I don't generally send out an supporting a particular vendor like this but it seems I've had a lot of questions lately about how/where to setup a photography website and since I've tried a few and recently settled on a new host that I really like I thought it would be generally informative [and save me sending out quite so many individual answers].

 

I often considered creating a site from scratch and just hosting it on GoDaddy or similar location and I also looked into basing the site on the popular blog system Word Press (there are plenty of free and commercial templates to create a very nice Word Press "photo blog" site). The thing is though, I really didn't want to be spending time doing maintenance on the site per se - I wanted to be able to easily get the look I wanted without complicated tweaking or "coding" and above all else I wanted it to be very fast and easy to create and maintain photo galleries from pretty much anywhere.

 

Those were the general criteria and I found several photography-specific hosts that could offer me that for a reasonable rate (PhotoBiz, Zenfolio, SmugMug, etc.). However, I also had some other more specific needs that helped narrow things down. Because I do event photography from time-to-time, often with other shooters, I needed to be able to setup galleries where I could invite other photographers to contribute their images (securely). I also needed to be able to hide and/or password protect some of those galleries from the general public. In addition, I needed to have an integrated eCommerce system that would let me setup custom price lists (sometimes per-event) and sell a variety of prints and products based on my images, preferably without me having to be in the middle unless I wanted to personally handle a special order.

 

Long story short, based on that criteria it came down to Zenfolio or SmugMug so I tried them both out for a couple months with different real-world projects and in the end I settled on Zenfolio.

 

For a fraction of what SmugMug would charge, Zenfolio gave me everything I asked for and was FAR less complicated to setup and configure (especially when it came to those shared galleries). I even found an [almost] free plug-in for Lightroom that lets me create and manage my gallery contents entirely within Lightroom - it's a lot like setting up collections where each Zenfolio "collection" represents a gallery on my website and if I drag a photo into that collection in Lightroom (and press "publish") it's immediately uploaded to my site with all the appropriate settings in place. Super easy!

 

Some of the other features Zenfolio offers are:
• Unlimited storage for your photos and videos
• A variety of layouts and designs including creating your own completely custom designs that you can edit without any knowledge of coding
• Support for photos *and* video
• A very easy to use and intuitive interface
• Full screen Slideshows with music if you like (50 free songs are included from Triple-Scoop Music)
• Ability to link to many image sizes and share your photos and videos on Facebook and Twitter directly from your account. This way, you upload full-res files only once and share them any way you like.

• Automatically show images with a watermark (text or your logo)

• Mobile friendly - your site will look just fine on smart phones and tablets

 

In terms of cost it's about $120/yr which is less than I was paying PhotoBiz without ANY of the eCommerce or shared gallery features, and WAY less than a comparable SmugMug account. I really couldn't recommend them more strongly (did I mention outstanding support?) and if you do sign up you can use my referral code (FV1-BFV-F3Y) to get 10% off (yes, I'll get a little credit too...so thanks).

 

They also offer a 2-week trial if you just want to kick the tires before committing. Check out my site at www.KennethRossPhotography.com to see one version of what you might setup for yourself - if you poke around the galleries try out the slide show and you'll get an idea of the music quality (I only elected to have music during the slide shows but you can have it play on your home page if you're so inclined).

 

Zenfolio is at www.zenfolio.com

 

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

Ken

 

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