My list of needs doesn't seem to be too obscure or specific to me, yet, I can't seem to find any thing that accommodates me. So, as it stands now, I'm using 3 different products all mashed in together.
* "ZenPhoto":http://zenphoto.org/: I use ZenPhoto to host public and private galleries. Because there is no password protection or gallery hiding features in ZenPhoto, I've had to disable the gallery listing feature and am relying on non-published URLs for limited security.
* "WordPress":http://wordpress.org/: I use WordPress to host a photoblog. Of course, WordPress' limited image handling and manipulation features aren't enough to satisfy me. So, I wrote a few plugins to, collectively, allow me to paste URLs and descriptions into various boxes and have it generate HTML for me. I use the images created by ZenPhoto for the blog which means that, in order to blog an image, I must first put it in a ZenPhoto gallery.
* "ExposureManager":http://exposuremanager.com/: I use ExposureManager to sell photographs. So far, I've only used them for images in portrait sessions resorting to manually generated PayPal links for Fine Art Print sales. However, I hope to start using them for Fine Art Print sales as well since they can handle fufillment entirely on my behalf. I can't unfortunately, use them as an actually photo gallery. First, the image URLs are hideous and difficult to use due to URL escaping requirements. Secondly, they don't offer the resizing flexibility I need. In addition, the quality of their resized images is atrocious and my ability to customize the look and feel of their site is limited. Finally, I am charged heavily for excess bandwidth usage.
So, for the time being I'm stuck using these three solutions. Here's my work flow.
# Download images from camera
# Catalog Images
# Edit Collection (take out bad images, etc)
# Edit Images
# Title and Describe Images
# Log in to ZenPhoto
# Upload some/all images to a ZenPhoto Gallery
# Add Titles and Descriptions to images again since ZenPhoto can't read the embedded image titles
# Choose an image to place in the photoblog
# Upload the Image to Exposure Manager
# Set Prices on the Image
# Log in to WordPress
# Make a new post
# Copy and paste the title, description, thumbnail URL, full size URL, and small size URL from ZenPhoto into the WordPress post one at a time.
# Copy and paste the Buy URL from ExposureManager into the WordPress post
# Publish the Post
# (optionally) Cut and Paste the Post into various forums, MySpace, LiveJournal, etc
# (optionally) Upload the image to Flickr, Zoomr, PhotoSig, DeviantArt and any other social image sharing sites
That's a lot of work. What's worse is that, even after all of that, there are some serious limitations. I have no way of getting the Buy page (on ExposureManager) to link back to the Blog posting. I also have no way of getting ZenPhoto to link back to the Blog posting nor to the Buy page. So, essentially, I'm creating 3 pages with VERY similar content which in my book is just a very bad idea. To make matters worse, only one of those pages is able to link to the other two despite the fact that the other two should be linking to it. If I delete an image for ZenPhoto it'll break the blog posting. If I delete an image (or if a image URL changes) in ExposureManager it'll break the blog posting.
So, when you wonder why it is that I'm not posting new images every single day for you to view, this is why. It's a lot of work and I rarely reap any financial, artistic, social, or intellectual value from that effort. It's is, quite literally, a labor of love. So, when I'm feeling that love I generally put in the labor, and when I'm not I don't.
If any of you knows of software that might make this easier (don't say SmugMug, Gallery by Menalto, pBase, or Flickr) I'm all ears.
