Don't worry about a higher res shot unless the photo matters. As an icon, it doesn't matter so much and already takes a slightly annoying amount of time to load all of the duplicates.

Personally, if it's not simple and fast up front, I usually don't manage to load the whole page before clicking out. I don't think I'm the only one without the patience to wait for somebody else's 'ya-just-gotta-see-this' stuff to load.

Your page is no good unless people load it.
People have short attention spans.
You may think it's all about what you have to present. In reality, it's all about what your site visitors want to see. If your page works, you've successfully compromised.