Creating a web gallery1 - character,quality and editorial issues

I have been looking at a number of web galleries belonging to photographers to see what my initial impressions were as a means to deciding what I wanted my own web page to look like. 

 Showcasing images
The purpose of my web gallery will be to 'showcase' the best of my images.

I want to include social sharing options such as Facebook and Twitter as most of my friends use these on a frequent basis. These options will provide a further dimension to showcasing my images. As my work work develops,images will likely fall into different categories and need to be represented as such in my portfolio as it develops. I will need to be able to clearly present these different aspects in folders or sub galleries.

I favour a good first page with one image - a plain uncluttered background throughout so that there is nothing to draw the eye from the images presented. P693 is an example of a photo gallery design offered by WordPress

P693

Below is the website of Australian photographer Peter Jarvis which also gives a very uncluttered and direct presentation.(P694)

P694

The visitor experience...
Experience of using some of these sites tells me that I want the visitor's experience to be straightforward. Navigation around the gallery needs to be clear with the minimal number of clicks.

I also favour a clear contact process with the option to comment on the images and I think feedback would be really helpful.

E-commerce
I notice that many photographers include an e-commerce element as part of the web gallery. These are galleries where the cost of having an account includes this feature. In practical terms you need to be confident, I guess, in selling sufficient quantities to cover the cost.
 

P695 : Jeremy Cowart 's 'shop' page

From my perspective, I think a personal showcase is more achievable than selling images at this stage. Certainly, if my work improves sufficiently in the future to have a more marketable aspect than I can revisit this option.

Keep it simple

This is the mantra here
I know that I do not want to overwhelm the visitor's eye ....the two examples below are not to my taste here as they strike me as over busy..though I like the black background as it draws in the eye.

P698

 

P699: Wordpress theme

Think the thumbnails detract from the larger image though I appreciate they are being used as a navigation aid...

Free or not?

This will depend on how easy the above are to achieve.