[paulsibley]

Hey Dan,

Nice looking site; love the photos in the slider - good choices, and nice images.

Couple of points for you.

1. Your first link in the post above leads to the Studiopress 404 page - don't know if it's a forum problem, or something you inadvertently included.
2. I'm finding the font you've used for content quite difficult to read when it's on the white backgrounds. It's looking as though the uprights are too thin.

Hope that helps.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

[paulsibley]

You're very kind, thank you.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

[paulsibley]

I've used the older Lifestyle theme, and quite enjoyed it - not so keen on the newer, Pro, version. But I'm sure that would work for a recipe site. Haven't used the others so can't comment on them.

However, I'm currently building my own photography site, and using Ambience Pro. Must admit, I really like this theme. If you don't want too much information on the front page - just a title and an image - it would be well worth checking it out. What I really like about it is the way the theme almost disappears and lets the images speak for themselves. I could see it working well for a recipe site using the plugin you mention.

Hope that helps, and doesn't just confuse you more.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

[paulsibley]

Yes, sorry, I meant the normal one. Scaled down it's just the hamburger which can be opened in a column.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

[paulsibley]

Hi,

1. I think you need to re-think the menu on this. It's forcing the header to take up far too much room. I'm using a 15" laptop computer, and the header is taking 2/3 of the available screen - in Chrome.

2. Not sure what to suggest about livening up the front page. I like, and use, the theme because I like the way it allows the photos to speak for themselves. I have added a bit of colour in the header and footer, to make it a little different, and to brighten it up a little. I did try adding a background image to the page: It worked okay, but clashed with my photos.

3. I've added a drop-shadow, rather that a background stripe, to the title-text on my site. But I suspect that may not be as cross-browser friendly as the way you've done it. I guess you could try varying the size, font, or colour, to see if you could get something you prefer. Or the stripe you be faded more.

The avatar is just a gravatar image, as would be picked up on comments etc.

Hope some of that helps.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

[paulsibley]

Not sure what to suggest for the photographic style; maybe look for vintage/retro tutorials as a starting place.

A couple of suggestions to try and stop white text from being drowned out by any white in the background:

I'm a long long way from being an expert with this stuff, so please bear that in mind if you make changes based on my suggestions - backups would be a good idea.

I've added a drop-shadow effect on mine, which works nicely, but may not be fully cross-browser compatible.

Look for this CSS:

.ambiance-grid .entry-title a,
.ambiance-grid .entry-title a:hover {
	color: #fff;
	display: block;
}

Add this:
text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7);

Or you could try adding an opaque background:

Same CSS, but add this instead:
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);

The latter of those might be more cross-browser friendly; but I much prefer the neater drop-shadow - and I think it will only be IE that has a problem with it.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

[paulsibley]

I'm in the process of setting the same theme up. I think you have to link to the widget area name. So, for instance, you would want to make the link http://biosolart.eu/#services and then Change the Navigation label to the appropriate name.

That's the way I'm doing mine anyway, and it seems to work okay. I'm a long, loong, way from being an expert, but hope it helps you.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

[paulsibley]

You're a star! Thank you, it's worked a treat - and very much appreciated.

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http://www.paulsibley.net/

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