Who all else has a Flickr, Picasa or Photobucket, etc. account?

[rawmustard]

yes, you do get Flickr's software - which is easier to get into, from a technical perspective, than downloading gallery software onto your own website... or, Hell, writing your own.

But, having your own gallery allows for customizing the implementation as you see fit, and, oh yeah, for-profit commercial use, which is one reason why the AARoads shield gallery isn't on Flickr.

hey, anyone wanna buy a highway sign?

Well, of course when you're building a full website, it only makes sense to host your own images rather than rely on a third party. But if all you plan to do is show images and not anything else, then a photo-sharing account should be sufficient.

[Rob Adams]

My Flickr account is here.  Take what you want.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steelyankee/collections/72157603734873060/

[Dougtone]

yes, you do get Flickr's software - which is easier to get into, from a technical perspective, than downloading gallery software onto your own website... or, Hell, writing your own.

But, having your own gallery allows for customizing the implementation as you see fit, and, oh yeah, for-profit commercial use, which is one reason why the AARoads shield gallery isn't on Flickr.

hey, anyone wanna buy a highway sign?

I gravitated towards Flickr mostly due to its value of helping me save time.  I just use the Flickr uploader, upload my photos, add tags and away we go.  Time is a precious commodity for me, since I am an overburdened one-man operation.  Flickr does allow for people to set an option if they want to allow creative commons, whether it be for non-profit use only, or allowing for commercial use as well.  And since the AARoads community is something I support, I've given the ok for my photos to used for commercial purposes by AARoads.

I have tried to set up a gallery in the past on Gribblenation for my bulk of road photos.  However, the gallery software provided by my web hosting company has proven to be very slow, skittish at times, and only allows me to upload a few photos at a time.  Plus, I have a lot more than road photos on my Flickr.  Small town photo walks (I'm trying to use the Scott Kelby Photoshop term for walkabout), sporting events, etc. also show up on my Flickr photostream.

[agentsteel53]

Flickr allows its images to be used for commercial purposes, but I don't think they have the infrastructure in place in which the commercial use is explicitly facilitiated.  i.e. I don't think on Flickr you can say "click here to buy a print of this photo" (or, in our case, to buy a sign that looks just like what is seen here) and have the user enter credit card info and make the purchase. 

Right now we don't yet have a click-to-order system on AARoads, but eventually we will, and therefore we had to start from scratch with our own gallery.

[thenetwork]

This is my flicker page, with over 3,000 pics & about that much waiting in the wings to be "processed".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91902633@N00/

[CanesFan27]

My flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15530177@N05/

As for using flickr, I like Doug have used it for efficiency in getting photos up.  But I also use the social networking aspect of it because of other photography interests and have gained some quality contacts/feedback as a result.  Some of the photos obviously will make it to gn.com in various pages/features - when I ever get to doing such.  So I see the flickr site as the raw set before the final product is on gn.com or elsewhere.

Though, to Jake's point, it doesn't allow folks to buy a photo - I have had some communication with various people to use my photos in articles etc.  One of which has led to a freelance/on-call relationship with City View Magazine in Fayetteville, NC.  Where as if I would wait to do all my work on gn.com/gn.net - I don't think I would have as much exposure as I do now via flickr.

It really depends on what you want to do with your photos.  In HB's and also in aaroads case, where I think over 90% of his and this group's photos are pretty much of signs...and he and you all have pretty much a sign website - there is no need. 

Though I would love to take the time to have my own personal photography site, I don't have the time to produce that yet nor - at least in my opinon - do I have the portfolio or resume to do that.  So in my case, flickr fits my needs currently and has been very worthwhile.

[njroadhorse]

Here's my Flickr.  This link should work:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37182928@N04/