Need Simple Website Design Advice

Not sure if I'm understanding this right, but Pbase may fill what you're looking for. You set up individual galleries (like folders on your computer). Then upload your pics to that gallery.

So if you have Bald Eagles, GBH's and Blue jays that you shot one day, you can set up a folder on Pbase for each breed, then upload the BE's to their folder, the GBH's to theirs, etc.

When one initially logs onto your website, they get a "catalog page" so to speak in which each Gallery is listed with a thumbnail shown, click on it, and voila, you're into Bird X.

You can view mine here: http://www.pbase.com/bostonrott

 

Jim, you might want to take a look at Zenfolio's E-Commerce Platform:
http://www.zenfolio.com/zf/features.aspx
Zenfolio has all sorts of pre-built presentation & support for galleries.
And a shopping cart feature. You can get your own domain name, too.
I've seen some beautiful, easy-to-navigate galleries there.

Later comment: I think you should consider a labeled thumbnail
to represent each category of birds rather than just a plain list?
You want to always be advertising your photos -- lol -- <grin> !!

 

The code for a web page that simple would not be difficult to create yourself, Jim. You might take a peek at webmonkey.com for a quick primer and see if it's something you want to do. Software packages like Dreamweaver and GoLive give you a little more refined editing environment for creating the code if you decide that typing it out manually is too much of a chore.

Once your pages are built, you upload them and your image files to a server so that people can view them. Companies like godaddy.com can host your files on their server for less than $5 a month, and registering a domain name (i.e. jimfenton.com, etc) is about $10 per year.

Sean

 

I am using SmugMug now and am very happy with it. It will do exactly what you want, if I understand you correctly. An absolute breeze to set up, and you can use your own domain name to point to it.

 

Jim,

The thumbnails might be a good idea just in case an editor knows what the bird looks like but can not remember the name of it?

 

Building the site once is not difficult. Depending on your comfort level with the various programs you could probably set up a website over a couple of weekends.

It gets harder when you need to update frequently. Unless clicking on a thumbnail brings you to a directory listing (just text, not recommended) you will have to make changes to the page each time your upload... not a lightweight task.

I would suggest using a pre-made site. You can either use a site like smugmug or Flickr that allows users to create their own little piece, or you can use a pre-made package that you host on your own site.

I personally use DreamHost to host my website. They have a one-click-install gallery which should have everything you need. You just login to your web panel, fill out a form and click, then wait 15 minutes. Afterwards going to http://www.jfentonphoto.com (or whatever your set it up to be) would bring you to the gallery. I would imagine other hosts have similar packages available.

As for building your own fully-functional gallery from scratch: It's more trouble than it's worth. I built one as a learning experience. It took me about 80 hours and, in the end, wasn't really worth using.

 

Good point.

 

Simple is relative.

One set of options:
http://www.photoshelter.com
http://www2.digitalrailroad.net

Another set:
http://www.livebooks.com
http://www.clikpic.com
http://www.foliolink.com
http://www.photobiz.com
http://www.nancyscans.com
http://www.sitewelder.com
http://www.portfoliocity.com
http://www.portfolios.com
http://www.bigblackbag.com
http://www.workbook.com
http://www.lebook.com
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/

One last option (probably won't want these as too much work):
http://www.jalbum.net
http://coppermine-gallery.net/


Pbase/smugmug you alreay know about. Finally there is http://www.featurepics.com...they let you do some interesting things with their code if you know just a little html. Most aren't free except for the last couple

You have to figure out which will work for you. Most are fee based. If they are not, you probably need to figure out a bit of code to make them work for you.

 

Give ZenFolio a peak. You can host an unlimited number of images there and arrange them in any number of categories (albums), nested in any way you like, for $40 a year. For those who do not want to do anything with site design, this is an astonishingly great deal. They also have password protected folders, which are great for creating private galleries for specific clients or for family only.

I have absolutely nothing to do with that site. I just investigated it for my own potential use. Since I already have my own site, I decided to keep doing what I am doing with Coppermine.

 

I once used GoDaddy to host. While I'm happy to use them for domain registration, its hosting service really sucks. It's slow and you don't get much in the way of bandwidth or disk space for the dollar.

My own host right now is HostGator.com. I'm pleased with the service, rates, and quality. You may want to shop around.

 

Jim,

You might want to query Alex (Acena). In the archives here he was asked a similar question and explained how he moved his site to another hosting service (I can't remember the name) specifically so that editors could download the high res images they needed, and it took care of the billing.

 

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