I would have to agree. As a web designer you are distracting your audience away from your actual content. Solutions to this would include using natural colored background (Suddle Browns, Auburns, Or even a black would work). If you like the background picture; I would suggest instead of "tiling" it as you have there (where it repeats itself) you could "center" it, this way it would only be shown once, and then choose a background color for behind it. If you need any help with the site let me know, it's what I do for a living, and I'm always looking for more fun projects :)