Shutter Mike Photography

Online photo sharing has mushroomed in popularity since the digital camera and cell phone cameras have become common place.  There are photo sharing sites that are widely known and used by millions of amateur and professional photographers alike.  Flickr, Shutterfly, Snapfish and Photobucket stand out by the shear volume of users.  But there are others that may not be at the multi-million user level, yet are worth exploring a little further.

Winkflash

Winkflash has a lot to offer.  Although the main focus of the site is to sell prints and other photo related merchandise, which is generally the case with the free sites, they offer members a good array of free services.  In fact “free” is what distinguishes Winkflash from competitors.  There are no options to get more services by purchasing a premium membership, everyone gets it all for free.

• Image hosting with various levels of sharing permissions
• Unlimited free storage
• Online photo editing software included
• Free high resolution downloads

Webshots

Webshots combines the social media aspects of sites like Flickr with the ecommerce options of sites like Snapfish.  Users can browse and comment on the photos uploaded by others, upload their own photos and purchase everything from 4 x 6 prints to mugs and mouse pads with your images on them.  Unlike Winkflash, Webshots has different levels of membership with the free option having some limitations.

• Free and premium memberships
• Free downloadable photo management application
• Store up to 1000 images for free (more with the paid option)
• Create albums, share them and even embed them on your website or blog

Focus U

Focus U is one of the few free sites that does not offer all the photo printing options as well.  You will not find coffee mugs and t-shirts or cute photo albums for purchase on this site.  As a result the free membership is somewhat limited and they do offer two paid account options, Pro and Advanced.  But the free option still offers a nice package of features.

• Photo storage – but only 6 mb (about 60 photos) – paid accounts get up to 120 mb
• Image rating by yourself and other members
• Photo editing tools
• Album creation and sharing – public and private options
• Lifetime storage of your photos

Fotki

Fotki is touted as an online community of photo fans.  But it is so much more; it offers a photo sharing option a la Flickr, the ability to order prints, and something most others do no include, the option to sell copies of your prints.  To top it off they are one of the few sites to offer users FTP access and reporting options.  Most of these features do require upgrading to a premium account, but for as little as $2 a month, it is well worth it.

• Unlimited storage space with a premium account – limited to 100 MB with free account
• An online community for sharing and commenting on photos
• Personalized site to display your photos
• Tree-type folder structure for organizing

Zooomr

Like Focus U, Zooomr is strictly a photo sharing site and does not have the option to buy prints from the site.  What sets it apart from others is its social networking features such as tagging, comments, RSS feeds and geotagging.  The site is a bit cumbersome and lacks some standard website components such as FAQs and intuitive navigation.

• Unlimited uploads
• Options to personalize your page
• Integration of social networking features