Case Study: A Lightning-Fast Digital Portfolio for a Commercial Photographer
Client: Scott Choucino
Sector: Photography | Food, Drink & Still Life
Services: Website Development | Performance Optimisation | Technical SEO Foundations
The Brief
Scott Choucino is an acclaimed commercial photographer who works with high-profile brands such as Greggs, Papa John’s, and Doritos. With a portfolio full of eye-catching food, drink, and still life photography, Scott needed a website that did one thing exceptionally well: showcase his work — fast.
The brief was refreshingly direct. Scott told us, “I want a Word document with a gallery but as a website. And it needs to load quickly.”
That was music to our ears. A clear purpose, no fluff just speed, function, and beauty.
Our Approach
Scott’s requirement for speed was about more than UX; it was also about SEO and professionalism. In his world, pitches to agencies and global brands often come down to first impressions and waiting five seconds for a gallery to load simply isn’t acceptable.
Here’s what we did to make his site lightning fast:
- Server-side optimisation to reduce load on the browser
- Concatenation of files, bundling multiple CSS and JavaScript files to reduce server requests
- Image optimisation with next-gen formats like WebP
- Lazy loading, to prioritise content that appears above the fold
- Server-side caching to minimise page regeneration times
- Database object caching, speeding up dynamic content
- Minification of code, stripping unnecessary characters to reduce file sizes
- Global CDN distribution, so visitors from around the world experience consistent performance
We combined these technical strategies with a clean, minimalist layout that keeps the focus entirely on Scott’s stunning images.
The Outcome
The result is a beautifully simple, blisteringly fast website that Scott can use confidently when pitching to major clients. It doesn’t just look good it performs at a level that matches the quality of his work.
And importantly, the improvements we made don’t just support user experience. Page speed is a key factor in technical SEO. By delivering rapid load times and optimising file structures, we’ve helped set Scott up for better organic visibility.
Are You Losing Clients Because of a Slow Website?
Many portfolio and brochure sites are bloated with unnecessary features, oversized images, and code that slows everything down. That doesn’t just frustrate visitors it actively harms your chances of ranking on Google.
If your website feels sluggish, we can help. Whether you’re a freelancer, agency, or business owner, Chimera Studio can build or optimise