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June 2005
On 7 January 2004 I was awakened at 0600 by the persistent chirping of my cell phone. "Chris, this is Richard Sergay from ABC News in Washington. What can you tell me about the photos?" Not having a clue about what he was talking about but not wanting to broadcast my ignorance, I said, "Nothing more than what we've already said."
After a bit of give and take, I was able to deduce that we (Military.com) were broadcasting some of the first photos of Saddam Hussein's capture. The photos were taken by Army soldiers during their highly secretive operation to capture Saddam in his underground hiding place. One of the soldiers took the photos and sent them home -- and they ended up in the hands of our editors.
No longer relegated to professional news organizations, everyone now can be a photojournalist, and nearly every consumer hand-held device has an embedded digital camera. Now it's likely that amateur photographers, not the pros, will capture spontaneous news -- just review the images of Abu Ghraib or the Asian tsunami.
The photo space is hot. In the last few months, many of the online photo sites have been acquired by the big portals or consumer electronics manufacturers. This increased competition for your attention is driving significant innovation, consumer value, and choice for both amateur and professional photographers. It is also making it extraordinarily simple for those in uniform to share their photos with family, friends, and, potentially, millions of interested strangers.
With more than 60 million digital cameras and 150 million camera phones expected to sell this year, it is clear the 150-year old photo industry is in revolution. "Digital photography is absolutely mainstream and is used by millions," said Chris MacAskill, founder of Smugmug. "One of our fastest-growing segments is servicemembers looking to stay connected with their families."
It can be a bit tricky to make sense of all the options available to the digital shutterbug. Essentially, there are two flavors of tools for storing, printing, and sharing your pictures: client software (installed on your computer) and web services (web sites). In most cases, they are not mutually exclusive and can be used in conjunction with each other.
Generally, the software on your computer allows you to extract, touch-up, email, and print your photos. In my opinion, the two best programs for digital photo storage and manipulation are Picasa (Windows only) and iPhoto (Mac only). Not only are they extremely slick and intuitive programs, they are free. Picasa (owned by Google) can be downloaded at www.picasa.com. iPhoto cannot be downloaded, but it does come preinstalled on new Macs or it can be purchased as part of a software upgrade called iLife '05 (www.apple.com).
In terms of web sites, there are many more options, and the best service for you will depend on how seriously you take photography and how web savvy you are. The two broadest categories of photo sites are: free and paid services. Increasingly, however, the lines between the two are blurring.
Free sites generally let you upload, store, and share photos with friends. They are easy to use and more than adequate for casual photographers. Most free sites generate revenue by charging you to print your photos ($.25 cents buys you a 4x6 print). The more popular free sites are Ofoto (www.ofoto.com), Snapfish (www.snapfish.com), Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com), and Webshots (www.webshots.com). Because these services are free and rely on photo printing to generate revenue, they generally limit users to displaying only a lower quality image on the site (prints are all full-quality, however). In other words, when you share your photo album with your shipmates, they won't be able to download the full-sized image. Instead, they will have to settle with a lower quality image or order a print.
For the most part, the paid services sites are for the more discriminating photographer. They often offer all the same features of the free sites and permit you to store and download full-sized images on the site. For fees ranging from $25-$100 per year, users get to build, manage, and share professional-looking albums. Many people who use these sites also appreciate the ability to share their photos with other serious photographers for comments and insider tips. Two of the better fee-based sites are Smugmug (www.Smugmug.com) and Pbase (www.pbase.com).
Photos are not just for special occasions anymore. With the ability of an individual to instantly capture and share photos for free, digital photography is ubiquitous, persistent, and meaningful. The next big story from Iraq is just as likely to be covered by cellphone on Flickr as by Associated Press in The New York Times. Smile at the phone and say cheese.
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© 2005 Christopher Michel. All opinions expressed in this article
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Chris is President of Military Advantage, the nation's largest military and veteran membership organization. Through Military.com, the company connects over 4 million members to the lifelong benefits of military service and provides public and private sector clients efficient access to the military market. Members trust Military.com for career, education and financial services. Founded in 1999, Military Advantage has raised over $30 million from leading investors and strategic partners, including A&E Television Networks. In 2004, Military Advantage was acquired by Monster Worldwide (Nasdaq: MNST).
Prior to founding Military Advantage, Chris was a strategy consultant assisting companies in the airline, entertainment, and financial services industries.
Chris also served as a Naval Flight Officer in the United States Navy. While on active duty, Chris flew as a P-3 Navigator, Tactical Coordinator and Mission Commander in support of maritime interdiction operations in the Red Sea, NATO enforcement operations in the Adriatic, and counter-narcotics missions in Central America. Following his operational tour, Chris worked in the Pentagon as Aide to the Chief of the Naval Reserve.
An advocate for servicemembers and Veterans, Chris is a frequent speaker and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, Financial Times, and others. He is also a regular guest on CNN and other national radio and TV programs. In addition, he writes the monthly "Charting your Course" column for U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine and is working on his first book to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2005. He is an elected Director of the U.S. Naval Institute, a Trustee of the U.S. Naval Institute Foundation and a past Director of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation and the USS Arizona Memorial Fund.
Chris earned his commission from the NROTC program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was named a Distinguished Naval Graduate. He also holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
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