On Line Photo Storage

[wdwwishes]

I have a back up hard drive for my photos and I back them up to Gold photo C.D.s however I'm considering an online service and would appreciate any advice and recommendations. If you need to retrieve the photos from the service is that difficult? Are they stored in random order or can you upload say by an event? Costs? I'm assuming there are different storage capacities and costs. Thanks.

[MICKEY88]

I have a back up hard drive for my photos and I back them up to Gold photo C.D.s however I'm considering an online service and would appreciate any advice and recommendations. If you need to retrieve the photos from the service is that difficult? Are they stored in random order or can you upload say by an event? Costs? I'm assuming there are different storage capacities and costs. Thanks.

2 of the popular sites around here are smugmug and zenfolio,

I use zenfolio, because they use mpix for their printing lab, they have several levels of membership

http://www.zenfolio.com/

membership info here https://secure.zenfolio.com/zf/signup/plans.aspx

different membership levels allow diffferent things of course, a premium memberships allows you to sell photos if you so desire, you can set your own prices...

you can password protect folders if you only want certain people to see them.or even hide them from everyone but yourself..
you can set up your site with folders for events or dates..etc

for example I have a group called ren FAire, within that I have groups for each year ,then each date

you can check it out here

http://www.starrrshots.com/

[Khokhonutt]

I've used Smugmug.com for a few years now. I originally went with them because, while they are a great photo sharing site, they originally touted themselves as a backup site. All of your photos are replicated between 3 data centers.

I've never had to use their restore services, but I know they offer it. Like the other sites, you have pretty much unlimited options for how your store and display your pictures and how you share them. Galleries can be password protected and such. They also have different levels of service. I'm currently using the level that allows me to backup videos as well.

I think backing up offsite is a very important consideration. Whether it's weather or some other physical loss at your house, knowing my pictures are safe in another location helps me sleep well at night.