24 Jun 2009
What the new breed of photographers really need
Every day I am just amazed by the sorry state of options on the web for photographers who are embracing new ways of utilizing the web and social networks. Yes there are a plethora of offering from Flickr, to SmugMug, to Livebooks, and PhotoShelter, and the list goes on. But I think these are ALL missing the boat on what new media photographers are looking for, or better yet, need.
Most of these web offerings are just so stale and static it’s not even funny. For the most part they are mirroring the long established ways of photography without taking advantage of the unprecedented ways in which photographers of every stripe can share their work and reach both their established clientele and new customers alike. Some say the landscape for photographers is changing, I say it has already changed! Those photographers who refuse to realize this and embrace new ways of doing business will not survive, plain and simple.
Unfortunately, photographers do not have a lot of real choice when it comes to finding an online platform that will enable them to easily manage their photo assets online as well as reach their clients and as well as new audiences.
Offerings from most of the established providers today are little more than photo galleries with some customization and an online store thrown in. Most of these sites provide little in the way of easy customization that is truly compatible with most desktop and mobile browsers, quite a few of them have taken the “easy” way out by providing flash templates or websites, most of which are slow to load, and simply not user friendly.
Hooker Falls, Dupont State Forest, NC
What we need is a new breed of photographer centric CMS (Content Management System), that merges traditional Portfolio & Client Management, Digital Asset Management, Blogs, Social Networks, and sales both on a local level as well as micro stock level.
Don’t believe me? Go around and take a look at the website of even some of the most prolific and visible photographers who have embraced this social network sea change. Folks like, Chase Jarvis [Website | Blog], Vincent LaForet [Website | Blog], Joe McNally [Website | Blog]. Most of these folks are forced to have multiple websites and multiple web presences. And guess what? Each of those requires a complete new set of media files, new techniques, templates, interfaces, passwords, etc… What a nightmare, no wonder we are all struggling to make sense of all of this.
We need a new platform, a new radical way of thinking how we as photographers are going to interact with our public, how we are going to manage our assets in an online world.
For all the advances we have benefited from in the development of digital photography, we are still in the dark ages when it comes to reaping the benefits that this new medium provides.
Shoal Creek Falls, Transylvania County NC
Providers, pay attention, I am going to outline here what I believe we are missing as photographers who want to fully take advantage of what this new online world has to offer. I can guarantee you only one thing, I am not going to get this 100% right, but close enough to matter.
1. Online asset management system, that integrates with our Desktop DAM software (Lightroom, Aperture, Etc.).
This is the foundation of the entire system, don’t think of your systems as an online portfolio like so many do, everything revolves around our images, videos and words, our assets. We then need to be able to leverage these assets across all the forward facing interfaces outlines below.
2. Flexible, templated web presence.
We need to be able to configure and customize our web presence. Meaning, let us create a website where we can choose from a number of different modules, such as a blog, a micro blog, a portfolio, a private gallery, a store, etc. Let us create templates, even better provide a marketplace to purchase ready-made templates and a way to engage developers to create custom templates for our websites. However let us USE the assets we have in our online asset management system and handle the transformation (size, resolution, color space, watermarking, etc.) for us depending on the intended output. We don’t want to keep uploading the same assets over and over again to use on different “modules” of our web presence.
3. Integration into social networks
We need to engage both established as well as new clients thru social networks. We need integration into Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc.
4. Asset Tracking
The online asset manager should allow us to track how often assets are viewed, how they are viewed as well as track the source of that traffic, for example, how many people viewed a particular image as a result of a post on Facebook or Twitter.
5. Local and Micro Stock sales
We need sales integration, both on direct web sales as well as integration into the micro stock sites. Again all driven from the online asset manager which both formats the content appropriately for each target and tracks sales figures.
I am barely scratching the surface here, but as this post nears 1,000 words I will leave it at this; but as you can see this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and one which I have given a lot of thought.
I hope someone is listening out there, there is a great opportunity to be a game changer.
As always, if you have any questions or comments use the comments section below or you can reach me via twitter at http://twitter.com/jpons.
Juan
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I agree with a lot of what you say, but I guess the keyword here is “easy”. I have a bit of a different angle because I’ve done web development for many years (backend – I’m not a graphic designer) and I know that a lot of this is possible with some great CMS systems – but there is still a little bit of legwork. We’re close, though. Wordpress, for example, is capable of many of these things. Let’s go down the list:
1. Asset Management – Okay, this is one that needs some work. It’s possible now as many plugins work directly with Flickr and/or Picassa without requiring additional input. But I don’t think that’s what you mean. I know of at least one project (which I can’t speak of) that is working to integrate Wordpress directly with ACDSee, but not sure how far off that is.
2. Flexible template – already possible, but it requires you to think outside the box. A good template designer can do anything you want without making the site look like it’s hosted by a blog backend. My portfolio uses wordpress, but you might not believe it (see it here). So lets check this off the list.
3. Integration into social networks – RSS feeds, Twitter, Flickr, and so on…all through plugins. Check.
4. Tracking can be managed incredibly well. There’s lots of pluggins for this. You can even pull Google Analytics directly into the interface. Check.
5. Local sales can be handled via plugins…a few out there are better suited for photography. Admittedly, I haven’t messed with this much. As for Micro Stock sales…I guess that’s one that may need some work, but I guess it’s possible.
So, 3/5 definite points, one that is a maybe, and one I don’t know about. We’re getting there.
I guess my point is that rather than invent the wheel, we should look to systems like Wordpress. WP is open source, which means anyone with enough coding know-how can add on whatever they want without having to hack the core.
D. Travis North
June 24th, 2009 at 7:11 pmpermalink
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June 24th, 2009 at 7:23 pmpermalink
Travis,
Thanks for the comment. I am a systems architect by profession and I have built comparable systems for other industries, so I know this is doable. Been wanting to do it for a few years now, but have too many fires going on.
In my opinion “Enhancing” a system like Wordpress is exactly the wrong angle to take, Wordpress is “post” centric, we need something that is “asset” centric, with all supporting output modules. The system also needs to be smart about these assets and be able to do transformations on these assets, that is why a generic asset management system just won’t do.
Wordpress offers a good example of a very flexible templating system, specially with the recent additions of the widgets.
-J
Juan Pons
June 24th, 2009 at 7:25 pmpermalink
Great post; Juan. I hope those developers pay attention.
I’m not tech savy, so integration is such a key. Things are changing so fast, and I get stuck wasting a lot of time trying to juggle all of the different places to put my time and energy. – I still get head swoons thinking about how we did business before email and the internet – now look at how developed the media landscape has become, and getting more & more tangled like a herd of angry octopii.
Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images
June 25th, 2009 at 1:36 pmpermalink
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June 25th, 2009 at 2:59 pmpermalink
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June 26th, 2009 at 10:04 ampermalink
Sounds like a request for a magic bullet…. sadly a magic bullet I don’t think will ever exist. The pessimism comes from the dynamic nature of the market. Developed products are always behind the trends and as such never fully meet demand. In addition every photographers needs are different and most don’t have deep pockets to pay for the overhead to create such an overarching product. Speaking as a photographer who has created a dot com service in the past for photographers (that since failed) I’ve also learned that photographers strive for individuality. Customization is always a requirement and no photographer wants exactly the same functionality.
I actually think that the modular nature of services as they exist are more advantageous than having everything under one roof. The Digital Railroad debacle taught me that.
Your post is food for thought. I’ll be thinking about it more over the weekend.
Jim Goldstein
June 26th, 2009 at 6:09 pmpermalink
Jim,
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree about silver bullets, I don’t believe in them.
I do think there is room for a new service that is modular in design that does not necessarily restrict the creativity. Look at WordPress, no matter what you say about it, and it’s limitations, you have to admit that the level of personalization available with WP is unprecedented in the space. The same can be done in other platforms.
-J
Juan Pons
June 30th, 2009 at 3:10 pmpermalink
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July 1st, 2009 at 9:46 ampermalink
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David Moore - Santa Fe Children and Events Photography» Blog Archive » If I ran Photoshelter - what the next photographer’s web platform should look like
July 1st, 2009 at 3:42 pmpermalink
Beautiful photography! Keep it coming!
Photographers Australia
July 27th, 2009 at 2:07 ampermalink
I think your right. Wonder what i could do with a few spare hours…..
James
August 15th, 2009 at 7:20 ampermalink