I'd really like my site to look a little more professional. It's not that bad right now, but there's room for improvement. I'm not a designer by any means, but I'm picking this up, very slowly. I really prefer the do it yourself approach, I guess I'm a bit of a control freak, but I'm hoping people can give me some general advice, and maybe answer a few questions I've been wondering about.

1. I'd like to consolidate a few of my pages. Does a gallery imply that clicking a thumbnail is going to take you to that image alone? Example: does the second image detract from the first here? http://forrestcroce.com/Photos/Cliff-Palace.html
2. Most of my galleries are organized geographically: Rockies, California Coast, Pacific Northwest. I'm thinking it might also make sense to list some of them out by theme, like alpine lakes, waterfalls, mountain peaks. Sound like a reasonable idea?
3. How much text can I reasonably put at the bottom of a gallery full of thumbnails? I'd like to expand this a bit: http://forrestcroce.com/Galleries/SierraNevada.html

Also, I wonder if anybody has any thoughts on how to improve the appearance, just in general? I really like a gradient background, although I tried to pick pretty neutral colors. Any ideas to improve the navigation?

My goal in running the site is to introduce my photography to a wider and wider audience. Ultimately I'm trying to get a book deal, so more people having seen and been impressed with my work will help toward that end. I'm happy with the photos, but need to present them better.

I think the site looks very nice. Have you considered making the banner across the top wider to allow the "Southwest" and "New England" links that pop-up when you hover over "Home" to be on the same line as the other locations. If the banner was a little wider you would be able to drop the locations line down enough to have them all on the same line. You can see the location links much clearer on the lighter color than on the gray background.

Wow! Those pictures are so beautiful. I really like the "Emotions Gallery", what a neat idea. I think your idea to list out by theme would be great as well. The color you used for "Forrest" would contrast nicely as the main navigational color rather than the green, possibly even the same font face, not sure about the font face, you would have to see how legible it is.

If you want a free link from Deb, try to make it web-accessible. That's something most photographers miss outright.

Other than that, I think with your layout you'd probably want a one-column layout (mostly because your pics get pretty big.) Basically, take the layout you already have and just "corporate" it up a bit. White background, contrasting menu, rock some CSS menu stylin' in there, and you're all set.

The text is fine at the length it is.