Finally, an affordable and reasonable mobile data plan!

I am truly excited about a product and data plan that Virgin Mobile and Walmart just came out with. The two-year commitments that cell phone carriers require are ripoffs. When I had a Blackberry plan with AT&T, there were months when I was not traveling at all, and I did not use or need my Blackberry at all. AT&T would not let me suspend the service during those periods of non-use. My mother has an iPhone, and she is paying something like $90 per month for it. Even now, AT&T will not let her suspend the service – this time, she is headed out of the country and will not use the iPhone in the slightest because it gets so expensive to use internationally. Paying $180 for something you will not use is pretty unreasonable.

In this economy, more folks agree with me. There are voice services out there that make sense for thrifty folks like me – I have been recommending Net10. With Net10 phones, I’ve bought a refurbished LG300 phone that works perfectly well with voice and receiving texts. I pay $30 for 600 minutes of voice calls that last two months. Since I (and from what I hear, the younger generation) don’t make many voice calls, those minutes last me the full two months, and then they roll over. I pay an equivalent of $15 per month for my cell phone that gives me the voice capability that I need.

And here’s a tip that I unearthed on a cell phone forum. It doesn’t work perfectly, but it works enough to be useful when I am traveling: you can forward emails to your Net10 phone (and likely any other phone that receives text messages) by using your phone’ email address! My Net10 phone uses the T-Mobile network, and its email address is in the form “dddxxxyyyy@tmomail.net” where “dddxxxyyyy” is my cell phone number in the form of area code and local digits. When I leave for a trip, I have Gmail forward my emails to my cell phone, and it works well enough. For my particular cell phone, my emails are truncated, but I am able to glean enough to know if the message is urgent or not. I can then call the person or whip out my laptop to send an email – as long as I am in a wifi zone, which brings me to my new discovery.

Since giving up my Blackberry, I have been waiting for a carrier to come out with a data plan that made sense. What makes sense? I want a data plan that is month-to-month, does not require a longterm commitment that penalizes you if you don’t want the plan, and does not cost a huge amount of money. I want a plan that is priced competitively, gives me enough data usage so I can get my emails and browse my websites when traveling, and works in the places that I travel to, within reason. Most of my business requires emails that are longer than can be reasonably typed on a Blackberry. And I admit that I am wordy.

As far as data plan usage, I can live with a monthly cap of 250Mb. That’s probably the lowest cap per month that would work for me, and would probably get me through a month of traveling and accessing emails and web pages. It’s a bit low, however, and I travel less than the typical businessman (but I consider myself an average guy and not a power user guy in a business suit, who has an unlimited budget anyway).

With the iPad, Steve Jobs seemed to have forced AT&T to offer a reasonable data plan. I have been on the verge of buying an iPad solely for the reasonably priced and month-to-month, no commitment, data plans. Kudos to Apple and Steve Jobs (and perhaps AT&T) for offering such a reasonable data plan for the iphone. However, the cost of the iPad (do I really need yet another device when I already have a netbook, a laptop, and a couple of desktop machines) has made me hold off. And I’ve also been holding off and waiting for E-Trade to send my $500 Apple Gift Card, which is a few weeks overdue! After my recent convention show, however, where I was stranded at the airport and needed web access (shame on SFO for not having free wifi!) to book rental cars and hotels, I was ready to buy an iPad immediately for the 3G access.

T-Mobile used to have a prepaid, 200Mb per month plan with no commitment for $24.99 per month. They have recently revamped their website to solve the problem that I describe below; they offer $30 and $50 monthly prepaid plans now for 300Mb or 1Gb of data respectively. Congrats to T-Mobile for finally getting their act together.

The problem is that if you try to buy this plan, the T-Mobile website forces you to buy a USB data modem also, at $150 to $200. OK, let’s say I buy the modem. Let’s say that I use the plan for two months and then don’t need the data plan for a few months. I cancel the plan. I try to start it up again. Well, if you try to start it up again using T- Mobile’s website, then you will be forced to buy another modem and pay another activation fee! And if you call T-Mobile’s ridiculously awful customer service, they know nothing about this prepaid plan and don’t even have the web resources to look it up! If you go to the store, they will tell you that T-Mobile does not have such a prepaid plan and will try to sell you the data plan that has a two-year commitment! I tried all the above. I even let myself get talked into trying out a data modem on a two-year plan by a store representative who promised me that if I cancelled within 30 days, I would not be charged a dime. It turns out he lied to me, and T-Mobile charged me over $60 for activation fees and usage fees even when I returned the items within 30 days. Yes, I am arguing wth T-Mobile, but of course their awful customer service is suspiciously and sufficiently awful to never credit me the amount promised. I am talking HOURS on the phone.

So forget T-Mobile and its treacherous, two-faced, deceitful offerings. Let’s move on (and by the way, don’t let the cell phone agent at the Costco booth tell you that there will be no charge whatsoever to try out the ridiculously expensive Verizon data plan for less than a month. Verizon will renege, you will discover that the guy in the Costco booth is just some guy that has no training and doesn’t know all the rules of all the plans for all the carriers that he purportedly represents , and you will be billed by Verizon for $100 just for trying out their modem for a few days).

This takes me to my recent trip to Las Vegas for a convention and being stranded at the airport. I have had my eye on a Virgin Mobile data plan, to use it until E-Trade sent me my Apple Gift Card. It cost $40 for month of unlimited service (or $10 for 10 days and something like 100 Mb of data), and it uses the Sprint network. This was still a bit pricey for me, considering the iPad’s $15 per month plan – but I was interested in it. After being stranded at the airport and realizing that I needed internet access while traveling NOW – I rushed over to Walmart after finally getting home and looked for the item: a Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go USB modem. I noticed that Virgin Mobile offered a special $20 per month (for 1Gb), no commmitment plan for those customers who purchased their modems at Walmart. This plan is perfect! Hip hip hooray for Walmart and Virgin Mobile for offering such a reasonable and usable plan. I am happily using this modem now to post this blog to my site.

Setting up the Virgin Mobile USB modem (which is a Novatel U760 modem) is not always simple and easy. I tried installing and uninstalling the Broadband2Go software on my MacBook Pro several times to no avail. I finally fired up VMWare and Windows XP on my laptop and activated the modem using the Windows environment. I was then able to go to the Virgin Mobile website and get my MDM account number, MSID number, and choose my Account PIN. Armed with that information, and still on the Windows environment, I paid for a month’s access on the Virgin Mobile website. Summary: when activating and starting up the Virgin Mobile USB modem, I highly recommend using a Windows XP machine (or emulator) to activate the modem.

Now that my modem was activated, I spent another hour trying to get the Broadband2Go software to work on my Mac using OS X. I finally decided not to use the Broadband2Go software and instead, went into Network Preferences. Here’s a rough description along with two screen grabs:

Go to Network Preferences.
Select the Virgin Mobile modem.
Click the Advanced button.
Under the Advanced page, change the modem from a phone modem to “Novatel Wireless and CDMA.”
You’ll then see green connected and sent/received bars.
When you want to connect to the internet, simply hit the Connect button, and you should be good to go.
Don’t bother using the Broadband2Go software in the Mac environment. It repeatedly asked for my system password but never connected me. Do run the Mac installer, however, to install the modem drivers. Do use the software in a Windows environment as it seems to work just fine.

I am a happy camper! Thanks, Walmart and Virgin. No thanks to you at all, Costco, T-Mobile, and Verizon! I’ll write more about my experience with Costco’s kiosk that markets cell phones. In short, why are we Costco customers, who pay for a good premium shopping experience, having to tolerate Costco’s phone kiosks, who do not offer Costco customers the best deals, do not offer prepaid services, do not offer agents that are knowledgeable, and do not offer the same service and return policies as Costco?

These Companies Suck: T-Mobile and Citibank

Citibank: if you apply for a credit card, expect a call at 7AM in the
morning asking to verify your social security number. Why? And the
last time I applied for another credit card, the amount of phone calls
and credit checks was staggering. Then they started denying our credit
transactions, stating that they were "protecting" us from fraudulent
activity. I told them that we were already covered by federal law from
any fraudulent activity on our credit cards, so we weren't being
protected by this policy -- Citibank was protecting itself. They did
not argue with me.

No other credit card company has hassled me so much or made me call them
so many times.

T-Mobile: all customers in California get a 30-day trial period to test
out if a cell phone company's products work out for you. Return the
phone or SIM card within 30 days, and you should legally not be charged.

Not with T-Mobile! They are obviously trying to hoodwink folks who
don't have the time or the knowledge to combat this evil corporate
entity, which uses standard evil corporate tactics. Here's how they
work: you try out a SIM card for a service. You return that card within
30 days, in which case you should not be charged at all. T-Mobile then
sends you bill after bill each month, each month charging you for
another month's service. You call. You tell them that you cancelled
the service before the first 30 days. You tell them that you returned
the SIM card. They say that they cannot do anything. You yell and
scream, and finally one of their representatives, after putting you on
hold for 15 minutes, tells you that the best they can do is take $10 off
your now $150 bill. You ask to speak to a supervisor. He finally comes
on and understands that you know the law and are not giving up. He
finally does the right thing (we'll have to see) and says that he is
cancelling all charges and all the bills.

I won't even go into how difficult it is to order a SIM card for a
month-by-month plan, which is clearly visible on their website, but
impossible to order without ordering a $200 USB modem as well. It's
always amazing to me when I know more about a company's products (that
are featured prominently on that company's website) than their
representatives. I spent hours on the phone a month ago trying to order
a SIM card for their month-to-month data service. I already had a USB
modem that would accept their SIM card and just wanted the SIM card and
month-to-month service. Guess what? Impossible to order. If you
already have a USB modem from T-Mobile and just need to have data
service for one month, you have to buy another modem from T-Mobile for
that month? Use the data plan for two months, and you have to buy the
modem for sure. Now you have two modems at $200 each. Stop the plan
(it is month-to-month, by the way!) and you have to pay the monthly rate
of $24.99, the activation fee of $35, and buy another modem all over
again!!

After hours of speaking to T-Mobile sales and customer service reps, a
supervisor told me that the only solution around this was to order a
smartphone SIM card, then to call and change the service. Guess what?
The smartphone SIM card didn't work in the T-Mobile modem that I already
had. It was super slow. And then T-Mobile charged me over and over
again even though I returned the SIM card.

I wish a cell phone company would offer a simple data-only,
month-to-month data plan that is actually under $25 per month, lets you
stop and start service when you need without having to pay activation
fees each time, and will let you use the SIM card in a Blackberry, smart
phone, or USB modem for a laptop. T-Mobile is close, but watch out for
the above scenarios. Virgin Mobile's new plan is close, but requires
you to buy a Blackberry for $300 rather than allowing you to use your
old Blackberry. BS!

New Product Recommendations

I'm laid up with a giant bruise that turned into a bacteria-eating flesh wound of some sort. It's been six weeks now and looks like six more weeks before I am able to go diving again.

I'll recommend a few things below.

1. Western Digital Live Media Player: this little unit is fabulous. I held off on buying one since I figured that an existing PC could hook up to my TV and do everything I needed. After getting a $300 electricity bill the last two months, I am on a mission to reduce the power consumption of my devices. Anyway, this little unit does indeed read Mac-formatted disks, and it does indeed play back files recorded by a Media Center PC! It plays back just about every file that my Mac does. Incredible little machine.

2. I finally gave in a bought a hot tub (made by Sunshine or something like that). The thing costs $100 to $150 per month to use! Granted, I am using it on 110V. I will be putting a 220/240V outlet for this and this should reduce the energy consumption, but still -- this is a lot of money to run a hot tub. Regardless, I've experimented with keeping the water crystal clear. Besides using the shock chemicals about every 4-5 days rather than once a week, I HIGHLY recommend a product called Spa Bright and Clear. I had a problem with cloudy water, and despite keeping the water chemically up-to-date and the filter cleaned, I was still getting cloudy water. One treatment of Spa Bright and Clear made the water completely clear for a good three weeks. The product seems like little more than soap, but it is inexpensive and supposedly binds to small particles in the water, so that the particles can be captured by the filter.

Shame on Software Companies That Make It Hard on Users

I have been a long and loyal customer of Cradoc Software for 20 years. Every time they've come out with a new version of Fotoquote, their great and useful software to help photographers determine what fees to charge for the licensing of their images, I've immediately purchased a copy.

Regrettably, I will have to think long and hard before purchasing another copy of Cradoc Software's fotoquote software, and I've been putting off upgrading my version of Photoshop CS3 because of all the problems I've had with the activation of software.

These companies just don't get it. They are so concerned about the misuse of their software that they are willing to waste the time of their users. Here's a typical email dialog that I just had with Cradoc:

Norb:
I had to wipe the hard drive and reinstall all software on the computer used in our office by my office manager. It is a laptop but we use it as a desktop. Now FQ6 tells me that I have too many computers registered! This is the second time I've had problems registering my FQ6 sofware. I use FQ6 on my laptop and this office computer and spoke with someone there in the past and got the OK to use FQ6 this way. Of course, I rarely use FQ6 and rely on my office manager to use it. I am quite disturbed because my office manager has stopped using FQ6 for months now (without my knowledge) since she had so much trouble just getting the program to start. Very uncool.

I am not a happy customer particularly since no one seems to be in your office
to help with this stuff.

Cradoc:
Changes to your hard drive can alter the computer’s ID which is used to verify the activation of the software. When you “wiped the hard drive” your computer ID probably changed making the program think it was a new (3rd) computer resulting in the maxed out error message you received.

So that we can verify which computer ID to reset, please provide us with the computer ID from the machine that the program is still successfully activated on. To obtain the Computer ID follow the steps below.
....

Send the computer ID to me so that I can reset your activations allowing you to then activate on the other computer.

We recommend that if you plan on making significant changes to your computer such as installing a new hard drive and/or reinstalling the operating system, you first deactivate the program.

After these changes are made you can activate the software again to continue use. This helps prevent your activation from being affected by these changes and needing to rely on customer support to manually reset your activations.


Norb:
You guys fail to understand the needs of the customer. We are not
idiots. We would, if we could remember, to go to all the programs
needed to deactivate them when there is a problem with the computer.

Unfortunately, when there is a problem with the computer is precisely
the time that we would NOT remember to deactivate a program. And asking
a computer user to remember to deactivate a program is pretty ludicrous
if you think about it.

Come on Cradoc folks, live in the real world. YOu've got software that
folks out here appreciate, but you are pissing off your best customers.

Thanks for your software, but no thanks at all for wasting so much of my
time and not understanding the needs of your customers.

Norb

A last comment:
Cradoc wrote:
This helps prevent your activation from being affected by these changes and needing to rely on customer support to manually reset your activations.

Cradoc is ticked off (and says so on their website) that customers forget to write down the serial numbers and activation codes for their software. They now charge a fee to look up a lost registration code!!! So, a customer buys their software. He puts it on his laptop. He changes a laptop and loses his registration code. He has to pay to get that code back, when that code benefits Cradoc only, not him!!

Here's what Cradoc says on their site:

looking up lost registration codes was becoming a real problem. There is now a $10.00 charge for replacing lost registration codes. There is also a $10.00 service fee to send you a download link if you lose your program and have not backed it up.


Does anyone else agree that this is back-asswards customer relations? I buy the program, have to replace a laptop or otherwise service it, and then I have to pay to get a registration code, or I have to remember to deactivate this program beforehand? Who is going to remember this, seriously? And how messed up is Cradoc's attitude when they say: This helps prevent your activation from being affected by these changes and needing to rely on customer support to manually reset your activations.

These guys make life hard for their users, put in controls that waste their customers' time, and then they have the gall to say that they are unhappy that the customer has to rely on customer support to get the product working again?

WTF?

Paypal accounts: personal and otherwise

I don't like Paypal's sneaky business practices, but I do use it a lot. I've paid many folks now using Paypal personal accounts. Link to a checking or savings account. Don't link any credit cards and never accept a credit card payment. Do the minimum. If you accept a credit card payment or perhaps if you confirm your address, you get converted from a Paypal personal account to a premier or business account, whereby any funds you receive get hit with a 3% commission.

The thing I don't like about Paypal is how they hide this sort of information from you. Also, if you pay with Paypal rather than a credit card, you lose the edge in disputes. My credit card companies always take my side and have always refunded my money in full in disputes where I was clearly in the right. I used Paypal once, foolishly, to buy a camera on a fraudulent website. Paypal took weeks to investigate and would not refund $25 or so. One call to my credit card company took care of that. The credit card company told me that Paypal was a middleman and by using them, I gave up my right to use Amex/Visa directly to resolve disputes. Not a good thing.

But without Paypal, my small business would lose money accepting credit card payments. At least Paypal makes it easy for small businesses to accept credit card payments. But I'd like Paypal a lot more if their policies were much clearer, and they went to bat for folks using them as much as the credit card companies do.

The Perfect Online Image Database Software: Summary

After years of searching, I have finally found a near-perfect solution to my needs: Stockbox Photo Software, made by a company in Canada (http://www.Stockboxphoto.com/). I was able to get this software up and running to service all my images in one day. It took only a few hours to customize it, and I am even able to put video clips on the database -- something no other leased software package has been capable of doing. Stockbox Software is both affordable and reasonably easy to install and administer, and it offers just about everything that I have ever wanted or needed for my website's image database.

It’s currently up and running at: www.norbertwu.com/lightbox/index.php

As far as I know, Stockbox is the only software platform that allows users to display any file formats that are viewable in a web browser, such as . gif, jpg, au, avi, aif, htm, html, mid, mp3, mpg, mov, png, ra, ram, rar, swf, wav, zip, wma, wmv and pdf. If the file format is not viewable from within a web browser, the system provides a link for users to download other formats and files so that the user can view or play them locally in the associated application.

Stockbox Photo is not perfect. The documentation is not great, and I encountered some obstacles that left me scratching my head until their technical support folks clarified things for me. Their staff seems small, which is reflected in their email response time. .

Movie files display in the gallery, but it is not possible to edit the movie files from within the system. The user has to choose the video frame that will serve as the preview frame of the video clip. Automating this process would be helpful. Because I do not have the time for all the steps that have to be taken to get video clips into the system, I have gone back to using Filemaker to show my video clips to clients.

My Search for the Perfect Online Image Database Software

An essential part of any photographer's kit of marketing tools -- particularly nature photographers -- is the searchable database of images for a photographer's website. This database allows clients to search a library of images to find an image or create lightboxes of their favorites for future reference. It took me years to find the right software for my needs and those of my clients.

Developing your own software:
I’ve had an internal database of my images since 1988. It began as a text file where I kept and printed out caption information for my best images. As personal computers and databases developed over the years, my database changed from a simple text database to a Filemaker database that included a visual of my image. I am still using that Filemaker database in my office.

Filemaker is known for its ease of use. I use it for invoicing, maintaining contacts, tracking submissions, organizing footage, recording timesheets for my staff, and several other office needs.

Because Filemaker is customizable, I can create databases to suit my needs. Off-the-shelf photographer-friendly software packages have the capabilities to do many of the functions I need but offer neither flexibility nor control. Microsoft Access is another popular database program worth considering.

Get the Database Online

If you are in business to license the usage rights to your images and have a fairly large library (more than 100) of saleable digitized images, you will want to get them online. One way to do this is to use static web pages. There are dozens of great programs that allow users to organize and search their image collections in-house. Examples are Aperture, iPhoto, Extensis Portfolio, Lightroom, ACDSee, and others. These programs will create static galleries of images that can be posted to the web, but once posted they cannot be modified, nor are they responsive to individual client needs.

To get more customizable results, you’ll need software that allows your clients to search for images by typing in keywords. There are several available, but many of them might not suit your needs.

Filemaker and other database programs

Filemaker offers a fairly easy way to post images to the web in a searchable database. You can see an example of this “Instant Web Publishing” method at:
http://norbcrocker.homedns.org:591 (log in as a guest, no password required). I’ve posted the best of my HDTV footage at that URL.

Filemaker is a fine database for internal use and can easily put images and video clips on the web. But to modify it to allow clients to create private lightboxes will require $20,000-$50,000 in development fees. And even at that price, there’s no guarantee you’ll get what you want. Price is determined by how much time and work is involved.  I saw one site that did exactly what I wanted. The developer told me that it had cost $250,000 to develop that particular site – way beyond my budget. Yikes!

Leasing Existing Software.

I have leased web-driven database software from Aurora & Quanta Production’s Independent Photography Network (IPN), Digital Railroad and most recently, PhotoShelter.


These are all web-based services that, for a price, allow you to upload your images into their system, include a web gallery to show off a “home page” using one of their pre-designed templates, and offer image search capabilities for your library. Clients can login and create private lightboxes of your images.

All of these companies have developed software that does a decent job. The problem is that once the companies have developed the software, they often try to increase their fees. Many companies form agencies or collectives based on their subscriber base, and strongly encourage their photographers to join the collective agency. Sometimes that requires giving up a percentage of your sales in return for their increased “marketing power.” I have always refused to give up this percentage.

IPN was purchased by the conglomerate that publishes Photo District News. I did not choose to join the new collective, even though the publisher admonished me with the line, “But you will missing out on all the sales to the advertising market. You don’t want to make money?” (The publisher left or was otherwise replaced from his position at PDN before the year was out).

Digital Railroad (DRR) had a great software platform, and I was with them for a couple of years after leaving IPN. They went bankrupt even though they had a base of a few hundred paying photographers. I was concerned that I had paid an annual fee rather than a monthly fee every September, and the November bankruptcy of DRR meant my entire annual fee (in the order of $600) would be lost. Thankfully, however, my credit card company resolved the dispute in my favor and refunded me for the remaining lost months. I learned a few lessons from this experience – always pay with a credit card that stands behind you, and try to pay these types of companies monthly rather than annually so you don’t get stiffed.

PhotoShelter made offers to stranded DRR clients, and I signed on with them. They have a nice program, but I have found a few problems with it. One of the biggest concerns I've had with PhotoShelter, is that thumbnail images are not presented with captions. As my images are editorial and usually require explanation, not including the caption could result in missed sales.


When I complained, I was told that PhotoShelter made the choice not to show captions below thumbnail images because captions would detract from the design of the web page. I had had a similar discussion with the folks at DRR, who finally allowed this feature two years after I requested it.

The ironic part of this is that I called PhotoShelter shortly after they sent me a mailing stating what designers and clients wanted to see in a photo search engine. One of the points was that clients wanted to see caption information associated with images, including thumbnails!

In summary, while putting your images with a company like IPN and PhotoShelter is a viable way to get your images into a searchable online database, getting into bed with these companies comes with frustrations. Natural history photographers need captions below thumbnail images so the clients will know what they are looking at.

The captions are all-important. I was shocked to learn that one of my online software providers did not even include captions in their search base -- only keywords. My office had to spend hours putting our caption information into the keyword field for our 6000 images in the library.

Off-the-shelf software

After years of searching, I have finally found a near-perfect solution to my needs: Stockbox Photo Software, made by a company in Canada (http://www.stockboxphoto.com/). I was able to get this software up and running to service all my images in one day. It took only a few hours to customize it, and I am even able to put video clips on the database -- something no other leased software package has been capable of doing. Stockbox software is both affordable and reasonably easy to install and administer, and it offers just about everything that I have ever wanted or needed for my website's image database.

It’s currently up and running at: www.norbertwu.com/lightbox/index.php

Because I have had experience setting up my own web pages, getting Stockbox to work was relatively easy. The folks at Stockbox Photo installed the software on the servers at my website hosting company after I supplied them with my username, password, and other information. A consultant I hired spent about three hours getting familiar with the software and showing me how to work with and modify the program; after that, I have been able to tweak the system with few problems.

Any photographer who decides to use Stockbox software will want to find a web hosting service that has enough expertise to help install the software. You can find web hosting services advertised in magazines such as PC World and MacWorld. Some will host your site (including specialized software) and give you email for less than $20 per month. The only thing you’ll need is high speed internet access (DSL, cable, satellite, etc from your home or office, so that you can access the software and images.

It is entirely possible to host Stockbox on a Mac, Linux, or Windows computer (server) in your office or home. The software requires specialized, but free, programs such as PHP 4.31 or later, My SQL 3.23.58 or later, Apache 1.3 or later, and some others. Most remote hosting services provide these software programs as part of their monthly fee.

As far as I know, Stockbox is the only software platform that allows users to display any file formats that are viewable in a web browser, such as . gif, jpg, au, avi, aif, htm, html, mid, mp3, mpg, mov, png, ra, ram, rar, swf, wav, zip, wma, wmv and pdf. If the file format is not viewable from within a web browser, the system provides a link for users to download other formats and files so that the user can view or play them locally in the associated application.

Stockbox Photo is not perfect. The documentation is not great, and I encountered some obstacles that left me scratching my head until their technical support folks clarified things for me. Their staff seems small, which is reflected in their email response time.

Movie files display in the gallery, but it is not possible to edit the movie files from within the system. The user has to choose the video frame that will serve as the preview frame of the video clip. Automating this process would be helpful. Because I do not have the time for all the steps that have to be taken to get video clips into the system, I have gone back to using Filemaker to show my video clips to clients.

Other Choices to Suit your Needs

Photographer needs vary depending on what you do with your images and with whom you are dealing. Filemaker or other programs can certainly work for a photographer who only needs to provide the most basic search capability of his library. If you only need to make submissions of static web pages of images to clients, then almost any imaging program can help you do this – examples in the Mac world include Photo Mechanic, iPhoto, Aperture and Extensis Portfolio. I use all of the preceding programs (except iPhoto) when static web pages are sufficient for my clients.

There are a world of alternatives out there for photographers. Extensis Netpublish is a software package that provides online search capability for a library of images. Extensis also makes the program Portfolio, which helps photographers manage images on their Mac or Windows computers – but offers no internet search capabilities. The AGPix online platform will host your images; and photographers can create lightboxes on this platform for clients.

My office handles the pricing and actual delivery of images to clients. All of our images are unique, and we price our images according to the usage, how difficult and expensive it was to obtain the image, how unique the image is, etc. The ecommerce capabilities of these software packages would not work for me. My office delivers high-resolution images via email and FTP once a fee has been agreed upon, and I do not rely on the above software to do the job, even though it may be capable of doing it. I strongly recommend that high-res images be sent only to trusted clients and only after they have paid for usage.

Making a Choice

Choose a program or service that is designed to be used over the web using a standard web browser. If you have a broadband internet connection, you can sit in your RV on the beach, upload images, and manage just about everything you may need. Once you’ve learned how the software works, it is quite easy to upload new images and make those new images available to clients. You can create a lightbox for a client to see, and clients can create their own lightboxes by searching your image database.

The 6000+ images on my website take up about 25gb of hard drive space. They are all saved in high-resolution 1-6mb JPGs. My existing web hosting service provides me with 30gb of space for under $15 per month. I can store my entire library of high-resolution images on their servers along with the Lightbox software .

Photoshelter hosted these same files and the same amount of space, charging a few hundred dollars annually to host the images, while providing their software for me to use. PhotoShelter will take a percentage of any online sales you may consummate with their service, but if you do not allow e-commerce sales on the site, this point is moot.

If your images and software are hosted by a remote server, you don’t have to worry about your server going down. However, you must still backup your images, software, and software settings. My web hosting service allows this to be done automatically. Regardless, I always have at least three hard drives with all my images backed up at my office, home, and a third location. I always input captions, keywords, and other metadata into the original, master images that I have in my office and not into any remote servers. This way, the metadata always stays with and travels with the original, master images – and is transferred to lower-resolution versions if needed. If I change services or software, none of the metadata is lost in transition.

Conclusion

There are some pluses to leasing software as opposed to owning it. Whenever a leasing company comes up with new capabilities, you will benefit from them immediately. If a purchased software program is upgraded substantively, you must pay for the new iteration. For photographers who are fairly new to the business, don’t have much experience administering photo databases and websites, or who want a relatively painless solution to putting their images online, then services such as PhotoShelter are probably the best choice.

If you have a fair amount of computer expertise, are tired of services making choices for you, and know exactly what you want in an online searchable database of images, then a software package that you own, such as Stockbox Photo, might be the perfect solution.

No matter your choice, keep in mind that getting your images online and searchable does not guarantee that people will see them. That requires marketing skills and hard work.