May 20, 2003

So after checking out how my images from the Pole Pedal Paddle event from Saturday turned out, I dug around some more on the Photoreflect site for information on their storefront.

It's actually a pretty nifty system that I'm now considering for my own storefront over at Emerald Bay Photography (as you can see, the site is still under heavy construction - to be conservative ...). Despite it's high 18% commission structure, Photoreflect provides some services that might in the end greatly outweigh the pain of having to deal with hosting and serving of the images in my own shopping cart system. They seem geared towards event photography though, so I'm not 100% sure if it's truly applicable for me.

PayPal, in comparison, is a lot cheaper, with a smidgen under 3% commission, but it's a lot more down and dirty. You have to cut and paste the html code for each item (!) into the code on your site, and setting up a database to connect to the PayPal shopping cart seems already like a daunting task. For around thousand images, that means pretty much putting myself into cyber-jail for the summer...

So here's my dream scenario (and if an alert reader has a solution handy, please don't hesitate to email me): I want an image management database that stores, categorizes and automatically assigns image codes (for stock) as soon as images are added. Uploads should be able to be made in batches (unlike FileMaker's dumb Photo Catalog, that makes you add each image individually...). Image description fields should retain the typed text until changed (for those batches again) and recall previously entered descriptions with ease. Other features of the software should include: date created (not input!), size of the digital image file, a keyword search engine, the ability to sort the images by single or multiple categories (which can be customized), plus the ability to print dual slide labels automatically with the image number, a short description, and copyright language.

In addition, the software should have integrated forms, that make invoicing for stock and assignment a snap, and produces customizable delivery memos, model and property releases, plus various contracts. And of course, it should also have fields for image rights and tracking information.

To be fair, there is already a pretty decent software out there for this: NSCS is a software developed by a photographer, for photographers. At $189 and quite a few favorable peer reviews, it's really pretty attractive. The only drawback - I emailed the guy with a simple question about 2 months ago, and he still hasn't gotten back to me. So his software better be bullet-proof, for getting tech support from him would quite likely be impossible...

That software now should be easily and painlessly able to hook up to a web-backend (NSCS doesn't even mention that, unfortunately), making each addition to the database an automatic update on the website's image gallery (again, one should have the option of easily picking which images go up and which ones don't, maybe with a check box tool). A shopping cart should hook up to that database, displaying not only the image, but also the image number, description, and copyright information - automatically, and not with endless manuals entries. For a little touch of solar pipe dream, I'd like to have the shopping cart display the rights and licensing information too, drawn straight from the database again.

From here, the shopping cart should be on auto-pilot, gathering billing and shipping information from the customer, and sending a confirmation email to my inbox with the necessary information for packaging and sending out the requested print or original slide for licensing.

Best of all of course - I don't want to pay a fortune for this. And why *shouldn't* a system like that be available for the small business person? I'd be happy to pay a grand or two for the software and setup, but it shouldn't put me in the poor house, and it shouldn't tie me permanently to the computer for years, because that's not why I'm starting my own photography e-commerce business. After all - I'd rather be out shooting.