Photo Management On The Road
 

During the "Technology on the Road" presentation at last weekends UK meet, the subject of photos came up. I mentioned Smugmug but no one seemed to have heard of it (to my surprise?)

Basics can be found here:

www.smugmug.com

Standard package is US$30.00 per year with a 1gb monthly upload limit. Exceed the limit & you'll receive a friendly e-mail pointing this out. They won't delete photos unless you're taking the p**s on a regular basis. A 4gb monthly limit can be had for US$50/00 per year - good value at the current exchange rate.

All photos are stored permanently, assuming you pay your yearly fees.

As an example of what can be done & how your galleries can be organised, here's mine as a basic example:

www.possu.smugmug.com.

Photos can be uploaded in a number of ways & direct from your PC or from the camera if the PC allows it i.e. Internet Cafe.

Photos can be moved from gallery to gallery & galleries can be moved from topic to topic very easily.

Don't forget to look at:

http://www.dgrin.com/

for digicam advice & help.

Smugmug are quick to respond to e-mailed requests for help & are knowledgeable & friendly with it.

I'll answer whatever questions I can & forward those that I can't to Smugmug, posting the answers her.

Steve



[This message has been edited by Steve Pickford (edited 28 June 2005).]

I just bought a 40 GB mp3 player (iriver) which allows storage and veiwing of photos directly via USB. This eliminates the need for a computer, and 40 GB is s*%tloads.
sean

I agree, Smugmug is great! We have been uploading our photos on the road to Smugmug on a regular basis. The nice thing about Smugmug is that it requires no special software to operate, hence you can use it on any computer. And when you do a blog, all you have to do is reference the Smugmug web address of the picture and bingo, it shows up on your blog.

Uploading pictures can take awhile at an internet cafe, but uploading your very best pictures to a secure online storage site makes a lot of sense. We all take lots of photos, but there will be a select few that are priceless and these few can be uploaded even with a slow connection.

I would not be comfortable taking an Ipod or another hard drive storage type device on a long trip as you have "all your eggs in one basket". What happens when that sensitive piece of electronics malfunctions, gets wet, or worse, gets stolen? A bike can be a harsh environment for electronics.

For me, burning to CD and uploading the very best pictures to Smugmug has been the best way to go so far...

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Dave
www.mototrekker.com

I also don't like all my "eggs in one basket" as it were. This is the reason why I tend to have a few 256mb memory cards rather than a 1gb card which would be cheaper to buy in the first place.

I don't know how it is in other countries, but in Norway digital photo printers store your pictures for free. I just checked with one printer I haven't used in more than five years and all my pictures are still there. They offer unlimited storage of pictures free of charge and guarantees that backups are kept for a year, mine are more than five years old now... (I print at home).

All you have to do is upload your pictures to their server, whether you order new pics or not is entirely up to you, if you do, then you can have your print outs sendt anywhere. I even think they make a photo cd for you if you want them to, then you are quadrupel secure (a copy on your camera, a copy on their server, paper print copies, and a photo cd copy)...