After writing a list of pros and cons, I’m canceling my Zenfolio account on November 10th, 2014. If you’re interested, please browse through the albums on my Zenfolio site, Bryan Villarin Photography, which include:
- Street photography (221 photos)
- Fine art (293 photos)
- Concert photography (107 photos)
- Mostly portraits (150 photos)
- Weddings (66 photos)
If you’d like to order prints from the first two albums, to be safe, please do that before November 6th. After that, I’ll take them offline until further notice.
Enjoy!
For posterity, here’s my list for staying with Zenfolio, or canceling my account.
Stay
- I spent time organizing the albums.
- I have a dedicated domain (bryanvillarinphotography.com).
- I used images hosted from them on my blog. It would be a pain to download the originals, then reinsert into the post.
Go
- It hasn’t been updated since late 2010. No longer a worthwhile investment for me.
- I’m not actively selling photos. If needed, I can manage rare print requests on my own without the $140/year overhead.
- I’m not publishing new photos regularly.
- I can more easily manage albums on a WordPress–based site. It was a bit unwieldy to add images to a gallery, but Media Library has improved. Now we can click a gallery and add more photos without having to add item IDs.
I’m considering downloading the originals with Zenfolio Downloader, even though I’m 99% sure I have the originals on my Drobo.
I’d hate to see broken images in posts using images hosted on Zenfolio, and I was also considering just marking the 233 (and possibly 14 more) items on this blog as a draft using Bulk Edit.1 But, I think I know a person who can help back fill images or something. 🙂
If I can download those albums into organized folders, it won’t take long to upload them into a gallery on a page.2 That could solve my question as to where to point the domain after I cancel my Zenfolio account. I can visualize this, folks. ⭐
- I also have 27 items on bryanvillarin.com. I’m not sure why I keep it alive. ↩
- On the other hand, the export option I chose for the current images are too high for being displayed online, so I could stand to export smaller resolution images. ↩
All Narfed Up 
Did somebody say backfill?
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Hey Daryl! Can you help me out? Would you like me to post about it somewhere?
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I know the exact boat you’re in. Fully understand your rationale. Ever since they announced their price hike, I’ve been having the same contemplations. Haven’t actively sold anything in a while, but I think I’ll keep it open nevertheless, since a photography portfolio can also be relevant exposure for getting film/tv camera gigs. Glad I caught your post in time before the shutdown!
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Dude! Thank you so much for leaving a comment and ordering a few prints. I also understand why you’d keep your account active. I hope you’re well! 🙂
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Just moved to Berlin a few weeks ago, I’ve been decorating the apartment. Perfect timing to get some new art on the wall 🙂
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