[claraliu]

Vent all you awesome pro-photographers!

What do you guys love and hate about Flickr and other sites for sharing your work? Love to hear any opinions or stories!

[patrick9]

I read you post on Photo . net. Are you having a problem with them? I am not a pro but I do have an account on flikr, tho I have not posted any photo's yet. It's a new account.
There seems to be a lot of people using them.

[SteveM]

I can't really call myself a pro, but Smugmug seems to do the trick for me and I have my web address there. While I have used it for sales, I typically don't as processing is done in the US, causing delays and duty charge issues. Because of that, I am looking around for another pro site.

[alohadave]

Flickr is a photosharing site. It's not setup for professional usage, and you can have your account suspended for using it for commercial purposes.

SmugMug and Zenfolio on the other hand are setup to be able to sell your work from your site.

[SpecialK]

Dislike Flickr because it renamed my files, would not sort by file name per #165 in the FAQ (my file names start with the date so they are chronological) , and they would not refund my $25 after I informed them of the above, and abandoned the site after less than 8 hours of futzing around trying to manage it. I'm not a professional, so perhaps it will work for others. Many people use it though I do not know why.

[claraliu]

I meant like the interface... as a photographer, I want to create something new for phorographers, by photographers to showcase our work/share/ whatever you like to do.

I find Flickr too cramped. and I get distracted by all this crap that's on the site :/

[claraliu]

Yea I hate that about Flcikr too... But it'd be nice to showcase some photos AND be able to commercialize them at the same time.

[garyk]

I like flickr. only because it gives me feedback on what people like. Or don't like. I am always amazed at what people generally like. I think a bad or mediocre photo. People think it is great. Hummmm Interesting to see and learn from.

[magkelly]

I have a photobucket account but I am very careful about what I put on there. Having worked for one of those outfits once temp I don't trust them really. Flickr, they practically own the photos you put there. Read the fine print. I'm getting more and more reluctant to put my best work online actually unless maybe it's at a legit stock site to sell. Unless you want to display it 2" tall and watermark it any photo you put online these days is at risk of theft. I don't think I can stop people from doing it. I think it's almost useless to try really. I figure it's up to me to risk it, or not, and most of the time, it's not...

[demp10]

Vent all you awesome pro-photographers!

What do you guys love and hate about Flickr and other sites for sharing your work? Love to hear any opinions or stories!

Pro photographers don't share their work, they sell it

[alohadave]

I have a photobucket account but I am very careful about what I put on there. Having worked for one of those outfits once temp I don't trust them really. Flickr, they practically own the photos you put there. Read the fine print. I'm getting more and more reluctant to put my best work online actually unless maybe it's at a legit stock site to sell. Unless you want to display it 2" tall and watermark it any photo you put online these days is at risk of theft. I don't think I can stop people from doing it. I think it's almost useless to try really. I figure it's up to me to risk it, or not, and most of the time, it's not...

What are you talking about? How exactly does Flickr 'practically own' the photos that you upload?

CONTENT SUBMITTED OR MADE AVAILABLE FOR INCLUSION ON THE YAHOO! SERVICES

Yahoo! does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Yahoo! Services. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services, you grant Yahoo! the following worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:

With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Yahoo! Services and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Yahoo! Services.

With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services other than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Yahoo! Services and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Yahoo! Services.

With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services other than Yahoo! Groups, the perpetual, irrevocable and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

You are granting Yahoo/Flickr a non-exclusive license for them to use your pictures, just like every other website that you upload to.

[enoxatnep]

What are you talking about?You are granting Yahoo/Flickr a non-exclusive license for them to use your pictures, just like every other website that you upload to.

Which is why I watermark every image I upload to Flickr. That way, people have no choice but to see that annoying reference to my real web site, whether it's a school kid inserting one of my images into a project or somebody interested in looking more at what I do. The goal: drive traffic to where you want it to go. Only in this way is Yahoo not the only one benefiting from using my photos, especially if I'm paying them to post them on Flickr.

[enoxatnep]

Dislike Flickr because it renamed my files, would not sort by file name per #165 in the FAQ (my file names start with the date so they are chronological) , and they would not refund my $25 after I informed them of the above, and abandoned the site after less than 8 hours of futzing around trying to manage it. I'm not a professional, so perhaps it will work for others. Many people use it though I do not know why.

It certainly has a few annoying quirks, but you can't expect perfection for a mere $25/year. In fact, I've found that the benefits FAR outweigh any limitations: In less than a year I've had nearly 12,000 views, so I have no problem being on the largest online photo database on the planet, especially with photo buyers browsing it and messaging with offers. And with proper keywording, your photos can quickly appear on the first page of all major search engines (like within hours!). I could name several more benefits, but I'll end with these.