I spent a significant amount of time investigating templates, websites and blog platforms where you can display photos in a professional way, aka, for folks who want to do more than basic slide shows on their Flickr or Smugmug pages.
And, I sent out emails asking for tips, advice and through Twitter and for the most part, the majority of the responses were: just set something up on a WordPress blog.
There are a number of template designs that can work using WordPress and it’s such an adaptable and prolific platform, that its a decent option for those who don’t mind spending the time to set something up and have some basic coding skills, not to mention some design experience. (otherwise, you’ll end up spending money on a template that frankly just won’t look all that great).
Some free sites include Grace Photoblog, Monolit, Free Photo Gallery Template, ShutterThemes, Sharpfolio, Workaholic, Unstandard, Thi-Zin WordPress theme, Fotofolio Landscape, Gallery PhotoBlog, Ocular, Reflection theme, AutoFocus and Cancerbox (are they serious about this name? Marketing fauxpas 101).
Click here for more in-depth on each one. There’s also Portfolio Sitez and Dream Template which has templates on offer in the $60 range. Some friends recommended Live Books and Squarespace. 
For a collection of WordPress photography templates, check out this post.
While there are free templates, the ones that will likely turn eyeballs cost and can range anywhere from $20-300 or more depending on how many bells and whistles you want. Template Monster is a great site to check out and here’s a link to the photography templates.
For those interested in other industry look-and-feels, click here. To view some of the templates that Flash Mint has in the photography category, click here and Easy Templates, visit here. (most of their templates are in the $100 range).
Below is an example of a Flash Mint template. ($70).
The downside of a lot of the photography templates out there is that they’re flash-based (the above one is flash btw), which means that its harder for you to get “found” on Google and can be annoying to everyday viewers who want the simplicity and speed of seeing your photos easily despite the fact that some of the flash sites are pretty slick. Here’s a link to a collection that someone curated that meet that criteria.
I’m a bit of a design snob so while a lot of the templates above could work, I didn’t want to spend the time or effort to make it look beyond where the template could go yet I wanted a plug-and-play solution that was easy to maintain. (I already maintain 3 WordPress blogs and one Typepad one, so adding another one to the list was beyond my limit :-)
The two I discovered that I liked the most and where I spent most of my time were Wix and Big Black Bag. Wix has a lot of gorgeous templates but my issue was while beautiful, they were flash and it seemed like it would be complicated to maintain once you were set up. Unlike the concept of the pay once for the template and you’re done except for your monthly hosting costs, Wix charges roughly $5 a month for 500 mb of storage and $15 a month for 2.5 GB but unlimited bandwidth and some additional features. While their designs are slick, I didn’t want to get stuck with Flash for a number of reasons, not to mention the hassle of setting up the site and maintaining it after the fact. Below are a couple of examples of Wix flash sites.
You can get a flashy-looking, edgy or stylish look-and-feel without going the flash route but I found it hard to find something in a free template or WordPress world. Enter Big Black Bag, my number one choice after looking at hundreds of sites and btw, who I ended up going with in the end: No flash and fairly easy to set up. Grant you, I still had to get a graphic designer to help me with bits and pieces of it but working with her through the process and a short tutorial resulted in me being able to manage my own updates and changes. They too charge by storage as well as the number of portfolio albums you can display. In the end, I felt that they offered me the best options and it was the easiest to get something up and running fairly quickly. My only wish is that their storage was somewhat higher for their two middle tier pricing plans.
See a few examples below: (the first shot at the top is also of a Big Black Bag site)
Pricing starts at $8.99/month or $49/year and goes up to about $30 a month for unlimited storage. They do provide technical support which I might add, is pretty reliable and they respond to your requests quickly. Their portfolio websites use standards compliant HTML making all your content highly visible to search engines which translates into customers and better branding overall. Their templates includes many features that turn your website from an online brochure into a powerful workflow, ecommerce and business tool. Downloads, proofing, mass emailing and graphical statistics reports are just some of the tools that they offer. Click here to learn more.
I thought Big Black Bag had the most professional looking sites overall and from a “getting your final work” onto a site that people can see quickly, I thought they offered the best solution, particularly if “image” is an important consideration. And, if you’re a photographer, image should be an important consideration.
You can customize each of your portfolios as well as add different pages. For example, on my site, I actually decided to give pages entirely dedicated to Twitter and Facebook because I’m so prolific with social media. I also added a page for my photo books which many photographers might find useful as an additional place to display products outside of their services. Now that it’s up, I realize the front splash page needs to a facelift so I plan to work on a new one….it’s as easy to swap out as uploading a new photo to a page.
Our votes in order: Big Black Bag, Wix, Template Monster. If you want to stay away from Flash, then stick with Big Black Bag or one of the WordPress blog templates. We went with Big Black Bag because it was easier, faster, less hassle than maintaining a WordPress blog and more professional looking. We highly recommend it.
The first photo is an example from Big Black Bag, the second one from a Template Monster flash template.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
