<== Site Review (2017-09-01) ==>
Utah Color - Tumblr
Tumblr is a photo sharing platform that was recently acquired by Yahoo! The platform is optimized for photo blogs. The cool thing about Tumblr is that the site invites artists to "reblog" photos; So, if you see a picture you like, you can "reblog" the image on your blog.
I created two Tumblr sites for Utah: Utah Color - Tumblr reblogs photos from throughout the state. Moab - Tumblr reblogs images from Moab, Canyonlands, Arches and surroundings. I created a tag cloud to help you find specific images.
Most of the photos in these two blog come from other photographers. I scoured Tumblr and reblog the best photos from Utah. My goal is simply to create a compelling selection of quality images from the state.
Photographers can use Tumblr to help build traffic. The wise course of action for a professional is to share a very small number of photographs. Remember, the Tumblr ToS allows anyone using the site to reblog the photo. When you post a picture you are giving up your exclusive copyright status for the image to let others share. So, you only want to give up rights on a few photos to build traffic. So, lets say you did a large photo shoot at Sundance. You might share one or two pictures which link back to your main online gallery.
Tumblr is like any social media site. Casual browsers tend to look at only the three most recent posts. So there is no need to share a large number of photos. It is better to share a dozen photos that are reblogged often than to share a hundred photos that get ignored. If you are a photographer you might share an image a month or an image a week at most.
Personally, I am still a big believer in stand alone sites. My approach is to create a stand alone gallery that is completely under my control. So, I bought the domain name Protophoto.com. I upload all my photos to this domain. I try to share one or two photos a month on Tumblr and link the photos back to protophoto.com.
Tumblr lets you have more than one blog. The smart course of action is to have one tumblr blog that is nothing but original photos and a second blog that share photos along a theme.
I want Utah Color to show the best images from Utah. I reblog about 20 photos for each photo I submit. The downside to this approach is that my personal photos rarely get reblogged.
Below you will see a selection of photos that I chose to share. If you look at the Utah Color Archive you will see that only about 5% of the photos come from my site. If you click on the image you see the photo on Tumblr. If you click on the caption you go to Protophoto.com.
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