Modal Box Portfolio page size problem.

Hi guys,

I was hoping you could help me as i am having issues with a portfolio page i built using a modal box plugin. My client wanted the portfolio page to be all thumbnails which when clicked took you through the project in a lightbox style. Unfortunately the theme didn’t support this so i used a modal box plugin to do this as i couldn’t find a lightbox to use.

The modal box works fine and the page works fine but the page size is HUGE and it is hanging (especially on iPads). I have analysed it on Pingdom and the page is around 26mb which i know is massive. I believe it is because all the images are loading in one go and i wanted to know if there is a way to help this or reduce the size?

The page is https://www.smokeshowcreative.eu/portfolio/

I have looked into JQuery Lazy Load…would this help? Or would this cause more issues?

I have also looked into Better WordPress Minify to reduce the CSS and Javascript but i am not experienced in this area so need advice if using this?

Final thing was to look into WP-Optimize and reduce all trash and try to clean up the database a little also to speed the site up.

Is there anyone who could give me advice as i have used SmushIt, reduced the images down as far as i can without losing quality and i have used W3 Total Cache to compress where possible. If i can’t find a solution then i may have to rebuild this section and not really sure how to get the same effect without too much damage to the current site which is live.

Thanks in advance.