I tried posting something up yesterday, but it didn’t show. If this shows up twice, I apologize.
I work full-time and freelance as a web and graphic designer, so I have more expertise in this area than in photography. (I’m in the same boat as you BTW.)
I’m going to echo what everyone is saying here. Your pictures are too large and will need to be compressed for the web. Especially in the age of smart phones and tablets, the smaller the file size the better. I rather load a 400KB image file versus a 4MB file. Also, although I’m on a 1080 HD monitor, not everyone view it the same.
This is how your website looks on a 720 HD monitor:
This is how my website looks on the same monitor:
It is best-practice to have all your important content sit on “top of the fold” meaning that you’re not making your customers scroll to see the rest and its in plain view. According to the screenshot of your website, in order to see the 2 main pictures (which I assume are your best work), I will have to scroll down. On mine, it sits within “the fold”.
For the home page, since this is the page that will initially attract your customers into viewing more of your portfolio, I suggest using your best shots that has a landscape orientation (horizontal) instead of portrait (verticle). Perhaps you can find a picture that is the width of both of the pictures, but a height shorter enough so people won’t have to scroll down.
Web designers are still using a 1024×768 screen resolution standard, meaning that the content is going to fit within these dimensions. This is why you see more empty space on some websites if viewed on a larger screen resolution. To see what your screen resolution is, go to your Mac or Windows machine and check the display settings.
I agree with JimC that you should look into WordPress because it can categorize your photos with ease, and it will be easier to add pictures. I would look into getting your own hosting. It’s affordable. Through GoDaddy (who is my hosting provider), I’m only paying $8 per month for the mid-range hosting plan. The cheapest hosting plan is as little as $4. If you’re looking to set up a WordPress site, you can just download WordPress from wordpress.org, unzip the file, and upload it into your web server. There are other components you will need to set up in order to get WordPress running (like a database), but it’s pretty easy. You can get GoDaddy’s customer service to help you out. They’re really helpful.
Here is my website:
http://www.photosbyanjanette.com
I hope this helps!