Photo sharing website

So I've been messing around with Flickr in an attempt to try and get my photos out there a little bit more. I like the community of flickr, and the idea that if someone searchs HP5, for example, they'd see my pictures (and a million others) However, I'm realizing that's it's also a very annoying interface, you can't really organize your pictures, as in, chosing which are displayed first etc. etc. So I thought I'd check here and ask for suggestions on how to get my pictures online in a way that I like them. Should I just bite the bullet and make my own website??

(by the way, I will be loading my photos to the gallery here shortly)

I have a Flickr account but really haven't used it - so have no experience with the interface.

I do think that if you're intent is to market your photos then you should have your own website. It shows a much greater commitment to professionalism than just dumping your photos onto a "virtual pile" with a gazillion others on Flickr.

Not an either/or solution

It's possible to host the photos themselves on Flickr, and then link to them from your own site. I've done that for one project, a trip to Japan a couple of years ago:

http://www.johnlabovitz.com/projects/show/1

If you browse those pages, and look into the HTML, you'll find that each image is linked to a special "static.flickr.com" address, for both medium and thumbnail sizes. I also include a link to the Flickr page itself.

I used the Flickr programmer's interface (API) to get the static links, but you might be able to do it by hand, too.

The nice thing about this hybrid approach is that you can leverage the bandwidth & infrastructure of Flickr, as well as the tagging & commenting, but you can customize your interface.

Anyway, food for thought.

If you change the upload date/time on your photo, you can change the order of the photos.

How about photoblogging software? photoblogs.org has some links to sources. All you need is hosting. Could be as cheap as $5.95 a month (that's what I pay for mine).

You might want to look at Uber.com. They even have hints for customizing the look of your page. You can upload, create custom slideshows, and even restrict others from grabbing images. Actually quite easy to use, even if you don't understand the software behind it. I went ahead and created a simple page there. It took more time to upload than to choose a layout.

I have no affiliation with this company, just think it is a nice interface. This is what some might call Web 2.0 . . . . and it's free.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography