Thursday, August 16, 2007

Moving Online Photos

I must have been in some daze to not have known that Yahoo was closing down their photo hosting site. I received an email a few days ago telling me that I have until September 20th to move my photos, otherwise everything I have online will be lost.

Breathe in... breathe out...Breathe in... breathe out... Granted I do not have thousands of photos online, and I do have them backed up, but the idea of someone just destroying any of my pictures with a click of a button sends me into a panic.

I have a few options of places to use –– Flickr, KODAK Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Photobucket. I know a little about each one, but not much. What I want is something similar to what I had a yahoo.
  • Free
  • Large storage capability
  • Ability to post several albums with multiple photos in each album
  • Ability to have people look at anytime at any photo, without an invite or special code
  • Ability to print if I, or someone else, wants
  • Ability to add or delete photos at anytime
  • User friendly
  • Compatible with a Mac
So what do you use? Who do you recommend? Pros and cons of each?

I'd love some opinions.

10 comments:

Tracey said...

I use SmugMug and love it! It isn't free, but it's less than $20 a year and I can give you a coupon code for $5 off. I love it. It is super easy to upload, you can have unlimited albums and photos, people can visit any time and comment on the photos, and their prints beat Shutterfly and Snapfish hands down. You can check out my album to see what it's like. http://msbug.smugmug.com/ I also love that they have a bunch of different templates you can use for the albums.

Unknown said...

I have used all of the ones you have listed, among others. I have tried them all. Flickr JUST started it where you can order from them. Before they were only a hosting site, which didn't make sense to me. So overall, my favorite now is Flickr. I think they are pretty easy and are very blog-oriented. Mac friendly also.

Smugmug has a trial version. I tried it at one time. Smugmug is much more photographer-oriented. I do like it. I haven't been able to just settle on just one yet, though. I actually like mac's ordering site (where you can order directly from iphoto) the best, but their price per print is more expensive than most.

I think Snapfish is the easiest and best for those who are beginners. I find that their uploading programs don't work with my mac programs. I don't know if it's Firefox or Mac itself, I can't remember. Because I started with them a long time ago.

You forgot about Picturetrail, too. I like them a lot as well. But they have a limited amount you can upload before you have to start buying more space. I think it's just $25/year, though, which isn't much.

I have tried Kodak and I honestly didn't think their prints were very good. (I just am not a Kodak fan period!) The last time I ordered from Snapfish I felt that way, too.

My friend, Johanna, swears by Ofoto. That's her fave. I think people find one they like and then are loyal to them, like you were with yahoo. You just find what is best for you and go from there. I have pictures all over the www because I can't find one I'm totally satisfied with for just my every day photos. But I always back them up. I would never ever *only* have pictures on a host site. I hope people don't do that. You can never hold full trust that their own server will never go down. Gosh, that is scary.

Another site is Clarkcolor and Yorkphoto, both of which their prints are really cheap! There are actually probably hundreds of these places online.

Anyway, I can go on and on with this one, so i will stop! :o)

Anonymous said...

Sorry, can't give you any advice here. Don't use any of them. But good luck on your move


Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/

Jennifer said...

I use Ofoto(also know as Kodak easy share) and I like them. I never had any problem with them. I use firefox with this, which makes life so much easier! All it takes is a quick download at the Ofoto site.

I have ordered many prints from them with no problems...
I used Walmart.com photo center and had no problems with them either..so maybe I'm just lucky that way...because I'm sure Val is Screaming at me by now..heheh

Hope this helps and good luck.......

Jennifer

Deborah said...

I use ofoto, but am contemplating moving over to Flickr, mostly for the indexing ability.

LiLi said...

I have them all, but if you don't order from SnapFish with in a certain amount of time, they delete you... how nice. I like Photobucket, a lot. Flickr is cool. I order the most from Shutterfly, they offer the best deals throughout the year. So, mine are scattered, and are on dvd's and external hard drives and motherboards, and everywhere... Matt archives all of our photos by month and year... so if I ever need a photo, he's sure to have it cataloged somewhere off line, off the computer and is able to get it to me to send out when I need it. He's a bit anal like Val when it comes to storage of photos... but I'm eternally grateful for it! :D (LOVE YOU VAL, if you are reading!) Good Luck! And let us know what you end up going with!

LiLi said...

OH and what Val said about the Mac site... they send special deals out once in a while, and we made some awesome cards for birthdays and thank yous that we sent out, and they were FREE! So awesome being able to order straight from iPhoto! I too, am a self admitted Mac Geek.

Anonymous said...

I love Flickr. I'm still a newbie but you can do so much. It's really easy w/a blog. It resizes them right away, has an easy uploading tool, html and url links to every pic and you can organize them. I still don't know how it all works, but I love it! Plus, if you're a pro member (which is like $24/year) and you move your yahoo photos to flickr, they'll give you 3 months of pro free!

Cate said...

I've never used anything but Snapfish and Ofoto and I'm happy with Snapfish (which is what I use 99% of the time).

*Tanyetta* said...

I received the same email from Yahoo. I had over 700 photos. I just ordered a cd of the photos that were on there (less than $10) and i'm using flickr now.