Anyone ever do a photo exchage??

[CutieBugNY]

We have purchased photo albums as our favors. We thought since most people are traveling from out of state and are making it a family vacation they could fill the album with all thier pictures. Our idea is to put a letter inside each one giveing the guests a website and password so they can all download their phots and save other guests photos as well. And ofcourse this way we would get a bunch of pictures from everyone as well.

I found one site that seems to have my idea down seeyouthere.com but they want $250 for a years worth of service. Is that carzy? Or am I being silly?

I thought we could just do it on a normal photo posting site like photobucket, or shutterfly, like set up one account and give everyone the same password, but then everyone can act as the host and add or accidently delete anything on the site, and I don't want that.

Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to pull this off effectively? Thanks!

 

[Janet2k]

Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to pull this off effectively?

CutieBugNY, here are some of the things that I have done over the years.

Whenever I have held an event in WDW, I have used Disney's photographic services. The nice thing about using Disney is that once your event is done, they put your photos onto a password-protected website. That way all of your guests can log into that website when they get home from their vacations and order whatever photos they want (assuming, of course, that you've given them the username & password to your photos). Your guests are not allowed to alter the photos since that is strictly under Disney's control (or whoever it is that runs the website for Disney).

On top of that, I've always had plenty of guests who have taken their own photos at my events. They have either e-mailed me their digital images, US Mailed me a CD containing their digital images, or US Mailed me their actual paper photographs (for those guests who shot in 35mm). It has always worked out well. I have in turn burned all of those photos onto CD or DVD and given them to whomever asked for them.

There is another option that I used for quite a few years. It was a password-protected website where I stored some of my photos and videos. I'd create accounts on that website for my friends and family members to use. They would log in and download whatever they wanted to their personal computers. It worked out well, especially for my video files since their personal e-mail accounts couldn't handle the large file sizes that a video file normally entailed.

As you can see, I've used quite a few different means over the years and all of them have worked out well.

I don't know who will be taking the majority of the photos at your wedding, but my guess is that it is a professional photographer. Thankfully, in today's day & age, most photographers have a password-protected system in place like Disney does.

As to the photos that your friends & family will be taking, I think asking them to e-mail them to you is probably going to be the easiest thing for them to do. You could also ask them to US Mail to you a CD that contains their photos. Most will find that an easy request, too. As to a password-protected website, you're going to have to find one that will allow you to create accounts for your guests -- and also limit the power of those accounts so that your guests can't alter or delete any photos that have already been uploaded to it.

Good luck finding the perfect solution -- and have fun planning your event!

 

[Janet2k]

I found one site that seems to have my idea down seeyouthere.com but they want $250 for a years worth of service. Is that carzy?

I forgot to mention that a couple of the photo & video sharing websites that I've used over the years (and even the photo site that I'm using this year -- Flickr) charge a yearly fee. And that fee is oftentimes dependent upon how many files you've uploaded to it -- and also downloaded from it (they keep track of bandwidth use by anyone who accesses your site).

So, is $250 out of line? I'm not sure since I am unfamiliar with the website that you mentioned and features that they offer. But being charged to use a company's equipment is not unusual at all. Remember, they have workers to pay for, server farms to pay for, electricity to pay for, and even back-up systems to pay for (so that your photos will always be safe). They have a business to run and it's got to be paid for in some manner.

 

[CutieBugNY]

Thanks Janet2k! I am having Disney photography but I'm looking to capture all teh pictures from throughout the week trip not just of the wedding. We don't expect our guests to fill their albums with pictures from our wedding but rather family and friend photos taken through out the week we will all be there. The site ai mentioned before looks great but I'm just looking for a cheaper/free way to do it. anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Briarprincess]

I was looking for something similar and came up with Sharpcast.
I don't know much about it, but it seems to fit the bill. And it's free.
http://www.sharpcast.com/products/photos/widgets.html

 

[suprgrlx]

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but Picasa seems like it might work for you.

https://www.google.com/accounts/Ser...3Fhl%3Den%26tab%3Dwq&service=lh2&passive=true

You need a google account (free) then you can upload photos into different albums and share them with friends and family, or make them public.

Unfortunately, if you wanted to centralize them, you might still be stuck having everyone email you their photos so you can upload them all, or else everyone might need to have their own account.

Hope this helps!

 

[scottish/canadian]

I love this idea! With all of our guests coming from all over (UK, Canada, US), it would be great for them to be able to see each others pics.

 

[CutieBugNY]

I was looking for something similar and came up with Sharpcast.
I don't know much about it, but it seems to fit the bill. And it's free.
http://www.sharpcast.com/products/photos/widgets.html

How did you get guests to upload photos? Did everyone have to sign up for an account, and download the softwear? It looks like an option I'm just not sure if everyone would take the time to sign up. If you don't mind can you please exlain how you did it? Thanks so much!