SmugMug

June 8, 2014

Coming clean: Time to (try) and monetize this thing

But of course not on Wordpres.com. That would be a major no-no here.

Alright folks. Here’s this. I originally started this blog with the innocent idea of sharing my experiences as a dad and as a potential photographer, while every now and then including a post or two about the great web and mobile apps that make our lives so much easier and cyber-connected these days. Networking and getting to know great moms, dads and photographers along the way was another reason I started Dad’s Pixels.

Then SmugMug came along. Well, actually I’ve been a customer of theirs for about 7 years now but it wasn’t until recently that I realized this magnificent photo storage and sharing solution I have firmly believed in for all these years could somehow help me put food on the table.

Bottom line is I have joined their Partners Program and plan to blog about their offerings with two objectives in mind: One; to help fellow parent-ographers (see what I did there? Parents + photographers = parento… oh you know what I mean) make the most out of their online photography endeavors while B) Making a little bit of money on the side thanks to the purchases you my dear reader will hopefully make once you click on the occasional affiliate link I plan to insert here and there. Thus my reason for moving Dad’s Pixels from WordPress.com to Squarespace and launching a new version of the website. Please read the update below.

Anyway, I’m glad I’ve let that out of my system. I will continue to update this affiliate-free, no-ads version of Dad’s Pixels (in case things don’t work out at Squarespace and I decide to come back to WordPress.com) writing about family, photography and the web and only every now and then will I write reviews and blog posts containing affiliate links on the SS version, which is where I’ve moved the domain dadspixels.com. Whenever I do, that’ll be the first thing you’ll be notified of so you can decide whether you want to continue reading or not.

So that’s that. Wish me luck, will ya?!

UPDATE: I came. I saw. I didn’t conquer. Nope. Not in my wildest dreams. August came and went and the numbers never added up, so as of yesterday (September 12th) I’ve stopped throwing my money at Squarespace (as fine a service as they are) and decided to come back to WordPress.com, where it’s a lot cheaper to keep a blog no one reads anyways. So you keep on wishing me luck y’hear?!

May 1, 2014

Time to consider switching to WordPress.org (or Squarespace, perhaps?)

It’s all your fault, SmugMug.

I’ve been a happy WordPress.com user for a number of years now. I enjoy the sense of community the platform provides and its ease of use; with little or no technical knowledge required in order to run a decent looking blog. My only issue is how monetizing your blog, ads and affiliate links are all major no-no’s here.

Enter SmugMug’s Partner Program. SmugMug is no doubt the premier photo sharing service and I really believe in the solutions it offers. I would endorse and recommend this service any day and twice on Sundays; with my eyes closed. I believe the value SmugMug brings to the community of photo-loving dads (my target audience) is of such caliber that partnering with them seemed like a match made in heaven and an obvious option.

Thus my current predicament. Is it time I moved this blog to a self-hosted .org version? Or maybe go with SmugMug’s pals over at Squarespace; which by the way offers gorgeous website-making solutions aimed mainly a photographers and photo-bloggers.

Your two cents would really come in handy right about now, so if there was ever a post of mine you were planning to comment on, please make it this one, would you?

UPDATE: After careful consideration I decided to give Squarespace a try for a few months but I’m sorry to report things never really worked out. At least not the way I had envisioned. Months came and went and the numbers never added up, so as of yesterday (September 12th) I’ve stopped throwing my money at Squarespace (as fine a service as they are) and decided to come back to WordPress.com, where it’s a lot cheaper to keep a blog no one reads anyways. You are now free to go ahead and continue not reading this blog.

April 24, 2014

Flickr’s New Mobile App

Yes this is old news by now but I still needed to leave my 2 cents on the matter here.

There’s no denying Flickr’s doing everything within its power to remain relevant. It wasn’t that long ago that the photo-sharing site brought on a fresh coat of paint to its user interface, plus one not-to-be-easily-dismissed terabyte of free storage for every user.

Last week it was Flickr’s mobile app for iPhone and Android getting all the love in the form of a 3.0 version update. After downloading it to my phone and trying it out for a while, my first impression was that Flickr is now hell-bent on turning into some sort of Instagram with the stream of square photos and all. They’ll let you upload up to 30 seconds of HD videos and have brought auto-uploads to the mix, a la Google+ so yes, it is indeed a nice upgrade but one thing remains the same: photos still take forever to load, both on the browser version and on the mobile app.

image

Profile and photo stream

I kind of like the new design for profiles (which you can see in the image above) but they do tend to leave a little Twitter after-taste, wouldn’t you agree? And of course, you can now use your phone’s camera to take photos straight from the app, which will let you add all sorts of filters and effects to your images. Yup, just like Instagram.

A couple of things I noticed this app won’t let you do is tag your photos (before or after uploading them) and move or place said photos in different albums. You can tell the organizational skills Flickr’s always been known for are taking a hit in favor of it becoming a more hip, glamorous, mass-oriented service. Not sure how the more serious, pro photogs are going to take this.

So all in all I guess you could say this update is pretty neat if you’re a die-hard Flickr fan and you must stick with their products. I myself plan to keep the app on my phone to upload the occasional photo to my stream but I think SmugMug and Google+ will continue to be the home of most if not all, of my shots.

That’s going to be it for now, folks. Download the app here, if you’d like and after you’ve taken it for a spin let me know what you think in the comments section below.

November 12, 2013

SmugMug’s Camera Awesome makes its way to a Google Play store near you!

Yes! Camera Awesome has finally arrived for the legions of Android users around the globe!

SmugMug – the people behind Camera Awesome – have this to say about their mobile app on a blog post announcing its arrival on the Android platform:

Camera Awesome is your ticket to taking great photos at any moment of the day. It’s a powerful, easy-to-use camera app perfect for photographers (but easy enough for non-photographers). It’s for creative people who love capturing their everyday memories and sharing them with those who matter most.

Unlike other camera apps, Camera Awesome combines

  • a powerful, easy-to-use camera feature that helps you take fabulous photos and videos,

  • a creative suite of editing tools – including the one-tap Awesomize button

  • tons of filters, textures and frames

  • an integrated share function that lets you save or send your photos.

They specify which devices we can expect the app to work on right from the get-go (such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, the Nexus 4, 7 and 10 (with the Nexus 5 coming soon) and additional phones and tablets being added “as time goes by”.

Unlike the iOS launch a couple of years ago, which was free with the option to pay for upgraded filters and such, Android lovers will have to cough up 3 bucks to download and use the app. I guess that’s a good deal as long as there’s no need to pay for any additional features later on.

If it takes my mobile photography to the next level, who cares what the app looks like?

One thing that called my attention was how negative some of the reviews have been on the Google Play store, where some folks are harshly criticizing Camera Awesome for not adhering to Android UI guidelines. Check out what one user had to say about this:

Android UI guidelines, read them. How about even trying to figure out the platform you’re targeting? This is an ugly, ugly iOS UI on Android. Learn the guidelines, learn writing Android apps and then come back.

I’ll tell you what, if the app works I could care less whether it looks like an iOS, a Windows Mobile or a BlackBerry app. More on this once I’ve taken it for a spin. I don’t know, but I have a feeling Camera Awesome plus the revamped SmugMug app might make a nice little mobile photography tandem. Time will tell.

 

September 8, 2013

And the best social-media-photo-sharing site is…?

Ever since I first realized you could post and share your digital photos online (without having to send them as email attachments to your loved ones) I’ve been on a permanent quest for that perfect photo-sharing service.

I was originally only looking for a nice online photo album to post my photos to; where I’d just have to send a link to friends and family directing them to my photos; so a now-extinct service called myphotoalbum.com did it for me back in the day. It was alright I guess but they made you buy stuff from their store at least once a year in order to keep your albums for you for free so that quickly made me look at other options.

social media

Image: Flickr Creative Commons

Social media to the rescue

Enter social media and sites like Flickr. For the first time it occurred to me I didn’t have to share my photos only with real life friends and family. Flickr first and then Twitter and Facebook suddenly were there for me to share my work with the whole internet. I guess that’s when I became addicted to social media and from that point on, if there’s a site that’ll let me post photos online more likely than not I’ll give it a try. That’s why I post photos not only on the previously mentioned sites but also on SmugMug, 500px and of course, Instagram.

Which one’s the best?

Of course there’s no right answer here. Or wrong answer, for that matter. It all depends pretty much on what it is you want to do with your photos. And on who you want to share them with. If it’s a large audience you’re looking for then you definitely need to stick with Flickr, 500px, Instagram and maybe Photobucket. If what you want to do is share this weekend’s trip to the beach with relatives and friends then I regret to inform you that you’re stuck with Facebook. Let’s face it, if you’re in any way like me (meaning you’re an internet nobody) your only chance of having your photos looked at, liked and commented on is by displaying them on Zuckerbergville. Sad, I know.

google+What about Google+?

Yeah, what about them? How come I’ve left them out of the mix up until now? G+ stands in the unique position of perhaps being the best social photo-sharing site where hardly anyone you know hangs out. Pretty tragic if you ask me. With its circles and ties to Google Search, plus one of the best photo-sharing feature-sets in Google+ Photos, this network has everything needed to become the definitive destination of photo-sharing and social media enthusiasts with one glaring exception: Your friends. You know where they are, right? Yup. In Zuckerbergville. Which brings us to the age-old philosophical conundrum: If you post a photo online and no one sees it; is it really online? While the occasional +1 or comment from a complete stranger is okay, Google+ has its work cut out for them if they want to come anywhere near the level of interaction and engagement you see with your Facebook posts, where almost every like or comment comes from the people you ultimately care most about. And that is why I can’t commit 100% to G+ and leave my real life friends behind in Facebook. At least not yet. 

So at the end of the day, which is the best social-media-photo-sharing service? I’ll tell you what. I’ll just go ahead and let you answer that in the comments below. What’s your favorite social network? Where and (perhaps more importantly) with whom do you share your photos on the internet these days?

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August 2, 2013

My thoughts on new SmugMug

SmugMug, the premium photo hosting/sharing site, rolled out the new version of its service on Tuesday and while you still can’t follow other SmugMug photographers or join groups or communities, there’s no doubt the looks you can now give your site are really stunning in comparison with what you had before, specially if you have a Basic account, like myself.

My old SmugMug homepage (above) vs the new version of it.

I would’ve loved a more social SmugMug, one where interactions with other photographers were easier to achieve, but I guess the site will for now continue to be aimed at pros looking for a place to host and share their portfolios with potential customers. I guess it’s also nice to see the MacAskills and company have a clear road map of where it is they want their company to be headed: mostly a place to host, design and market professional photography websites while also offering the occasional amateur a place online to store and share photos of birthday parties and trips to the beach.

They have made the entire customizing process incredibly easy. Whereas before you needed to get your hands dirty with code in order to have your site look exactly they way you intended, now it’s only a matter of dragging and dropping content blocks and choosing the colors and fonts you want. In other words, if you can use a mouse, you can put together an amazing-looking site in a matter of minutes. It’s that easy, really.

Adding content to my homepage

Adding content to my homepage

Would you like to give SmugMug a try, no credit card needed, for 14 days and see what happens? Right this way, please.

July 27, 2013

New SmugMug is almost here!

Premium photo-sharing site SmugMug has announced through their blog and different social media channels that a new version of their fine image hosting and sharing service is set to be unveiled this Tuesday at 10:30 am Pacific time. You can watch events unfold live here.

What to expect

What do you think new SmugMug will be bringing to the table? It’s true that the site UI was in serious need of a refresh since things have kinda looked and felt the same for almost a decade which is pretty much SmugMug’s entire existence. Visiting my galleries there would in a way take me back to the 90’s so yeah, a revamped SmugMug experience was something its users have been expecting for quite some time.

A more social experience

I hope though, that new SmugMug isn’t just about redesigned good looks but that new sharing, interacting and social functionalities are added to the mix. While it’s true that SmugMug has been mainly aimed at serious, professional photographers who look for a place where they can host their portfolios and sell their work, it is also true that in today’s web you want to provide your users with the possibility of following, sharing, favoriting and commenting what others post online. Flickr and 500px have successfully achieved this; SmugMug has not. One more thing I would love to see in the new version is groups or lists, where one could share and exchange comments with like-minded photographers. To sum it all up: a more social SmugMug. Whether SmugMug has something like this in mind will remain unknown until Tuesday’s unveiling.

New SmugMug = New Pricing?

Hopefully not. There’s been plenty of feedback from users on Google+ and other social media sites expressing their concern over a new pricing schedule where judging from some of those comments, a hike in the current prices would not be welcomed in the warmest of ways, to put it elegantly.

In my case, I plan to wait and see what the new site will be all about before I commit to renewing my current plan and download their also-new Android app. You can come back to this post on Tuesday a 10:30 am and see below what the fuss is all about. Oh and btw, in case you’re intrigued and would like to give SmugMug a try I’ve got something for you here.