Photographers use Flash way too much! There, I said it. I don't want this to be taken personally, but it needs to be said. It’s like me trying to take a good photo and then editing it in Lightroom. It is simply inexperience to the industry. Because, thankfully, just having a website that looks good doesn’t cut it anymore.

First, I want to let everyone knows where I stand on this subject. When I first got into design I learned how to build websites in basic HTML and CSS. I then came across Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash. After a week of using it I was hooked. In a very short summary, I started building every site in Flash. I was in love! After Flash grew more popular and hackers started exploiting holes and backdoors in the software I finally woke up (with the help of a fellow designer).

There are tons of issues with Flash most notable with search engines. I am not going to go into this because I know that Adobe is hard at work correcting most of the issues and trying to pump that last remaining bit of life into the software. I also haven’t been keeping up with what issues have been corrected or what has been made better because I simply don’t care, because I have moved on to better and more reliable practices. Plus, I haven't even arrived at my main point!

The biggest problem is that Flash is annoying. It does have its place it little doses, but some photographers seem to think Flash is still cool like it was back in 2000. It isn't and you know why? Above all technical issues or flaws in web standards people simply don't want to sit through Flash intros every time they visit your site. Having a “skip” button doesn’t make it better. People don't want to wait 10 seconds for each photo to load with a fancy animation. They also don't want the process of finding information on your site to take forever. A good website loads quickly, is easy to navigate, conveys information in an efficient manner, and looks good. If people are constantly waiting for pictures to load or animations to finish… you are doing it wrong and can potentially lose customers.

The fact is, Flash looks great, but only the first time. After that, it gets old... fast. So, anyway, my rant is over. It was stirred up because I am getting married soon and most photographers have a Flash website and it has not only annoyed me but my fiancée as well. Like I said, in little doses it can enhance the look of a site, but it isn't a good idea to make your entire site in Flash.