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11-23-2014, 08:14 PM   #1
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Would you use a new site for photo exploration?

Hi Pentax users,

I'm a longtime Pentax photographer and PentaxForums.com user. I love photography, and I've become disappointed by the available photo sharing/exploration sites. I just don't feel like the current offerings meet my needs.

So I'm building a new one. I know, I must be crazy. But I'm doing it. I really want something with great, minimalistic design, some whitespace to let photos breathe, and keyboard/swipe navigation to 1) see more photos by a user or 2) see other users.

My gripes with the current offerings are as follows:
1) flickr - the obvious heavyweight. It's just become a crowded, photos-jammed-next-to photos experience. There is no whitespace, pretty much anywhere on the site. Also, it seems to be heading towards "dump every photo ever here," and less "interact with others over photos." The groups are a lot of fun.
2) instagram - probably my favorite, but people mostly follow each other for social reasons, not for aesthetic/photography reasons. You can't really explore photographic techniques or cameras, mostly just seeing what photographers are up to.
3) tumblr - the reblogging concept is interesting, but photos aren't really linked to each other. In other words, you aren't exploring photos, per se, more exploring bloggers (or rebloggers)
4) 500px - I'm not a fan of their algorithms for choosing "good" photos. The community there is a bit processing-heavy, and there isn't too much room for niche taste on the site. I just don't have much fun there.
5) forums like this one - they're great for discussion on lots of topics, and the "share your photos!" threads are fun. But they are not really set up as networks for photo exploration.

So what are your thoughts? What do you think of the current photo site offerings? Are there other sites you use? Would you use a new site?

11-23-2014, 08:32 PM   #2
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I think Smugmug and Zenfolio should meet the needs of most folks, especially those who don't mind paying some money to gain benefits. These are photographer-centric sites and have been around long enough to have solved most of the problems with online galleries that their tens of thousands of customers have identified. They are customizable to a fair degree as well.
I have never liked Flickr's interface and the associated social photography culture. The one strong thing about Flickr is that buyers and agents troll the site seeking cheap shots for stories and clients, for better or worse.

Over the past 16 years or so I've seen a lot of online galleries and hosting sites. In my experience about 97% of the ones designed and programmed by photographers are mostly terrible: hard to navigate, hard to read, hard to see the artwork. Most photographers I've known over my 40 years of shooting are not graphic artists. If you are so skilled, by all means go for it.

I've been a happy Smugmug user for about 12 years and have zero reasons to change.

M
11-24-2014, 03:38 AM   #3
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For exploration I'm pretty happy with Flickr. I use Google too, but they're the main ones. Flickr has the quantity, and you can search by geography, date, tag - so it's a good wide pool for my research. I also use FlickStackr to make personal lists.

I do know of various other 'clean-interface' photography browsing sites, but the problem with these is that their clean interface makes them almost invisible to search engines (search engines like text), so there's just not much there, because people don't know about them to contribute.
11-24-2014, 04:20 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by Nass Quote
For exploration I'm pretty happy with Flickr. I use Google too, but they're the main ones. Flickr has the quantity, and you can search by geography, date, tag - so it's a good wide pool for my research. I also use FlickStackr to make personal lists.

I do know of various other 'clean-interface' photography browsing sites, but the problem with these is that their clean interface makes them almost invisible to search engines (search engines like text), so there's just not much there, because people don't know about them to contribute.
I believe there are other ways to integrate keywords in the html without them being shown on the actual page...
And anyway you can always setup two different ways of displaying things, a "verbose" one and a clean one... cumbersome maybe, but it should do the job.

11-24-2014, 11:25 AM   #5
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I think that you could find interesting 1x.com .
It is an European website that is growing up very fast. There are really a lot of artists there, even if it is more photoshop oriented, I mean that a very big part of the pictures are more "art" that "photography".
Another bad thing is that if you want unlimited functions you have to subscribe for a premium account.
But there are good things too...
There are tutorials of the making of some pictures, you can post your pictures for critiques and if you are interested you can sell them (not 1 dollar as stock website, but much more as art).
11-24-2014, 01:06 PM   #6
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I've been using Flickr and grown used to it. Over time I have built up albums according to the lenses and cameras I use. It's very technical compared to people who organize by events. I also have it linked with my Snapfish account so I can order free 4"x6" prints from their mobile app. As a voyeuristic hobbyist I'm totally OK with Flickr.

Moving over to another site would require me to either migrate everything over or run two systems. That's more work than I want to do. So, not in a bad way or anything, I will stick with Flickr while it works. When it goes kaploooey! or if I change my photographic approach then I will change sites.

I like the camera stats that Flickr puts up. It's interesting to watch an older model mobile phone decline as a new one is released.
11-24-2014, 07:21 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by dcshooter Quote
The last two interface redesigns at Flickr have added a ton of clutter, and it's funny, since they were obviously intended to produce the "clean," "tablet-like" experience that is so popular among webdevs/designers these days. It also adds a ton of overhead with correspondingly longer loading times. (500px is absolutely horrible in this regard, too).

The funny thing is, the old Flickr interface, while aging, was much better - the image was displayed at the top of an uncluttered page with lots of whitespace, and could be easily re-sized as the user saw fit, while meta-info was separated at the bottom of the screen and could be simply reached by scrolling down. But now that scrolling has apparently become anathema, everything is crammed in one page, and other image sizes are hidden behind a hard-to-find popout that takes you to a page that is pretty much identical to the original multi-size page!

A lot of Flickr users have been complaining about the updates, and while some problems have been fixed to one extent or another (groups are useable again, single imag eview is somewhat better), things are still a hodgepodge, and its simply not as easy to use any more. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has said that she wants Flickr to go more in the direction of a social media site than a photographer's site, but right now, it's stuck in limbo between them and is frankly doing worse at both.
I couldn't agree more. It wasn't until flickr started making major changes to their interface that I began to fantasize about something different. Then when I finally decided that I was going to go on this crazy journey of building something myself did I realize that the possibilities are endless--I can literally build in any features that I or other users want.

So I guess a follow-up question would be "what is the most important thing for you in a photo exploration site?" For me, it's an intelligent interface, an emphasis on connecting people who take the photographs (groups, discussions, comments), and a bit of room to let photos breathe.

---------- Post added 11-24-14 at 06:34 PM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by Miguel Quote
I think Smugmug and Zenfolio should meet the needs of most folks, especially those who don't mind paying some money to gain benefits. These are photographer-centric sites and have been around long enough to have solved most of the problems with online galleries that their tens of thousands of customers have identified. They are customizable to a fair degree as well.
I have never liked Flickr's interface and the associated social photography culture.
Thanks for this. The smugmug/zenfolio route is not what I am trying to do here... Those fall into the category of "totally unconnected gallery sites," and what I'm most interested in is the interconnectivity of content. I guess I'm after more social/discover-something-new users.

QuoteOriginally posted by 6BQ5 Quote
Moving over to another site would require me to either migrate everything over or run two systems. That's more work than I want to do. So, not in a bad way or anything, I will stick with Flickr while it works.
I'm sure there are other users who feel the same way. It will definitely be a challenge to figure out how to get people to try something new.

QuoteOriginally posted by flaviopetrone Quote
I think that you could find interesting 1x.com .
Thanks for the tip. I hadn't used that one before, though I think I have visited it for other purposes. Any other sites you use regularly that haven't been mentioned?

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