The revamped HolidayJunction.com now employs close to a thousand photographic images, many of which are derived from the ShutterStock microstock agency catalogue. Holiday Junction provides accommodation alternatives throughout Canada and the USA plus access to a worldwide network of hotels.
The introductory paragraphs for each province, state and territory describe the most famous landmarks, national parks and attractions. Static photography is used to illustrate these feature pages.
Search result pages, on the other hand, employ a wide array of area oriented images presented randomly. For searches where the province or state is ambiguous (for example: a Canada-wide search for one hotel chain
or Bed & Breakfasts only) an assortment of travel and fun-in-the-sun images are presented with search results. The images change as you go through the pages of search results, or even if you just refresh the page. Similarly, randomized vacation theme images are presented within your own “short list” page and “new search” pages. You just don’t know what you’re going to see next among the carefully selected subset of the ShutterStock portfolio.
In addition to the ShutterStock collection, a number of photographs on the site are from other photographer contributions.
All photography is credited with the photographer’s name and a link to his or her photo website or the Shutterstock source image itself.
Image Credits: (click on the image for website link)
1. Chateau Laurier Hotel and Rideau Canal at Christmas – © Bruce Amos
2. The longest covered bridge in the world (1282 feet), St. John River, Hartland, New Brunswick – © Rob Huntley
3. Rental canoes, Dows Lake, Ottawa – © Rob Huntley
My website is not up yet but I was reading this post and looking at your SmugMug and have a few questions if you have a few minutes.
First how can I submit images for your holiday junction site of Alberta? It seems like a great way to showcase images in a useful way as more than just pretty pictures. And a neat way to have some links back to my site.
Second. How do you find using smugmug? Does it generate much sales or does the US$ and higher shipping (due to living in Canada) scare off a lot of clients? I’m considering it for scenic work as well as for proofing/online ordering for weddings…. Also since they do the printing as well how have you found the quality and color reproduction?
Thank you so much for your time
-Aaron Rast
Aaron,
Thanks for your interest.
With respect to submitting images to Holiday Junction, there is no utility yet on the public side of things for doing this so here a few alternatives:
1. Typically I have asked people to register at http://www.TravelScenics.com which Holiday Junction administers and you upload your files to a hidden gallery there that we create. Thus you can also display the images at TravelScenics.com as well, or opt out and indicate they are just for consideration at HolidayJunction.com
2. When you set up your website through SmugMug (or however you decide), set up a password protected client gallery for Holiday Junction with low-res versions of the files, with captions, that you wish to have considered. Just copy the images over from your public gallery and change the product pricing to free low-res downloads. Provide Holiday Junction with the password to that gallery and we’ll select a few to display on our site.
3. Email low-res versions including short captions and your website link.
With respect to using SmugMug:
- First of all I have to be up front and say that there are SmugMug advertising links at http://www.HolidayJunction.com, at http://www.TravelScenics.com and at my photography website and on this blog whereby Holiday Junction would receive advertising commission, so I have a small conflict of interest. You may have noted on http://www.RobHuntley.ca and on the gallery of virtually every SmugMugger there is their unique coupon code which, if used, you get $5 off your sign-up fee and the existing SmugMugger will get $10 off the next renewal. That goes for any SmugMug participant so in that I’m no different. But in addition I run commission banners and links for my business. I just wanted to be transparent so that you can now view the rest of what I say with a grain of salt. Other than that I’m a fairly objective type.
- There is SmugMug’s Dgrin forum at http://www.dgrin.com/ which you can mine for information. You can join the forum for free without having a SmugMug photo account.
- I like it at SmugMug, and I just recently renewed. For what you want to do, you need the pro account which isn’t cheap – $150 per year. That’s what I have. I’m prepared to pay that much for the features. (less $30 that I had from people using my coupon).
- I’m not a professional (I have a day job) but I have just started generating some photography sales in the past year. Not a lot yet so I’m not really the best person to estimate the “potential”
- I don’t do weddings or other events (yet anyway) but I know that SmugMug is commonly used by other photographers for that purpose. One of my friends is a part-time sports photographer and he has just started using SmugMug for that purpose and he seems happy too.
- I haven’t sold many prints yet because my clients so far have been looking for downloads
- I did a test print when I first joined and I was happy with the quality. Since then they have changed labs about this time last year, presumably to be even better, but I haven’t done a test print since then. Check what feedback there may be on Dgrin.com
- SmugMug takes 15% commission from your sales which is too much in my opinion. But there are other ways to sell. For downloads in particular you can send a PayPal invoice in Canadian or US dollars depending on the client, which they can pay with credit card or PayPal if they are members. You don’t pay anywhere near as much in fees at PayPal. Alternatively you can email or post an invoice and wait for a cheque in which case you don’t pay any fees. When payment is dealt with, you put the files in a password protected gallery for free download by the client. Prints would be more awkward unless you are printing yourself as some photographers are doing.
- I’m not able to answer your question whether US dollars and/or shipping from the US is a disincentive. People are becoming more and more used to buying through the internet and often from US sources, but I honestly can’t give an opinion. My sports photographer friend makes print sales to University student athletes and they don’t seem to be inhibited.
- People find me generally one of three ways: Flickr, my blog, my website, but all roads lead to my website. Thus, having the convenience of an easy to use, many-featured website makes life a lot easier. It is up and running right away after you join. There may be a fairly large investment of time up front to get it looking the way you want, but after that it is quick and easy. Take the free trial anyway and play around.
- I use client galleries a lot which are not visible to the public. Besides clients I also keep family stuff there plus photography work that I do for a non-profit charity. You can also use it to store graphics, logos and pictures that you may be displaying on websites elsewhere. My biggest sales have been custom work so in the first place I don’t want the images public and secondly they may have custom pricing different from the public gallery pricing. Another large sale from existing stock was to someone who found me on Flickr. He picked a number of images, gave me the list and I moved copies to a hidden gallery and made them freely downloadable after the cheque arrived.
-theoretically (I haven’t done this yet) you can use SmugMug as a reservoir for backup and when you are travelling you can store your best images out of public view until you get home, just in case your gear is stolen, lost or damaged.
I hope these ramblings help.
…Rob