Load times - random images take too long

Hello Boyd,

I would suggest the simplest solution - decrease the size of the problem images.

If you have photoshop, open the image and choose 'save for web and devices'. A window pops up giving you way more options now on how to save your images. What I usually do is save my images as a JPEG at 60% quality, most of the time the difference is not noticed and it can cut the size in more than half.

This will make everything load much faster.

Are you using a CMS like Joomla or Wordpress by any chance?


For suggestions I really think you need to get rid of the opening page. It doesn't look very professional and its kind of an eye sore. It's always best to hire a professional to design a website for you. If you want you can contact myself, I'm a web designer based out of Toronto and I could really help you.

What (if any) CMS program are you using?

It is possible that it's not the images. If you have some incorrect code, or if there's a plugin that's not loading correctly it may affect the speed at which other elements on the page load. Have you tried using the error console/developer pane in firefox or IE to check any info?

Also checking for code validation might give you more insights as well.

it seems fast to me.
Make sure all images are called out locally and not by the full URL

You do realize that the event calendar goes off page when opened and cannot be read at resolution 1024X768?

There are a couple of validation errors in the code but nothing serious.

Gee, that is a mystery Boyd. Between your caching, minifying and cloud hosting you're already doing all the right things.

I would have said that the images must have been getting called in from another server and it was that server that took the time to respond, but Thesis should have all its images self contained.

My guess is at least with the Gtranslate plugin that's what might be happening. Does Pingdom give you the full URL of the image, and can you see if it's coming from somebody else's site?

If so, I would see if there is an option for you to just prevent display of these images, as there's not much else to do without trying to hack apart the whole plugin to serve up self hosted images. Or, consider if the ability to translate offers you as much value as the faster page loading speed. You may, or may not, be better off deactivating the plugin depending on your goals for the site.

With a Thesis image though that is strange as I can't see a reason for it to call external images. I also can't see any images really being used in your theme other than the grass background. My first thought would be to find where the culprit is being loaded into your theme and just remove it if it's not going to be missed.

By the way for me when loading your page it was the weather and calendar that really appeared to lag on load time. Google Page Speed also highlights these two, as well as share & follow and zemanta, as areas that are loading slower: Page Speed Online

But, it also gives you a score of 90 out of 100 on load speed so that's not too shabby overall.

use irfan view (free open source) software and optimize all the images you use on web. Try to reduce the sizes of those images and re-upload them.

reupload the same image and reduce the size first to make it load first
sometimes the source may be not responding early