David Ralph
The project
David Ralph is a commercial beauty and fashion photographer whose portfolio includes work for clients such as Christian Louboutin and Liberty.
I designed and developed a custom WordPress website that gave David a cleaner way to present his work and a much simpler system for adding, arranging and managing new photography projects.
Moving beyond a restrictive platform
David’s previous website was built using Cargo, but he found the templates difficult to customise and the editing experience increasingly limiting.
He wanted a website that felt more aligned with his visual style, while also being straightforward to manage without relying on complicated tools or technical knowledge.
Defining the visual direction
We began by reviewing photography websites and visual references that matched David’s aesthetic.
The final direction was intentionally minimal, with restrained typography, generous spacing and a simple slide-down navigation system. Clear project categorisation made the portfolio easier to browse while keeping the focus firmly on the photography.
Designing around the images
One of the main design requirements was that each image should be visible in full without forcing the user to scroll unnecessarily.
This created a challenge because portrait and landscape photography behave very differently within a responsive layout. I developed a custom display system that detects image orientation and adjusts the gallery automatically.
Landscape images are shown individually, while compatible portrait images are paired side by side so they occupy a similar visual height. This creates a more balanced rhythm and prevents individual images from becoming too large on screen.
Making projects easy to manage
The WordPress editing experience was designed to be as simple as possible.
David can upload images, reorder them using drag and drop, organise work into projects and build gallery layouts without needing to manually code or format each page.
Custom page-building tools automate much of the grid and spacing, giving him flexibility while maintaining a consistent presentation across the portfolio.
Custom WordPress development
The website was built as a bespoke WordPress theme rather than adapting an existing photography template.
This allowed the structure, navigation and image behaviour to be developed specifically around David’s work. It also removed unnecessary functionality, keeping both the front-end experience and the content-management system focused and easy to use.
Prioritising performance
Photography websites often need to balance image quality with page speed.
Because the portfolio contains a large number of high-resolution images, performance was considered throughout the build. The final site was kept lightweight and optimised to load quickly without compromising the visual quality of the work.
The result
David now has a fast, minimal portfolio that reflects the quality of his photography and is easy to update independently.
The custom image system gives portrait and landscape work equal consideration, while the simplified WordPress setup allows new projects to be added quickly and presented consistently.
Services
- Website design
- UX and portfolio planning
- Custom WordPress development
- Responsive front-end development
- Photography gallery development
- Image-orientation logic
- Drag-and-drop project management
- Performance optimisation
- Content migration support
Need a photography portfolio that presents your work properly without making updates difficult?
I design and develop custom WordPress websites that give photographers a clear, fast and flexible way to manage and showcase their work.
