# Photo Blog and/or Photo Gallery?



## Replytoken (May 17, 2012)

I am assuming that a number of us are either host galleries on our own web sites, or are using hosted services like SmugMug or Zenfolio to make our images available to our desired audiences.  And while I have had a basic SmugMug account since before using LR, I found that I was not really using it much except for making image files available to to others, or to use SmugMug's affiliated printing services.  I do know that a significant part of my limited use of my account was due to slow upload speeds, but we upgraded to broadband DSL last summer, and this provided me with unlimited, and much faster, upload speeds.  With that upgrade in place, I considered changing my habits last fall, and had considered either upgrading my SmugMug account, or switching to Zenfolio, and start creating some display galleries.  Unfortunately, a serious medical condition put those plans on hold until now.  However, I am now having second thoughts about creating display galleries.

I was going to trial Zenfolio, as I had planned last fall, but just found out that they raised their prices at the beginning of the month.  The increase was not excessive, but it did make me think twice as I am not selling images, and I was a bit disappointed that they were not able to offer any type of discount beyond their standard 20% off of the first year.  The price increase did not cause me to rule them out, but in combination with some other recent events, it did encourage me to think about this whole issue in a somewhat different light.

While I was sick, I decided to start a blog to keep family and friends apprised of my situation and treatment progress.  Initially, I did not think much of it other than as an easy means of communication with a number of people, but it appeared that a number of folks really liked my writing style.  As most of these folks know me better than to shower me with needless praise, I will take it as a sign that I was writing about I subject that I knew well, and that it came through in my posts.  Now, I am certainly not going to quit my day job to become a writer, but it did make me wonder if I, as a photographer, might be more effective at reaching my audience through a photo blog as opposed to a traditional gallery?  I realize that in many situations, a photo needs to stand on its own and be able to "speak for itself", but I did wonder if people might be more engaged if a dialog accompanied an image or series of images?  I know that I love looking at the many photo books that I have collected over the years, but I have also really come to appreciate the "back stories" that accompany some images, even though it creates a different experience than just looking at an image with no text.

While I am not looking for right or wrong answers to the questions posed, I am curious to hear how others have approached blogs and galleries to see how they fit into your means of communication as an artist.  Please not that my work is not commercial, so the sale of images is not a concern.  And, I am using services like SmugMug and Box.com to make image files available for download if folks need access to them.  I do know that I need to keep things short and sweet regardless of how I make my images available, but any additional advice or wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

--Ken


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## BlueRose (May 17, 2012)

Hi Ken, Im new here but been shooting and blogging for a few years now, so I will give you my 2c worth.  I consider the gallery sites (smugmug etc) to be just that, an online gallery to feature images and hopefully sell from.

If you want to interact in another way with potential clients, or just interested spectators, then a blog is by far a better vehicle.  I started my specific photography blog about 3 years ago when I got my 40D (my first DSLR) and realised the learning curve was going to be WAAAAAY longer and steeper than I expected.  So I decided to blog about it, to maybe offer another person in my situation somewhere to find help or even mutual comfort in the challenge 

I am not on facebook, and thats where you will get maximum exposure.  I have a small but regular following on my blog, and I like to think they are there due to the quality of my writing/images, and that the comments I get I earn.  And I work hard for them   But I also appreciate them a lot more than if it was just signal to noise.

Not sure if I have offered any particularly meaningful response, but thats my POV on your question.  And its a goodie


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## gregDT (May 17, 2012)

I've always viewed a Web Gallery as just that, a static showcase of my work. As a commercial photographer my gallery has the task of showcasing the photography I am capable of and the clients I have worked for. It's job is to get people to pay me money to take photographs for them. And that's about it. There's no real dialogue going on. It's an advert, a brochure and really not much more.

A gallery does provide some other features though. For example I run a mirror non commercial gallery for creating galleries of personal work, birthdays, day trips, holidays etc where my friends and family can browse and pick photos that I then send them. A blog might not be able to offer the ability to upload and privately display a set of images for a specific group of people.

But to create and maintain an ongoing dialogue with people it's a blog all the way IMHO. Whether that's a Google + account, Facebook  Flickr or a Wordpress blog it's going to allow you to continue to communicate with people. There really are a myriad of options open and prices to match from free to quite pricey. The fun is going to be checking through all the options and permutations to decide what's best for you.


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## clee01l (May 17, 2012)

I used to have my own dedicated domain and website.  It was too tedious to manage and took to much of my time (even using Jumla).  I let it expire over a year ago. Prior to letting my contract with the VSP go, I opened a paid Flickr account.  Here, i maintain ~1000 photos. Also in the last year or so, I've started a blog at Wordpress and opened a Facebook presence. I haven't moved my domain name to WordPress yet and I'm still not terribly active on either.

Jeffrey Freidl is a plugin developer that has LR Publishing Service plugins for most of the photo web site like Flickr, SmugMug, etc.  I think Yahoo is doing its best to commit 'harikari' and in the process will eventually kill Flickr.  I use Jeffrey's plugins extensively.  I also have a free account at www.photoshop.com and 500px.com. I would recommend both and would subscribe to either if it did I not have a paid subscription to Flickr.


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## Replytoken (May 17, 2012)

BlueRose said:


> I have a small but regular following on my blog, and I like to think they are there due to the quality of my writing/images, and that the comments I get I earn.  And I work hard for them   But I also appreciate them a lot more than if it was just signal to noise.
> 
> Not sure if I have offered any particularly meaningful response, but thats my POV on your question.  And its a goodie



Your response was very helpful.  This is kind of what I was expecting, and I floated the idea to a few people, and they thought that some narrative would be a good addition as it might engage a viewer better than just a gallery.

Thanks,

--Ken


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## Replytoken (May 17, 2012)

gregDT said:


> But to create and maintain an ongoing dialogue with people it's a blog all the way IMHO. Whether that's a Google + account, Facebook  Flickr or a Wordpress blog it's going to allow you to continue to communicate with people. There really are a myriad of options open and prices to match from free to quite pricey. The fun is going to be checking through all the options and permutations to decide what's best for you.



You were not kidding about permutations, Greg!  I was pretty much set on using Wordpress, but there has been a bit of a flap about their advertisements that they insert in blogs on occasion.  Going ad free with them runs $30/yr., so I am also giving some consideration to Blogger, although WP has a specific theme for photo blogs.

--Ken


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## Replytoken (May 17, 2012)

clee01l said:


> I used to have my own dedicated domain and website.  It was too tedious to manage and took to much of my time (even using Jumla).  I let it expire over a year ago. Prior to letting my contract with the VSP go, I opened a paid Flickr account.  Here, i maintain ~1000 photos. Also in the last year or so, I've started a blog at Wordpress and opened a Facebook presence. I haven't moved my domain name to WordPress yet and I'm still not terribly active on either.



As I am trying to simplify my life these days, I am going to use your experience as an example when I finally make a decision.  If you are considering a shift to WP, you may wan to be aware of their advertising "flap".  It appears that some of their past ads contained executable files and others were for adult escort services.  I believe they are trying to get a handle on the situation, but it seems to be moving somewhat slowly.  Thankfully, nobody has said anything to me about any ads in my WP blog that I have been using these past few months.

--Ken


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