so I can return.

Then I saw the buried link to view the black on white ... what a huge relief !

Take a look at this site ... I read every single page on that site in a couple of hours.. and learned a lot from it too.

The link to view the other version isn't working for me at the moment, but I image I'd prefer the other. I can usually get away with not wearing my glasses when at the computer, but I find myself squinting as we speak.

EDIT: It works now...yep, I'd say for sure the white...FWIW, I'd prefer the white for the forum as well.

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Who I am and what I do

This is interesting, 1500 people have viewed this topic and only just over 10% of them have an opinion.

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http://www.geofflawrence.com

I quite like the white on black, but either way it's fine with me. Majority rules ! I'm easy...
Pauline

Yeah, I don't think it is 'majority rules' even though the poll at the top might indicate that. People who already have what they want don't bother to vote. Most of the votes for black on white date back to the time before I changed it so the ones who liked it the way it was, white text on black, would not bother to vote.

The reason I changed in the end, goes back to the days when I used to have a beard. The boss of the company that I worked for hated beards and would not employ anyone with a beard. So as soon as I left that company and got another job, the first thing I did was grow a beard, which I kept for the next 15 years. However the lesson was leart, every time I went job hunting I would shave off the beard and then grow it back after I got the job. Not having a beard represents the status quo, in Britain at least, so someone could take a dislike to you for having a beard, but they could not object to you not having a beard. Eventually I realised that even I didn't like other people with beards, so I shaved it off for good.

It's the same thing with this text on background thing. Black text on a white background represents the norm, the status quo, so nobody can really object to it. Whereas doing something different might alienate some people, and indeed I've found it does, so why lose customers over something that, in the end, doesn't matter very much.

Kev will disagree with this, saying one should stick up for what one believes in. But I have a more practical bent.

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http://www.geofflawrence.com