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| photo upload form Japan, FAIL! |
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| more uploads, failed. Blogger only hosts 1GB of pictures per user. Upon return home I discovered the need for a blog photo hosting website. |
A little research uncovers that when using Blogger you need a photo hosting website if your uploaded pictures exceed 1GB. As a default your uploaded pictures are uploaded from our PC to Google Picassa photo sharing, however the limit is 1GB.
Our photos for this blog will number in the few hundred, which we have already reached our limit of 1GB in the first 4 days of posts (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4) which have several sub posts depending on the activity.
I'm addition to my new need for a blog photo hosting website, preferably free, I also need to share our 2,340 pictures from the trip with our travel companions. I am a detail need so I took the time to sort the pictures into 44 subfolders titled by day and activity (for example: Day 2, Yokohama Elementary School visit and another folder for the 2nd school visit on Day 2, an yet another folder for that nights dinner). Otherwise these photos would blend together and we wouldn't to be able to distinguish one school visit from another.
Snapfish.com Photo Sharing and Downloading Concerns
I chose to use snapfish.com for my photo uploading when overseas. And my joyful learning with snapfish.com photo sharing options is painful. I used the app to upload pictures from my camera roll to snapfish.com wirelessly. That part worked fine. However, upon returning, when I attempted to download to my PC my pictures, I was only allowed a group download of 50 pictures at a time. Which normally I could deal with (1,000 pictures over 20 download session- grr), however snapfish.com not only renamed each picture "*access 080," they also DID NOT store my "date taken." So I had no way to sort the pictures in order taken, by the name and number, nor the date. Frustrating!!!
So if you in the market for a free photo sharing website for a few snaps from your last trip you will have no problem finding an option. Some sites require your visitors to create a login to view photos, some sites require you to login. Some sites only offer a 14 days trial.
How do you navigate this information overload? I've listed for you my criteria for a photo sharing site. Regardless of what your needs are, before taking the time to register an upload pics, I recommend reviewing these tips:
- look at the sites "FAQ" or
- even better scroll through their "Terms of Use" policy or "pricing" usually located at the very bottom of the websites home page or the top tabs.
- Skip the first several paragraphs and look for words like "pricing guide" and "download pictures." One site had a pro plan grid (which showed a grid and the user interface options, like storage limits, upload size restrictions, and if your family an friends can download the pictures or just buy photos though the site).
- Little tip, when I searched the "terms of use policy" on the sites, and when the information wasn't easily found, PC users use the "Cntrl F" function to search words like "downloads" or "pricing."
This list is my findings from Google articles on "reviews of photo sharing websites" and then reading readership comments were people list their favorite sites not listed in the article. I came across and overwhelming number of photo sharing sites, and ironically only 2 met my criteria.
My photo sharing needs:
- My priority is that my family and friends need to be able to download pictures from the photo sharing site in a bulk download or download the entire album. Many sites didn't offer this option or it was a paid feature. * Note that Normally I would pay for a long time service, but I just need my fellow travelers to fairly soon access an grab the pics they want. Then I'll just keep my pics on my hard drive and have a hard copy scrapbook. Or use a second site for the blog pics, which really are the best of the trip.
- We are sharing 2,340 pictures in 44 folders from our Japan 2013 trip. The total Size is 5.34 GB.
- We need to be able to bulk upload our photos too, as some sites limit you to 150 MB upload per month. ( Google how many MB in a GB and It would take me 9 months to get everything uploaded.)
- I'd prefer unlimited storage, storage that is not based on usage (for example some sites require your pictures need to be viewed 1x every. 3 months to be free and not be deleted.) Lastly I'd like the site to provide photo hosting for this website.
- Many sites don't allow web hosting as noted in their terms of use section. So if this is not an option I will have to manage a 2nd photo sharing site for the blog. And long term that's okay, as I blog elsewhere and would use the photo share site there too.
Here's a great article on over 25 photo sharing websites by 1stwebdesigner.com. She gives a quick synopsis on pricing, unlimited storage, and site restrictions. It more comprehensive then my notes below.
And Wikipedia had a nice list of more photo sharing sites with a sort by usage column - AWESOME! (adds to the photo sharing websites credibility and legitimacy for lasting a while).
Here's the list of photos sharing sites I've uncovered.
A few have a note relevant to my search criteria. I encourage you to check into the site for yourself and review their pricing grid which in general gives you a lot of the sites features in one quick reference page.
Flick.com - upload size restrictions, since revised.
iCloud for iPhone users: I had concerns initially about people accessing my photo stream, and all my pictures. However it turns out that you can download the icloud service and upload pictures from your PC. In addition, the 1,000 picture limit doesn't apply to your uploaded photos!!
Re: 1,000 picture limit From the macobserver.com blog
"First, it's important to realize that, while there is no limit to the number of photos you can upload to Photo Stream over time, iCloud does limit the number of photos that can be uploaded within a given hour to 1000 images, within a given day to 10,000 images, or within any given month to 25,000 images. These limits were established in order to prevent unintended or excessive use."
I learned something new :-)
Smugmug.com - not free
Snapfish.com - I've written about my concerns extensively here.
Kodak.com which is now shutterfly.com same issues as snapfish.
Picassa web albums, limit 1GB storage. Default service for blogger photo hosting.
Gallery 2 - lifehacker.com gives a tutorial on hosting your own page.
Photobucket.com - limited to 2GB unlimited storage or new users
Myphotoalbum.com - 20$/ per month (ya, a Month, not per year!)
Zenphoto.com - is now a private photographers site
Sharpcast.com is now sharpsync.com - not for me
Mediafire.com - no web hosting and fee based
Phanfare.com - 29$ / year
Zoomr. Has gone private beta testing to limit users
Joomeo.Com - is spam
Webshot.com - no longer exists
Dropshots.com - limited to 500 pictures
Lifesnapz.com -
Digitalgrams.com -
Piccdrop.com (that's with 2 C's) - 15mb limit
Outwit.com
Multiply.com (closed in 2012)
Slide.com - great slides how features, pricing isn't right for me
Imageshack.com - no web hosting
Pict.com
Swapmypix.com - spam
Gallerized.com - great for photographers
Pikchur.com -
SO WHAT DID I CHOOSE:
For my picture sharing I am choosing iCloud. I can securely select who has access to my photo stream. I can upload my photos from my PC, via fast landline connection. I've already sorted my pictures into folders by each day and activity of the trip, and I don't want to loose this feature.
iCloud has been a little slow to upload. Opening my stream takes 30+ seconds and then once I select the photos to add, the actual loading takes some time (beyond several minutes). However, it's the (T.H.E.) best option!
As for general photo sharing from this trip and my blog posts I am definitely going to Flickr!
See the flickr feed here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kleejapanjeeptrip2013/
flickr.com... Since this post they have updated there storage limit to a TERABYTE, ya, that's a lot of storage.
In addition to online photo storage, I can use the site to host my blog pics, still free!! AND Flickr makes it crazy easy to post to our blog AND upload to flickr at the same time through a unique email address (craziness!!!).
Original blog hosting option - scratched!
Loading pictures one at a time on 4shared.com is impossible. Uploading time just for my first 25 pictures was painfully long... I didn't invest the time to investigate because as fast as I hoped over to flickr.com is just how fast it took me to register and start uploading. Done and done!
Original photo sharing option - scratched!
Mejuba.com is some sort of if-y and fraudulent site. I created a log in and uploaded a few test pics. A day later the site won't take my log in (which yes I write down immediately and always). Then I create a new login, and search my previous screen name, it's "taken," but I cannot access the pics (which weren't set to private yet).
There's also several misspelled words on the sight. Which to me is an INSTANT red flag!! I also got the sense it's run by some European team because of the grammar / English use. Be wary. I am not using this site.
Instead I have selected iCloud for sharing my photos.
For iPhone users: I had concerns initially about people accessing my photo stream, and all my pictures. However it turns out that you can download the icloud service and upload pictures from your PC. In addition, the 1,000 picture limit doesn't apply to your uploaded photos!!
Let's say your going on a trip to Japan for 2-weeks..."First, it's important to realize that, while there is no limit to the number of photos you can upload to Photo Stream over time, iCloud does limit the number of photos that can be uploaded within a given hour to 1000 images, within a given day to 10,000 images, or within any given month to 25,000 images. These limits were established in order to prevent unintended or excessive use."
Happy travels!
