Is SM right for me because....?

MichaelBorger

Hello all. I'm a bit behind in keeping my site current, www.mikeseyes.com, but I'm off to northwest China (Xinjiang, Tibet) this summer and it's time to re-evaluate my site. Here's my dilemma.

I'm just as much into improving my travel writing as I am my photography skills. If I ever really want to do something career-wise, I need to make my visible image as professional looking as possible. Right now, my site has a more 'friends and family' look to it than I want. I need to change that.

I need a site that allows me to show off my writing in addition to my photos. Last year I kept a travel journal that was received well (http://tblogs.bootsnall.com/mb/), but I had to host it elsewhere - a rather disjointed presentation. This time around, I need it all in one place for a cleaner and more professional image.

I'm also not a programmer. I'm very tech savvy, but I have no desire (or time) to start learning complex code or scripting that I will forever have to maintain so I can upload more photos and writings. I've yet to delve into customizing SM, so I don't know how easy or difficult it is.

I have considered other sites like bigblackweb.com and qfolio.com that offer pre-built templates that allow customization without requiring any programming knowledge - easy! That hitch is that it's primarily just for photos (art) -- no writing. It also has strict storage limitations, unlike my Pro account here on SM.

So any ideas there on how I can make this happen and whether Smugmug, as great as it is, is still a viable solution for me? Recap:

1. Goal - to have both my writing and photographs taken seriously
2. Should be easy to create/administer
3. Needs to look good as well!

DavidTO

Have you checked out the Journal Style on smugmug? You can force any gallery to be displayed in that way, and it will give you ample opportunity to show off your writing.

I'm off to find you examples...

DavidTO

Here, and here and a fancier one here.

That's a cross-section of uses for journal, and maybe none of them are quite what you're gonna do, but I think it shows how versatile it can be.

Hope that helps!

DavidTO

The forcing of viewing your gallery in journal--only in Power or Pro, BTW. Standard can't do that.

DodgeV83

You can also use the HTML Only theme (do a search)...should make the gallery look just like any other site.

DavidTO

DodgeV83 wrote:

You can also use the HTML Only theme (do a search)...should make the gallery look just like any other site.

Again, not standard, power or pro user only...

DodgeV83

MichaelBorger wrote:

unlike my Pro account here on SM.

Sounds like he already has a Pro account

DavidTO

DodgeV83 wrote:

Sounds like he already has a Pro account

Reading is hard.

garyjwood

MichaelBorger wrote:

1. Goal - to have both my writing and photographs taken seriously
2. Should be easy to create/administer
3. Needs to look good as well!

Michael,

For nearly a year now, I've maintained a photo-of-the-day blog at http://garyjwood.blogspot.com. Blogspot (AKA Blogger.com, a Google company) has a pretty good content-management system for blogging right out of the box, and most of all it's free. It's also highly customizable, should you wish to delve into that at a later date. Smugmug, as you know, offers excellent image hosting facilities. This two-tier solution will meet your second and third goals.

MichaelBorger

Thanks
Thanks to you both - I'll check them out tonight more thoroughly when I have more time to mess around. At first glance, though, they still have a more personal than professional feel to them - which I'm not yet, but shooting for it is how you get better, right? (I hope) For example, here's a site from a guy I met the other night in DC.

http://www.venividiphoto.com/default2.asp

He made it using bigblackbag.com (which I meant to say above instead) - as did my photo instructor. Again, the drawback here is that bbb is just for displaying images - art, photos, whatever - and not for writing (not to mention it's more expensive/storage). I'm sure SM offers more flexibility. His site is standard functional feel for bbb - it's clean and professional looking and didn't require any scripting. I think I'm looking for something between that and the common "here are all 1000 images of the family trip to Disneyland" feel I see so often on SM. Something where I can offer photos for stock purchase and still offer up what I hope is equally worthy writing of my journeys.

I think the kicker is I don't have a clear idea yet in my head of how I'd like the site to be. Everyone in the world has a blog now, and I don't think I'd be doing myself any favors by lumping myself into that big ol' pot - not really the way to make your writing stand out at first glance. My writing is not my daily musings about what I see on my morning commute or how my ex called last night blah blah- it's what I feel when I'm hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge of northwest Yunnan province in mountainous SW China or when I'm tackled by kids out on a field trip in Sichuan.

Hmmm - I've a Master's in geography and am a frequent visitor to Nat'l Geographic lectures downtown here in DC. Does that help paint a picture?

I'll get a better idea tonight when I've had more opportunity to look at the nice examples you mentioned. Thanks! I'll end my rambling now.

MichaelBorger

...
Thanks, Gary, I'll check that out tonight as well.

Mike

garyjwood

MichaelBorger wrote:

Hmmm - I've a Master's in geography and am a frequent visitor to Nat'l Geographic lectures downtown here in DC. Does that help paint a picture?

Kind of. I have a Master's in Psych and work for a geodemography company.

BTW, I agree with your assessment of "daily musings about what I see on my morning commute", etc. A lot of blogs seem to be written by self-absorbed, semi-literate teenage girls or pretentious art-school students who think no-one has ever taken tilted, out of focus black-and-whites before.

But there are also a number of worthy, journalistic blogs too. The challenge is to find them -- or as an author, to market them.

gluwater

MichaelBorger wrote:

For example, here's a site from a guy I met the other night in DC.

http://www.venividiphoto.com/default2.asp

You could make your site look like that here but it would take a little customizing, which I'm sure the pros here could help you with. To tell you the truth though I wasn't that impressed with that site, layout wise. Just the .02 of a casual browser.