Do you think I should post/share my pics online or stash them away to a folder?

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As an advanced tech user who likes doing things his own way, the first thing that comes to mind is "i'm gonna create a site and post pics!" But... Is that a smart thing to do? Note that I already own a decent hosting plan that I use for something else, so no extra cost there. Well, except $10 a year for a domain name, which isn't that much.

I enjoy the process of taking pictures and I enjoy looking shuffling through them, usually just when I get home. Well, and some editing is enjoyable if I'm in the mood. So for me it's more about enjoyment, as I'm not really the type that needs approval and such...

...So I'm trying to decide whether or not I should create an account on something like Tumblr or Flickr or Instagram (though I think that one is more for kids taking pics of their food and selfies?) and post pics there, or perhaps if I should create a site, buy a domain name and post them there. Though my... "dilemma" is not which road to take, it's more about whether or not I should do it in the first place.

What do I get by doing it? How do I "advertise" it (most of the people who I've met who are into photography, I'm not in contact anymore, except one who is deeply introverted and very reclusive)? Why would I post them in the first place? Those are the main questions that are bugging me, since I love the process, and from what I was told, I've a "good eye" for capturing something that others seem to miss in a pleasant way.

Oh, and I should probably mention that I'm not a fan of social networks like Facebook and Twitter (and such) where people go to 'like' stuff, nor am I a big commentator on services like YouTube; just not in my personality. However, I have deeply enjoyed running a couple of communities, so I'm not as reclusive as I might seem ... and I should also probably mention that I'd be mostly taking pictures of: "buildings in the city, nature sceneries (mainly trees and flowers and bushes and such, I'm not a fan plains), rivers and lakes," as well as most likely some macro photography. Possibly an occasional picture of another human!

So anyway... Any thoughts or questions or comments would be appreciated. I don't really know what to expect as replies to this, just hoping for something that'll help my thinking and decision-making process about the questions I ask myself about this.
 
KIPAX said:
Its one of those questions only you can answer..

But for me... A picture isn't a picture unless people can see it....
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That's what I'm hoping to achieve eventually. I think I just need to... see it in a different light, if you will.

Why do you need people to see your pictures, what is your motivation, if you don't mind me asking?
 
dinners said:
Although you get get enjoyment from them yourself, I'd share them.

You may not be after compliments however constructive feedback can lead to improvement and further enjoyment for yourself.
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That is an excellent point. Constructive feedback is something I always ask of people if they want to comment on something I do.

What do you suppose should be the format, so that people could provide such? A blog, I presume? I doubt people write many comments (constructive or otherwise) on Flickr and Tumblr, I know a couple of people who named their daily activity as "scrolling Flickr/Tumblr/Facebook/etc.."

...In which case, how should I go about promoting it? I've no idea where to even start with that, especially since I've no social networks and I'm not planning on opening a Facebook or Twitter account.
 
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It can give other people pleasure to see pictures.. Giving other people pleasure is rewarding in itself.. But not I am guessing to someone who needs to ask... if you felt it you would know..
 
Open an account with flickr, you'll be surprised how many people will see your photos and also post comments.
There is no point take photos and not showing them to people, remember the days of film when everyone wanted to show their holiday snaps?
 
KIPAX said:
It can give other people pleasure to see pictures.. Giving other people pleasure is rewarding in itself.. But not I am guessing to someone who needs to ask... if you felt it you would know..
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You're right, my brain didn't even come up with that and when I read it, I couldn't identify with it. Everyone's different, but thanks for explaining your reason.

hashcake said:
Open an account with flickr, you'll be surprised how many people will see your photos and also post comments.
There is no point take photos and not showing them to people, remember the days of film when everyone wanted to show their holiday snaps?
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I suppose I may try Flickr when I get the camera and snap some pictures, but I still don't feel 'done' with the subject, so I'm looking forward to other replies here. Who knows what my brain will come up with by the time I'll have the camera and snap some pics, but it will certainly come up with something.

Oh, and regarding that, we still do that here! The reason is probably because people are poor here, but I think also because most of my family are in their 50s and 60s. But anyway, personally I never understood why people wanna brag so much about where they've been. It's just me though and is unrelated. So far, the comments part is the only thing that I resonated with.
 
I'm with Daz - open a Flickr account. It costs nothing so what is there to lose? You can still do something different at a later date. The more your images are 'out there' the more people are going to see them. I post my images to a few Flickr groups but not that many as it's something I could easily lose track of. Some post to a lots of groups - again, the more it's out there............. I don't get a huge number of views and even fewer comments, though to be honest if all anyone can say is 'nice pic' I'm not interested. If I posted to more groups I'd almost certainly get more views but I have better things to do with my life! I have found that telling friends and family about my Flickr site doesn't work - they're not interested.
 
Jannyfox said:
I'm with Daz - open a Flickr account. It costs nothing so what is there to lose? You can still do something different at a later date. The more your images are 'out there' the more people are going to see them. I post my images to a few Flickr groups but not that many as it's something I could easily lose track of. Some post to a lots of groups - again, the more it's out there............. I don't get a huge number of views and even fewer comments, though to be honest if all anyone can say is 'nice pic' I'm not interested. If I posted to more groups I'd almost certainly get more views but I have better things to do with my life! I have found that telling friends and family about my Flickr site doesn't work - they're not interested.
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Hope you don't mind me asking, but what is your reason for posting them to Flickr, since you don't seem to care much whether or not you get views and don't care for 'useless' comments nor much for 'real' ones?
 
I can't help feeling that you're over thinking this. You said that you're not the type of person that needs approval but, like a few people have already said, getting feedback/suggestions is always useful.

Why not start a few threads on here to share your photos seeing as there are a lot of good photographers on here who are usually happy to help.
 
stevelmx5 said:
I can't help feeling that you're over thinking this. You said that you're not the type of person that needs approval but, like a few people have already said, getting feedback/suggestions is always useful. Why not start a few threads on here to share your photos seeing as there are a lot of good photographers on here who are usually happy to help.
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Indeed feedback isn't seeking for approval (different subconscious motivations), and posting here is a great idea, I reckon. Suppose that's what I will do for starters. And yes, I actually do have the tendency to overthink sometimes, haha.
 
post on here so that we can all appreciate them and coment - I have learned so much in the past year since I did
 
My photography started improving dramatically when I started entering competitions at my local camera club. The whole process made me think about what I wanted in my images and the critique was very helpful.
But the real leap was when I started feeling confident enough about my images that I could do my own thing without worrying about what the judge said; the competitions became more about sharing my images with a group of like minded friends.
Talk Photography was great for this and I used to be far more active on here than I am at the mo :)

About this time I decided I'd like a website to showcase my images.
I'm also a computer techie and looked at creating a photo website from scratch; but it was way too much like hard work (probably easier now as the CMS plugins have come a long way in the last few years).
I looked at Flickr and other photo sharing sites, but they didn't do what I wanted. Eventually I went with Smugmug.

The biggest leap my photography took, was when I stopped trying to sell my work.
I'd had a few exhibitions which sold well and I'd hoped to generate some sales via the website, but it never happened - people seem to like viewing real prints before opening their wallet.
The mental switch away from commercial projects gave me a new sense of freedom that shows in my work, and my images are noticeably changing.
My website now gets used more like a photographic CV; it's opened a lot of doors by simply being there so I can point people to it.
I'm currently getting about 35000 image views a month; I'm not sure why as it normally ticks over at about 4000 (the highest peak was 70000 in a month).
I'd still choose Smugmug over Flickr as it gives me much better control over the gallery structure (I've hundreds of galleries).
Most of my shoots end up in their own gallery so I can share them with whoever else was there; the settings let me choose to restrict access or make them public - it works well for me :)

I hope this rambling gives you some food for thought.
But in short - if you feel you would like a website then do it!
 
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DuncanDisorderly said:
My photography started improving dramatically when I started entering competitions at my local camera club. The whole process made me think about what I wanted in my images and the critique was very helpful.
But the real leap was when I started feeling confident enough about my images that I could do my own thing without worrying about what the judge said; the competitions became more about sharing my images with a group of like minded friends.
Talk Photography was great for this and I used to be far more active on here than I am at the mo :)

About this time I decided I'd like a website to showcase my images.
I'm also a computer techie and looked at creating a photo website from scratch; but it was way too much like hard work (probably easier now as the CMS plugins have come a long way in the last few years).
I looked at Flickr and other photo sharing sites, but they didn't do what I wanted. Eventually I went with Smugmug.

The biggest leap my photography took, was when I stopped trying to sell my work.
I'd had a few exhibitions which sold well and I'd hoped to generate some sales via the website, but it never happened - people seem to like viewing real prints before opening their wallet.
The mental switch away from commercial projects gave me a new sense of freedom that shows in my work, and my images are noticeably changing.
My website now gets used more like a photographic CV; it's opened a lot of doors by simply being there so I can point people to it.
I'm currently getting about 35000 image views a month; I'm not sure why as it normally ticks over at about 4000 (the highest peak was 70000 in a month).
I'd still choose Smugmug over Flickr as it gives me much better control over the gallery structure (I've hundreds of galleries).
Most of my shoots end up in their own gallery so I can share them with whoever else was there; the settings let me choose to restrict access or make them public - it works well for me :)

I hope this rambling gives you some food for thought.
But in short - if you feel you would like a website then do it!
Click to expand...

Indeed it did, I appreciate that! It made me think in a broader spectrum, to be more precise...

At the moment my thoughts are whirling around firstly posting some pictures here to see how well I like the whole "posting pictures" thing, instead of any of the aforementioned sites or a personal site. This way I'm pretty sure that someone will provide some feedback, and doing anything else would be more of a gamble/hope.
 
I used to post photos on numerous social media sites like facebook, flickr, tumblr, 500px, smugmug etc but a couple of years ago I decided that anything I post would go on my own site rather than someone elses site. I kind of like the way it keeps everything "under one roof" and I have some say in how my photos are displayed and used.
 
boliston said:
I used to post photos on numerous social media sites like facebook, flickr, tumblr, 500px, smugmug etc but a couple of years ago I decided that anything I post would go on my own site rather than someone elses site. I kind of like the way it keeps everything "under one roof" and I have some say in how my photos are displayed and used.
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...Wait, does that mean that if you post them on such sites, you share the rights to the picture, or lose them? They can just be used anywhere without your explicit permission?
 
boliston said:
I used to post photos on numerous social media sites like facebook, flickr, tumblr, 500px, smugmug etc but a couple of years ago I decided that anything I post would go on my own site rather than someone elses site. I kind of like the way it keeps everything "under one roof" and I have some say in how my photos are displayed and used.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't include Smugmug in that list.
It 'is' my website - they just do the hosting.
 
OldPic said:
...Wait, does that mean that if you post them on such sites, you share the rights to the picture, or lose them? They can just be used anywhere without your explicit permission?
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thats a massive leap from what he said .. he said more control over how displayed and used...
 
KIPAX said:
thats a massive leap from what he said .. he said more control over how displayed and used...
Click to expand...

Well, I am aware that some sites (I honestly have no idea which sites or any of them are even related to photography) have something in their ToS along the lines of "if you use our service, we can do with your content as we please, which includes using it for ads or monetization or for anything else we can think of; an explicit permission is not needed because we simply reserve the right to do so in case we feel like it." I distinctly remember even seeing something like that on one site, but it was so long ago; and the rest - I just heard from people who may or may not have been right.

So the way he phrased it, I thought to ask, as the "used" part sounds somewhat suspicious.
 
In the last few weeks I have just been through this. I have been taking snaps and have had more than a passing interest in photography for the last 40 years or so but they were just snaps, sometimes shared with family and friends and then mainly forgotten. Recently I decided that I wanted to improve on that. So I joined this site and started posting to flickr after just a few posts I have really been made to think about what and how I photograph.

Today I got a "ilke" for one of my photos and I am really chuffed, makes it worthwhile. The thing is it is not just a technological pursuit you need feedback and crit to help you understand the field.

But to really get into your question, you ask how you advertise. I would say it is fine to have your own website but I think you will get a lot more interest if you post on say flickr and then link the image in you own site, as well as posting to sites like this and flickr groups etc.
 
boliston said:
do they allow you to migrate your site to a host YOU choose? if the answer is "no" then it is "their site" not "your site"
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But it is not a photo-sharing site; which the rest of your list clearly are.
The content unambiguously belongs to me.
As Kipax pointed out, I rent their system; this saves me trying to write something myself or find/tailor a CMS plugin to do the same job.
 
sirch said:
In the last few weeks I have just been through this. I have been taking snaps and have had more than a passing interest in photography for the last 40 years or so but they were just snaps, sometimes shared with family and friends and then mainly forgotten. Recently I decided that I wanted to improve on that. So I joined this site and started posting to flickr after just a few posts I have really been made to think about what and how I photograph.

Today I got a "ilke" for one of my photos and I am really chuffed, makes it worthwhile. The thing is it is not just a technological pursuit you need feedback and crit to help you understand the field.

But to really get into your question, you ask how you advertise. I would say it is fine to have your own website but I think you will get a lot more interest if you post on say flickr and then link the image in you own site, as well as posting to sites like this and flickr groups etc.
Click to expand...

Appreciate your comment - it made me think. Not sure what about yet, but I feel subconsciousness working on something.
 
I use Flikr for several reasons. I can show people my pictures. It is a sort of offsite backup. It is free. It's easy to display pictures in forums.
I only chose Flikr because I can upload to Flikr directly from my photo manager. And as a new bonus there is a Flikr app on my internet TV for living room viewing. I not interested in using the social networking side of Flikr. It's just a place to dump the pictures. The web interface is pretty limited though. Stupidly it displays landscape orientation pictures 2 to 3 times larger than portrait orientation. Morons. I'd happily change.
 
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