Photocrati vs ProPhoto

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dubcat

dubcat

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Amir
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Hi, I have registered a domain, bought web hosting and installed Wordpress. So far so good. Now I need to install a template that will give me an (ipad compatible)

- home page,
- a couple of other static pages such as about and contact
- password protected proofing galleries with ability to order images
- a couple of unprotected galleries and
- a blog.

I have looked around and boiled it down to Photocrati and ProPhoto blog. Can you share your experience with these? Which is the one you prefer and why? If you are using something else off the shelf that you recommend please do let me know. I do not have time to learn CSS and coding which is why I am looking at something off the shelf.

Thanks
Dub
 
I use photocrati as a theme it's great and now the display galleries are fully sorted they are great- but the shopping cart is weak. It's not an issue for me as I use a separate photocart application for client galleries.

I don't know very much about prophoto but many love it. I don't think it has good client galleries
 
I love Prophoto, I changed from Bludomain purely for the html/iPad aspect. It's fairly easy to get your head around when you get into it and the support is good too. They're also bringing out PP4 this year so expect some big improvements in that. I use mine alongside Zenfolio for client proofing and sales and it works a treat.
 
I tried Photocrati and was initially impressed, but got frustrated by the lack of ability to customise the page layout. Yes it lets you change colours, fonts etc, but it essentially keeps the same layout which means you don't end up with a very unique looking site.

If that's not important to you, then it's probably fine. Like you I looked at ProPhoto too, but couldn't justify the cost. So I decided to use a theme called Monochrome (by Graph Paper Press - worth checking out), which is free and customised it to suit my needs using various plugins for the gallery etc and also used paypal buttons incase anyone wanted to buy a print. Overall, a lot happier than I think I would have been using the other two you mention, plus it hasn't cost me anything other than the hosting and domain. :)
 
I also originally tried Photocrati, but ended up claiming a refund. I found it very basic and not at all impressive-looking. I'm now building a site using Elegant Themes instead. ET is quite complicated to customise, but the sites that come out of it are far more impressive IMHO.

Personally, I found Photocrati to be a lot of sales blah without much substance behind it.
 
Thanks very very very much folks. Really appreciate your honest feedback. Will avoid photocrati i think.

Craig I will check out monochrome. I assume you got monochrome lite... do you wish you had paid for pro now?

Dub
 
I love Prophoto, its what i am using at the moment. Although I would agree that the client proofing isn't that great hence why i am combining it with zenfolio strictly for the client proofing and shopping cart.
But its pretty straight forward and as mentioned the support is good and they now have a design shop so if you cant be asked customizing your own (which is easy) you could pay the extra and buy a custom theme :)

Cheers
Joel
 
dubcat said:
Thanks very very very much folks. Really appreciate your honest feedback. Will avoid photocrati i think.

Craig I will check out monochrome. I assume you got monochrome lite... do you wish you had paid for pro now?

Dub
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Yeah, I used the lite version. I'm happy with what I've got, the template is fairly easy to modify if you know even a little CSS/html. Some css changes I made involved a bit of trial and error but I got what I wanted in the end. I just had to ask for help from others and do a wee bit of googling. :)

As for the pro version, I don't really know what I'm missing out on too much and what matters to me is my website does what I want it to do now really.
 
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boyfalldown said:
I use photocrati as a theme it's great and now the display galleries are fully sorted they are great- but the shopping cart is weak. It's not an issue for me as I use a separate photocart application for client galleries.

I don't know very much about prophoto but many love it. I don't think it has good client galleries
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What photocart application do you use?
 
PhotoLouis said:
Hugh, why did you change from Photocrati to ProPhoto?
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I thought someone would notice that ;). There were a few reasons.

Inspite of my comments above I don't think the display gallery options are very good in photocrati. I was also unhappy with the support from photocrati - I'd asked them to resolve a couple of issues that were dig deals and they didn't seem slightly interested.

I aslo think pro photo is much more customisable and just looks nicer
 
boyfalldown said:
I thought someone would notice that ;). There were a few reasons.

Inspite of my comments above I don't think the display gallery options are very good in photocrati. I was also unhappy with the support from photocrati - I'd asked them to resolve a couple of issues that were dig deals and they didn't seem slightly interested.

I aslo think pro photo is much more customisable and just looks nicer
Click to expand...

Steady Hugh. You'll get accused of being a fanboy saying good things about pro photo. I don't know if it's just the cost people can't swallow, but there's some real hatred from people that can't see it's the best Wordpress platform for photographers by miles. (IMO of course).
 
Phil V said:
Steady Hugh. You'll get accused of being a fanboy saying good things about pro photo. I don't know if it's just the cost people can't swallow, but there's some real hatred from people that can't see it's the best Wordpress platform for photographers by miles. (IMO of course).
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Better than customising your own Wordpress theme? Pro photo is good, but nothing beats a bespoke design, or modifying a premium theme to make it appear bespoke.
 
theurbanclown said:
Better than customising your own Wordpress theme? Pro photo is good, but nothing beats a bespoke design, or modifying a premium theme to make it appear bespoke.
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If you have the ability and the time. Or the budget to pay someone.

If I half knew what I was doing it'd take me maybe 30 hrs to create something? At a general chargeable rate might be around £900. Paying someone else would be maybe £300-£500. A pro-photo theme looks cheap by comparison.(y)

Even if I knew what I was doing, lets say 15 hrs, so £450. And would it be as slick to make changes to as a Pro-photo theme? If not, I'd have to factor in extra time every time I tweaked my site - Maybe another 4 hrs a year? A complete redesign every 3 years? See where I'm going:puke:.
 
Still plodding along with my Photocrati site, to be honest I can't fault it so can't see a reason to change. I always get positive comments about the website at client meetings so it can't be that bad. The ecommerce is basic but does the job well enough.
 
ProPhoto here too. Easy to use and so many different ways to change how your site looks.
 
Phil V said:
If you have the ability and the time. Or the budget to pay someone.

If I half knew what I was doing it'd take me maybe 30 hrs to create something? At a general chargeable rate might be around £900. Paying someone else would be maybe £300-£500. A pro-photo theme looks cheap by comparison.(y)

Even if I knew what I was doing, lets say 15 hrs, so £450. And would it be as slick to make changes to as a Pro-photo theme? If not, I'd have to factor in extra time every time I tweaked my site - Maybe another 4 hrs a year? A complete redesign every 3 years? See where I'm going:puke:.
Click to expand...

To be honest, Pro Photo being good value for money is a bit of myth, coupled with some crafty marketing.

It costs $199 and if they release a new version, you have to pay out again. It's not essential but all of the new themes don't work with the older versions. Then on top you have to pay for hosting. Whilst there are a fair few themes to choose from, they are very generic and similar to each other, I can spot when somebody has used a Pro Photo theme as soon as I'm on the page. Also, they can cost $100 each if you want a half decent one. That's expensive whatever way you look at it.

Compare it to a regular wordpress theme and you are looking at a maximum of $50 for the theme and that's it. Quite a saving and the results not only look great, but also more bespoke feel than Pro Photo. If you don't know how to install it, there's always a friend or online tutorial that will help out.

The argument that Pro photo works out of the box is a bit of a non runner, as premium wordpress themes also work straight out of the box and due to so much competition between designers, offer fantastic support and a whole host of built in features that mean no coding knowledge is necessary to change the look of your site.
 
theurbanclown said:
To be honest, Pro Photo being good value for money is a bit of myth, coupled with some crafty marketing.

It costs $199 and if they release a new version, you have to pay out again. It's not essential but all of the new themes don't work with the older versions. Then on top you have to pay for hosting. Whilst there are a fair few themes to choose from, they are very generic and similar to each other, I can spot when somebody has used a Pro Photo theme as soon as I'm on the page. Also, they can cost $100 each if you want a half decent one. That's expensive whatever way you look at it.

Compare it to a regular wordpress theme and you are looking at a maximum of $50 for the theme and that's it. Quite a saving and the results not only look great, but also more bespoke feel than Pro Photo. If you don't know how to install it, there's always a friend or online tutorial that will help out.

The argument that Pro photo works out of the box is a bit of a non runner, as premium wordpress themes also work straight out of the box and due to so much competition between designers, offer fantastic support and a whole host of built in features that mean no coding knowledge is necessary to change the look of your site.
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Which is an opinion............

For it being expensive - yes its not cheap, but the first wedding I booked with it more then paid for it. You do have to pay for hosting, but thats true of most other wordpress themes as well, and as ever you get what you pay for. You can find free hosting if you really want to.You can use the same pro photo licience on two seperate sites though

Squarespace is $16-$24 a month isn't it. Assuming a 2 year life thats a fair bit more.........just saying.

I ca also spot pro photo, squarespace,photocrati, CMD or a host of other themes/templates at 100 yds. Fo that matter photos processed with VSCO sing out too ;) at the end of the day my clients can't though. What matters is a sales tool for me to sell to them, and for me atleast it works.

The rest is just opinion.
 
theurbanclown said:
To be honest, Pro Photo being good value for money is a bit of myth, coupled with some crafty marketing.

It costs $199 and if they release a new version, you have to pay out again. It's not essential but all of the new themes don't work with the older versions. Then on top you have to pay for hosting. Whilst there are a fair few themes to choose from, they are very generic and similar to each other, I can spot when somebody has used a Pro Photo theme as soon as I'm on the page. Also, they can cost $100 each if you want a half decent one. That's expensive whatever way you look at it.

Compare it to a regular wordpress theme and you are looking at a maximum of $50 for the theme and that's it. Quite a saving and the results not only look great, but also more bespoke feel than Pro Photo. If you don't know how to install it, there's always a friend or online tutorial that will help out.

The argument that Pro photo works out of the box is a bit of a non runner, as premium wordpress themes also work straight out of the box and due to so much competition between designers, offer fantastic support and a whole host of built in features that mean no coding knowledge is necessary to change the look of your site.
Click to expand...

Have you ever played with a pro photo installation.
I ask because so many of these points are assumptions. I've seen it before and it's tiresome. Pro photo templates do work out of the box. Do walk you straight through producing a good looking site with great SEO.

Many people have told me its s myth, but my blog hit page 3 in google within weeks and page 1 in months. That's for someone who had no idea what SEO was about. But you'll tell me that I didn't need prophetic for that. And the only way to prove it would require 2 hosting packages and websites built from scratch to race.

All I can do is pass on my experience, if you disagree, that's up to you. But it's silly to suggest that just anyone can customise a lesser template with a bit of CSS programming. Most people don't have those skills.
 
Phil V said:
Have you ever played with a pro photo installation.
I ask because so many of these points are assumptions. I've seen it before and it's tiresome. Pro photo templates do work out of the box. Do walk you straight through producing a good looking site with great SEO.

Many people have told me its s myth, but my blog hit page 3 in google within weeks and page 1 in months. That's for someone who had no idea what SEO was about. But you'll tell me that I didn't need prophetic for that. And the only way to prove it would require 2 hosting packages and websites built from scratch to race.

All I can do is pass on my experience, if you disagree, that's up to you. But it's silly to suggest that just anyone can customise a lesser template with a bit of CSS programming. Most people don't have those skills.
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Phil, I actually said that premium wordpress themes work straight out of the box too. Their is no need to know anything about CSS to change it, should you need to - only if you want to make drastic changes, but then the same would apply if you wanted to make drastic changes to a Pro Photo site. They are certainly not lesser templates, I'd say they are far better.

They are also SEO friendly, responsive (design alters based on browser width) and have excellent support if you go with one of the more well known designers.

Using the Yoast SEO plugin is very simple and will dramtically help google rankings. That applies for all Wordpress built sites.

For me, it's a no brainer. Have a look at themeforest.net if you haven't before, there are some amazing themes. I wouldn't want somebody to waste almost $300 to then find out a week later they could have built an amazing looking site for £30.
 
theurbanclown said:
Phil, I actually said that premium wordpress themes work straight out of the box too. Their is no need to know anything about CSS to change it, should you need to - only if you want to make drastic changes, but then the same would apply if you wanted to make drastic changes to a Pro Photo site. They are certainly not lesser templates, I'd say they are far better.

They are also SEO friendly, responsive (design alters based on browser width) and have excellent support if you go with one of the more well known designers.

Using the Yoast SEO plugin is very simple and will dramtically help google rankings. That applies for all Wordpress built sites.

For me, it's a no brainer. Have a look at themeforest.net if you haven't before, there are some amazing themes. I wouldn't want somebody to waste almost $300 to then find out a week later they could have built an amazing looking site for £30.
Click to expand...

I got to 'Their' and couldn't continue to read due to poor grammar.
 
theurbanclown said:
Phil, I actually said that premium wordpress themes work straight out of the box too. Their is no need to know anything about CSS to change it, should you need to - only if you want to make drastic changes, but then the same would apply if you wanted to make drastic changes to a Pro Photo site. They are certainly not lesser templates, I'd say they are far better.

They are also SEO friendly, responsive (design alters based on browser width) and have excellent support if you go with one of the more well known designers.

Using the Yoast SEO plugin is very simple and will dramtically help google rankings. That applies for all Wordpress built sites.

For me, it's a no brainer. Have a look at themeforest.net if you haven't before, there are some amazing themes. I wouldn't want somebody to waste almost $300 to then find out a week later they could have built an amazing looking site for £30.
Click to expand...

We've been here before and we'll have to agree to disagree, I've seen people spend $30 several times over before giving up and buying Pro Photo, for less than $300 too - you really do like to spin the difference don't you:nono:.

So lets get this down. It's $199 which is £130 - your figure looks like a fortune, the reality is less much than a days chargeable work for a pro photographer.:wacky:
Why do you assume I never checked out other themes before buying Pro Photo - and as you've never used it how can you know that other themes are just as easy to use:thinking:?

You spout all of this guff as if it's a fact (as Hugh said multiple times - it's just your opinion). It's tiresome after a while. A bit like all the CSC nuts who keep spouting how a CSC is better than good enough for 95% of usage - completely ignoring that lots of us spend significant amounts of our time in that other 5% zone:bang:.

For £130 it's a bargain to me. YMMV :)
 
Ben, you are forgetting one very important part of the prophoto set up.....the back office and support is brilliant, it is far better than a lot of themes on themeforests...I tried loads as I needed one that was easy to use....to much messing with stylesheets in the themeforest stuff where as the prophoto one has a button to do it!

As for help...I can post a message on twitter about a prob with prophoto and I can get a response within the hour (nothing to do with prophoto but because so many people are using it) or I can post the prob in the prophoto forums and get a detailed response in good time. All much quick than some of the developer sites on themeforests...some of which had not been updated for months!!!

Also, with prophoto, when wordpress bring out a new version, they have dedicated staff making sure pp works on the new version and they do this with new versions of the most popular plug-ins too.

There are some fantastic themes around but with PP, I get one that I can rely on and know it works.
 
tiler65 said:
Ben, you are forgetting one very important part of the prophoto set up.....the back office and support is brilliant, it is far better than a lot of themes on themeforests...I tried loads as I needed one that was easy to use....to much messing with stylesheets in the themeforest stuff where as the prophoto one has a button to do it!

As for help...I can post a message on twitter about a prob with prophoto and I can get a response within the hour (nothing to do with prophoto but because so many people are using it) or I can post the prob in the prophoto forums and get a detailed response in good time. All much quick than some of the developer sites on themeforests...some of which had not been updated for months!!!

Also, with prophoto, when wordpress bring out a new version, they have dedicated staff making sure pp works on the new version and they do this with new versions of the most popular plug-ins too.

There are some fantastic themes around but with PP, I get one that I can rely on and know it works.
Click to expand...


That is the only benefit of Pro photo that I can think of, although still not worthy of the price tag.

I can only assume you purchased a theme from one of the lesser design companies, as most of the top ones have excellent support, great documentation and usually will have dedicated forums for support, which other theme users can access too. As I said previously, most themes now have hundreds of in-built customisation options, meaning even a basic knowledge of CSS isn't at all neccessary, unless you want to make drastic changes to the theme. Same as Pro Photo.

It's just good marketing from Pro Photo. That's it.
 
theurbanclown said:
That is the only benefit of Pro photo that I can think of, although still not worthy of the price tag.
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Sorry Ben, which is the only benefit - as I mentioned quite a few?

Another thing - I know nothing of CSS. I don't even need a basic understanding of it.

As for the TF themes...how am I supposed to know which one provide the best support when there are so many of them?

You obviously know something about web building - I don't.
 
I'm confused Ben - I get you're not a fan of prophoto for your own reasons that are completely valid for you............

but then you use squarespace as a theme, - cool it makes nice looking sites

But it is both harder to customise and more expensive over say a year (which is one of your big gripes with prophoto)
 
tiler65 said:
Sorry Ben, which is the only benefit - as I mentioned quite a few?

Another thing - I know nothing of CSS. I don't even need a basic understanding of it.

As for the TF themes...how am I supposed to know which one provide the best support when there are so many of them?

You obviously know something about web building - I don't.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I re worded the first sentence and left out a bit I should have left in. The community aspect is the best bit about Pro Photo, but even that isn't much different to that of premium wordpress themes.

I have said this a fair few times - you don't need to know anything about CSS to make changes to premium wordpress themes. The same way you don't need to for Pro Photo, either. Most themes have in-built theme options to make changes to font, colors, layout etc

There are lists of top authors on themeforest, pick a theme from them and you won't go far wrong. Most now offer great support, alongside hefty documentation (often including videos) to show how the theme works with wordpress. There is also a comments section for each theme to ask questions about functionality etc
 
theurbanclown said:
Sorry, I re worded the first sentence and left out a bit I should have left in. The community aspect is the best bit about Pro Photo, but even that isn't much different to that of premium wordpress themes.

I have said this a fair few times - you don't need to know anything about CSS to make changes to premium wordpress themes. The same way you don't need to for Pro Photo, either. Most themes have in-built theme options to make changes to font, colors, layout etc

There are lists of top authors on themeforest, pick a theme from them and you won't go far wrong. Most now offer great support, alongside hefty documentation (often including videos) to show how the theme works with wordpress. There is also a comments section for each theme to ask questions about functionality etc
Click to expand...

Ben, you keep using the word 'most' when referring to TF...............with prophoto there is no 'most' - that is enough for me as I know that if I have a problem they will be personal with me. Trust me, I have had some bad experiences with the TF designers, some even treat you like you are stupid, nothing to do with 'I actually don't know anything about it'.

Any way, I have said my piece on why I like PP.
 
Phil V said:
We've been here before and we'll have to agree to disagree, I've seen people spend $30 several times over before giving up and buying Pro Photo, for less than $300 too - you really do like to spin the difference don't you:nono:.

So lets get this down. It's $199 which is £130 - your figure looks like a fortune, the reality is less much than a days chargeable work for a pro photographer.:wacky:
Why do you assume I never checked out other themes before buying Pro Photo - and as you've never used it how can you know that other themes are just as easy to use:thinking:?

You spout all of this guff as if it's a fact (as Hugh said multiple times - it's just your opinion). It's tiresome after a while. A bit like all the CSC nuts who keep spouting how a CSC is better than good enough for 95% of usage - completely ignoring that lots of us spend significant amounts of our time in that other 5% zone:bang:.

For £130 it's a bargain to me. YMMV :)
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Phil, the only facts are the costs. I thought that it's all my opinion was a given. I'm not one of those people who is going to write "IMO" after every comment I make.

£130 is the basic cost, then you have to buy themes don't you, as the ones included really aren't up to a great standard. As I said, a half decent one costs between $50-100.

I know people who use pro photo, and have seen a lot of the backend stuff online too. Pro photo does make things fairly straightforward, but no more so than just buying a premium wordpress theme.

As you said though, just agree to disagree. We are both happy with the options we've taken, that's all that matters.



boyfalldown said:
I'm confused Ben - I get you're not a fan of prophoto for your own reasons that are completely valid for you............

but then you use squarespace as a theme, - cool it makes nice looking sites

But it is both harder to customise and more expensive over say a year (which is one of your big gripes with prophoto)
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Hugh, now I'm confused - I don't use a Squarespace site.
 
tiler65 said:
Ben, you keep using the word 'most' when referring to TF...............with prophoto there is no 'most' - that is enough for me as I know that if I have a problem they will be personal with me. Trust me, I have had some bad experiences with the TF designers, some even treat you like you are stupid, nothing to do with 'I actually don't know anything about it'.

Any way, I have said my piece on why I like PP.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I've never had a bad experience with any designers on themeforest which is why I think it's great, and why I just see Pro photo as a compromise, and a very expensive one at that.
 
boyfalldown said:
Happy to be wrong ;) you did recommend them (rather strongly) elsewhere, but as you say as long as it works for you, all good
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Yeah, whatever floats your boat.

I remember the thread now, I think it came across more strongly than I intended it to.

But yeah, it's not too bad and quite cheap, I just like to point out the options people may have not thought about, when looking for a website solution.
 
theurbanclown said:
Phil, the only facts are the costs. I thought that it's all my opinion was a given. I'm not one of those people who is going to write "IMO" after every comment I make.

£130 is the basic cost, then you have to buy themes don't you, as the ones included really aren't up to a great standard. As I said, a half decent one costs between $50-100.

I know people who use pro photo, and have seen a lot of the backend stuff online too. Pro photo does make things fairly straightforward, but no more so than just buying a premium wordpress theme.

As you said though, just agree to disagree. We are both happy with the options we've taken, that's all that matters.

Hugh, now I'm confused - I don't use a Squarespace site.
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Have to buy themes?
You really should be more careful, people who don't know any better can read this crap and they might believe that you are offering an honest opinion.

The standard themes are better than most and much more customisable with no programming knowledge. You keep pretending it's not true, it's starting to look ridiculous.

It's fine that you don't like PP but it's wrong to fill your posts with lies.
 
Phil V said:
Have to buy themes?
You really should be more careful, people who don't know any better can read this crap and they might believe that you are offering an honest opinion.

The standard themes are better than most and much more customisable with no programming knowledge. You keep pretending it's not true, it's starting to look ridiculous.

It's fine that you don't like PP but it's wrong to fill your posts with lies.
Click to expand...

Better than most? What are we comparing them to?

This is an honest opinion. I don't think Pro photo is good value, nor do the free themes look very good.

You keep saying 'no programming knowledge' or similar, as if you have to have that knowledge with premium wordpress themes. You don't.
 
For me the standard themes are excellent, fully customisable (I just chose not to play around too much).

They offer Excellent value. The time alone you would spend fannying around with "most other wordpress themes is easily recovered in using Prophoto. the high quality galleries are a skoosh to make and are all high quality.

I have built my own Wordpress site based on a theme and morte often than not they do some things well but not all. For me there's no negatives to Prophoto. Yes m,any have the same theme but you do find that most look sufficiently different to a customer that they wouldn't notice.

You can mix and match and make up your own templates too. Yes you can buy custom made ones but the beauty in them is that you don't need to pay anything more.

Prophoto makes life in Wordpress very simple.

Prophoto rocks :)(as the Americans say) :)
 
EOS_JD said:
For me the standard themes are excellent, fully customisable (I just chose not to play around too much).

They offer Excellent value. The time alone you would spend fannying around with "most other wordpress themes is easily recovered in using Prophoto. the high quality galleries are a skoosh to make and are all high quality.

I have built my own Wordpress site based on a theme and morte often than not they do some things well but not all. For me there's no negatives to Prophoto. Yes m,any have the same theme but you do find that most look sufficiently different to a customer that they wouldn't notice.

You can mix and match and make up your own templates too. Yes you can buy custom made ones but the beauty in them is that you don't need to pay anything more.

Prophoto makes life in Wordpress very simple.

Prophoto rocks :)(as the Americans say) :)
Click to expand...


This thread has become tiresome as I've mentioned quite a few times now that premium wordpress themes have in-built customisation options, much like Pro Photo.
 
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