A photographer's website IS the portfolio — and its loading speed is judged as part of the craft. Here is the setup that shows your work fast and books shoots.

The gallery architecture (speed is the craft) - Lightbox galleries with WebP images at 1400px longest side, quality 78: visually identical to originals at 10–15% of the weight - Lazy-load everything below the fold; hero image eager-loaded - Never full-res originals on the server — they are for client delivery (Drive link), not the portfolio - 12–20 images per gallery maximum; curators curate

The structure that books shoots 1. Homepage: your strongest 6 images + niche clarity ('wedding & editorial photography, Lahore') 2. One gallery per niche (weddings, products, portraits) — ranks for 'wedding photographer Lahore' style searches 3. Behind the scenes: one page proving the operation (kit, working shots) — clients hire reliability 4. Packages page with price ranges — the filter that saves everyone time 5. Booking: WhatsApp prefilled with the shoot type

Client proofing and delivery (the professional layer) Private gallery pages per client (password-protected folder or unlisted subdomain) for selection, and final delivery via Drive link — never clog hosting with 40GB of RAWs. Hosting shows the work; the cloud delivers it.

The watermark question Small corner mark on gallery images: fine. Heavy center watermarks: clients bounce — and Zoom screens your gallery anyway. Let the curation and loading speed be the watermark.

Tech notes A Starter/Business plan handles the galleries; the AI assistant builds the page structure from your shot list; WebP discipline keeps everything instant on the 4G every bride's family browses on.