The site feels too flashy, and the giant photo feels distracting. It would be nice if it felt "cleaner." As it is, I feel like a newcomer would find it somewhat overwhelming visually.

I think something nice and simple like Rust's homepage[1] would be nice. Or maybe something like Racket's homepage[2].

[1] http://www.rust-lang.org/ [2] http://racket-lang.org/