Starting a Photography Website

Historically, Facebook and Flickr have always been my standbys in terms of sharing my photography with the world. While both of these sites have been fantastic for getting feedback as to what people do and don't like, they have their limitations.  Facebook is a highly personal site that I keep on lockdown, so I have an extremely limited audience.  Additionally, Facebook photos are not the highest resolution and become somewhat disorganized and hidden in my myriad of albums.  Flickr is great in terms of getting feedback from more serious photographers and sharing with a wider audience, but it can also become easily disorganized.  Good (but older) photos can get lost as more and more are added, and I haven't always done the best job keeping my albums well organized.

So, I decided to make something more attractive, personal, and public by creating an online gallery.  I chose Weebly because I was told by several people that it is more user friendly than many other free website-hosting options.  Having worked with the very unwieldy Google Sites for a class this spring, I was eager to find a better option.

Here is the finished project:

http://tiararae.weebly.com/

I'm quite happy with the layout and gallery options.  I feel like I achieved something that looks cleaner, simpler, more professional, and offers better showcasing of my favorite photographs.  Though I chose to stick with the free version, you can choose to pay to get rid of the "weebly" name in your site title and to unlock various more advanced settings.

I would recommend getting an account and tinkering around if you're looking to create an online gallery like this.  There are dozens of other layout options and infinite opportunities for personalization, including slideshows, blogs, surveys, etc.

Good luck and happy website-building!