As you grow from entry level photographer to hobbyist and above (amateur, professional etc), you will start to ask yourself one simple question. “What is the best way to manage and share my pictures?”.
There are plenty of photo sharing services available (go ahead and google “photo sharing services”), but for the sake of clarity I’ll limit to two services I use. They are namely Flickr and Smugmug.
Disclaimer: At the end of the day the choice is based on the individual needs and likes, hence this article is from my humble opinion. I hope it helps some individuals to make a suitable choice for their needs.
Smugmug (Pro)
Flickr (Pro)
Storage
Unlimited
Unlimited
Custom Domain
Yes
No
Custom Watermark
Yes
No
Restrict viewing of pictures beyond a certain size
Yes
No – it is all or nothing proposition. If public can view the pic, then they can view it in all sizes
Organization
Albums and Categories
Picture Sets
Printing
Yes – you can specify your own markup
Yes – but you don’t get to make profit
Community
Yes
Yes – but flickr has better community support to review and comment on your pictures
Password Protected albums
Yes
No
Custom homepage
Yes
No
Price
150 per year
25 per year
Basically you get what you pay for, Smugmug is expensive but it is also empowers you to create your own portfolio with your desired look and feel. There are plenty of templates available at your disposal.
Update: as one of the readers pointed out, there are other tiers of pricing available with smugmug with unlimited uploads feature. But this comparison is between each service’s top tier offerings.
The customer support personnel for smugmug is excellent, the response is lighting quick. I had a very positive experience so far. I use smugmug to showcase my photography portfolio.
I use Flickr mostly as a discussion tool to have my friends and friends from different photography forum to critic and comment on certain pics.
Actually it is my second, but my first personal iPhone app available for purchase at iTunes store.
My Journey into iPhone application development has been a fascinating one. I love the SDK and Objective-C language. Hats off to apple for a vision that is unparalled.
EZ Reversi for iPhone is a re-make of classic game of Othello.
It is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each side belonging to one player. The player’s goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent’s pieces as possible.
I know most of you have heard or read about Digital Distribution to rule the future of movie and game distributions. An year ago we all would have agreed wholeheartedly.
Microsoft exec Aaron Greenberg talks about Digital distribution here.
Of course Microsoft has lots of content available through digital distribution via XBLM and it is fair to say that it is there dream to push all the content through this channel. Lots of profits to be made without the need to shell money out to manufacture/distribute in the traditional way.
You cannot let a friend borrow digitally distributed games/movies.
You cannot buy a used game through this channel.
This enables the pulishers to capture more of the revenues that would have been lost due to rental/borrow/trade in schemes.
Not just Mircosoft, Sony has its own DD network via PSN, making movies/games and demos available to end users. Blockbuster,Amazon and Cinemanow have a boatload of Digital movies/TV shows available for sale/rental. It would be a mistake not mention iTunes store from our beloved Apple.
What made write this article is the announcements from ISPs to cap bandwidth usage of the broadband internet subscribers. Here is a link to Comcasts Acceptible Use policy here
Time Warner confirms the bandwidth cap test here .
More ISPs to follow…
With the amount of bandwidth needed to download HD movies/Games (1.5 GB to 8GB) not to mention downloads of demos (demos on PSN range from 500MB to 1.5 GB) the allotted bandwidth would be consumed in no time.
I almost forgot to mention streaming TV/Shows and movies via Hulu, ABC.com and netflix.
Dont you think it digital distribution is a facing a Giant in terms of Bandwidth cap ? May be the major corporations should step in make this work, probably they can subsidize the internet costs for the subscribers or invest into ISPs to enable unlimited bandwidth ?
I am very happy to announce the launch of my new website dedicated to Photography. After much research and deliberation I went with Smugmug to host my photos. So far the experience has been smooth and painless. Check out and leave comments.Visit the site –>
Our lunchtime conversations at work are usually stimulating and riveting. This afternoon was no exception. My friend/colleague was playing with his iPhone and a thought crossed my mind. “Is iPhone really the new answer to Mid-life Crisis ? ” or not exactly ??
Before iPhone he did not care for any sort of tech gadgets, that may be the case with my friend but let us think about it …
iPhone is cheaper than motorcyle
it is really KEWL
not as intimidating as riding a two wheeler
much safer
How many iPhones you can buy at the cost of a convertible ?
What would you do when you get bored waiting for service at a busy IHOP?? Three of us had iPhones with us. Being a victim of the photography bug I decided to shoot some creative shots. We requested one of the waitresses passed by for an empty plate. And the result is this picture. I really like the way it turned out. And of course, I resisted the idea to pour the syrup on the iPhones
I love snow, that is the best part of the Winter season. It is even better when you can spend some time with your loved ones and have a great time. My friend Sanjeevi and his wife Sneha had a even better idea, to build a snowman. The result is an awesome looking Mexican Indian snowman. Hats off to the inspiration and creativity.
After several attempts one of my pictures made into Pentax Photo Gallery. It is really a good feeling make it to PPG is hundreds get rejected every day. The pictures are scrutinized under variety of criteria and also voted by fellow members/artists.
This picture was taken at NYC at the end of the day when we decided to take a break and sit on platform at side of the street. Shutter speed was 1/2 of sec hence the blurred people. But that contributed to the overall composition in a good way.
Of course Microsoft has lots of content available through digital distribution via XBLM and it is fair to say that it is there dream to push all the content through this channel. Lots of profits to be made without the need to shell money out to manufacture/distribute in the traditional way.
Our lunchtime conversations at work are usually stimulating and riveting. This afternoon was no exception. My friend/colleague was playing with his iPhone and a thought crossed my mind. “Is iPhone really the new answer to Mid-life Crisis ? ” or not exactly ??
Shows how Christ-like love for others can transform hardened hearts
