DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

SmugMug rescues nearly 200 million photographs from closed cloud service Picturelife

Aug 23, 2016 by John Aldred 3 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

smugmug_photolife

My biggest problem with “the cloud” has always been that many cloud services seem to pop up overnight from nowhere. This means that they can also disappear just as quickly. This was the case with Picturelife, an image hosting service which was bought out by Streamnation last year.

After 18 months of new ownership, Picturelife has shut its doors. Normally, this means that those hosted files would disappear forever. At least for those who hadn’t downloaded their images first. This time, however, SmugMug have stepped in to keep those images available.

SmugMug say that their team has been working with Picturelife for the past several weeks. This was to prepare and implement a plan which keeps all the Picturelife files with their owners.

Our number one concern is putting as many Picturelife photos and videos as we can into the hands of their rightful owners. We’re making their photos available to them at no charge and no obligation.  If some of Picturelife’s former customers want to become a part of SmugMug’s family of photographers, we’ll welcome them with open arms, but that’s not our primary goal.

It’s a hell of a good will gesture. Yes, some will see this as taking advantage of somebody else’s misfortune as an advertising gimmick, but I don’t agree. The costs to be able to do this will be pretty immense. Will it get them a few new customers as a result? Absolutely, I’d be shocked if it didn’t. But, there are far more cost effective advertising solutions if that was their goal.

This is a company doing a genuinely nice thing, and they’re offering a completely no-cost solution for Picturelife customers. This will let them access and download all of their photos and videos.

It’s a wish that more companies had this kind of outlook.

smugmug_picturelife_image

But why does this even happen? The problem today is, if you want to start up a cloud storage service, you really have to go huge or go home. Companies like DropBox, Google and Amazon are just too large to try and compete with.

Smaller and newer cloud services may offer more attractive packages, but they’re just not sustainable. To be able to really drive the prices down to compete with the giants, you also need to have the capacity and the demand.

Either way you look at it, you’re screwed without ridiculous investment. Either you don’t have the capacity, and you can’t get your costs low enough to compete, or you have the capacity, but not enough customers. In the end, it’s a model that will probably fail for 99% of those who attempt it.

This time, Picturelife’s users have SmugMug to thank, but who will bail out the next cloud service to disappear? Have you got local copies of everything you have on the cloud? Did SmugMug just save your images? Do you use cloud services at all? What do you use them for? Let us know in the comments.

 

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

SmugMug adds raw storage service with file management & AI-powered search My Photography Workflow With Smugmug, WordPress & The Creative Cloud Crashplan ditches consumers, kills off “for Home” cloud backup service This gorgeous flower bloom timelapse took over a year to make from nearly 40,000 photographs

Filed Under: news Tagged With: backup, cloud services, cloud storage, Picturelife, SmugMug

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« How to shoot a dialogue scene for a movie – a primer
You can now shoot Panoramas and 360 degree photos with the Syrp Genie Mini »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Comica CVM-VM30 is the world’s first wireless shotgun mic
  • Everything you need to know about science/technology photography
  • How Fujifilm survived while Kodak didn’t
  • Use these two simple methods to remove skin shine from portraits
  • Improved Sun Moon Expert app gets you perfectly timed sun and moon photos

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy