Home:
I have to be honest and say that I don't care for the overall design of the site at all. I just don't find the whole 'notice board' style appealing . It's certainly unique, at least in my experience, but it's not very attractive, at least to my eyes.
I do like the layout though. It's clean, simple, easy to navigate, well structured and very accessible. However, it is a little basic and I think you could do with jazzing it up a little.
The main problem for me here is that the page looks like a blog. And I guess that's exactly what it is. The problem with it being a blog is that it becomes an intensely personal thing which I don't feel works well as a homepage to a website. If you want a blog, and why not, perhaps create a subdomain like blog.danbriant.com or put the blog in its own little section.
What I'd like to see here is an impressive homepage to show off your photography and really create a statement of intent. At the moment it's all a bit wordy and too friendly and I don't think it engages with the viewer in quite the way it's meant to.
Photography:
What's really bugging me here is the massive amount of space at the top of the page. I'm viewing in a 'standard' browser window and I've got to scroll down to see the bottom two rows of thumbnails. And speaking of the thumbnails, my instant response was to click on them to see some photos. And that doesn't work. Nor do the photos actually do anything - I would have expected some rotation at least.
I have to admit that it wasn't instantly apparent to me that there were categories on the left of the page to pick from. So perhaps that needs some work on making it more visible or perhaps I need to pay more attention. As for the galleries themselves, they are nicely put together but the overall feel is a bit clunky. I don't like the EXIF info underneath each image and I don't see why there is a need to make each image clickable for a second, larger version. The ones embedded into the page are fine for size - the larger versions just make it easier for me to steal them.
Studio and Location are nicely laid out, but I don't get why Personal suddenly goes into a vertical stack? And I'm really not a fan of your Equipment page. It's totally irrelevant to anyone viewing the site that's not really into the photography. If you're going to review photography equipment, create a review site. It doesn't look or feel right on a portfolio site.
About Me:
Some of this is okay but some is a little bit too much information for your viewing public. I'd recommend taking all the equipment stuff out and replacing it with more about who you are, what you do, why you do it and the clients you've worked for. Perhaps even talk about what services you could offer?
Computers:
I have to say this page is somewhat pointless. As with the Equipment page it's really only going to be of interest to people who like this sort of thing and are they going to be the people you are attracting to the site? It just smacks of showing off and saying how clever you are, which I'm sure is not really the case. Some of the language used is also a bit too friendly.
Time Vault:
Not really sure what this is supposed to do but I'll assume its not working at the moment. I'm guessing it will contain either links of versions to older pages of the blog?
Overall:
Part of the reason I asked the questions above was that I couldn't quite figure out what the site was for. It seems to be attempting to be a number of different things but none of them really work in their own right. In terms of the coding and the general layout, it's very impressive. If that's your own work then pat yourself on the back. As I've mentioned I don't care much for the actual design as I don't understand the reasoning and I think it will be lost on a few people, but that's your call.
From what I can see your photography is very good. And you also seem to have a participial passion for writing and reviewing kit. So I'd recommend splitting the site up into its constituent parts and allowing each room to breathe. Have the homepage as more of a welcome and introduction to the site as a whole and put your blog and reviews in a separate sub-section, away from the photography. Then make more of your individual galleries and show off the excellent photography in a more appropriate light as it really deserves it.
I know you don't want to start selling photos through the site at the moment, but the overall feel isn't one of a portfolio. It feels a little too personal and friendly at the moment and needs a touch of commercial sheen added to it to make it really work.
