Since 2006 I have used my photoblog as my personal, professional and portfolio website.
For a while the photoblog was quite well-known in certain circles; I had loyal followers and commenters, I ranked reasonably high in search results and, through my photoblog, I was one of the runner’s up for Best Landscape Photography in the 2007 Photobloggies.
In 2009 things began to change.
A photo of mine was chosen for the cover image of a notable annual calendar. I was part of a group photo exhibition in a small, but legitimate, art gallery. I did my first major commercial photoshoot for a local furniture and electronics company, and for the first time in my life people in my community, not just those anonymous names online, were beginning to take an interest in my photography.
I realized that in order to expand and grow as a photographer (both in a metaphysical sense and a monetary sense) I needed business cards and a professional website for my portfolio. My photoblog, which featured a mix of experimental and portfolio images, wasn’t going to be enough.
I registered this domain as my portfolio site. But I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted. I didn’t have the skill to build myself a site, and I didn’t have the money to pay a professional web designer to build one for me (hell, I still don’t). I decided that the simplest and easiest option, if not the cheapest, was to purchase a Flash gallery.
Now, web designers hate Flash, and photographers tend to love it. Designers hate it because it included no SEO support (Search Engine Optimization), it’s highly inflexible, not supported on many corporate machines, older machines and handheld devices, and it completely forgoes any semblance of adhering to web design standards. Photographers love it because it’s easy, it’s pretty, and it allows them to easily display their photographs to clients in a flashy way (no pun intended).
When it comes to Flash there is an enormous range of options. You can buy Flash templates online for as little as $60. But, it seems that you get what you pay for. Uninspired design. Crappy coding. A thoroughly unstable site. Not what I wanted at all.
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. Companies like Livebooks will create a Flash site for you, and provide excellent stability and customer service. Starting at just $1,200. Which was far, far more than I was willing to spend.
That’s when I stumbled across Fluid Galleries, which seemed to bridge the gap between the low, low-end Flash sites and the very highly priced sites like Livebooks.
Offering two versions, one for $230 and one for $430 (with the main differences being the number of included fonts and the number of galleries available, as well as the ability to create custom pages in the Pro version) the software (which is remotely installed on your server once purchased) is simple, polished and effective. It allows the images to speak for themselves, which, of course, is the point of a portfolio site.
You have the ability to rearrange the site elements (logo, nav bar, etc.) and modify colours and fonts to your liking.
I’ve been very happy with Fluid Galleries. It’s affordable, stable, and allows me to display my photos professionally. The interface and the design (or, at least my design), allows the photos to take center stage, as they should.
All in all, a fantastic purchase. Now I just need some business cards!
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