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Austin-based Melanie Grizzel has an authentic and warm approach to portraiture and storytelling. Her images exude a connection with the people she is photographing.
For her website update, we focused on showcasing the best of her portraits, food and tourism photography. The updated site is well-suited to editorial, corporate, non-profit, and travel industry clients.
Melanie Grizzel is an Austin, Texas-based portrait, travel, and food photographer. Her work has a sophisticated but approachable approach, and she makes the people she photographs feel comfortable and confident.
Adventure and documentary storyteller Deleigh Hermes’ work has been published in Yahoo!, National Geographic, Backpacker Magazine, Roads and Kingdoms, and the Wall Street Journal. We built her new website using Photoshelter.
I had the pleasure of collaborating with Santa Monica-based luxury travel, food, and hospitality photographer Natasha Lee.
Our main goal for her site was to create an overview page that showcased a mix of interiors, details, food, portraits, and destinations. I love how it came out!
Select clients of Natasha’s include Apple, Food & Wine Magazine, Airbnb, Ritz Carlton Magazine, Tahiti Tourism, Geico, and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, among others.
See her work at bynatasha.net.
Stefan Wachs is a Santa Fe-based portrait and documentary photographer with a sophisticated and serene approach. We collaborated on his website, creating a completely fresh look with new galleries. See more at https://stefanwachs.com/
Updated Winter 2018
I’ve maintained versions of this list since 2011.
A LOT can change in a short amount of time in the world of photography portfolio websites, which made the list hard to keep current. But recently, I was inspired (angered) to freshen things up. A few days ago, I received an email from Squarespace (which I used to build this site) announcing that they were partnering with Unsplash to deliver free stock photos to Squarespace’s customers.
This really rubbed me the wrong way. Squarespace has been a preferred platform for photographers since its beginning, and now Squarespace is encouraging their clients to seek out free photography. It’s a slap in the face to the professional photo community.
So with that in mind, I wanted to dust off this list and offer some suggestions for alternatives. I’ve personally built websites for photographers using Format (my current favorite), PhotoFolio (formerly APhotoFolio), and Photoshelter and think they’re all great. Here are others that friends and colleagues have recommended:
22Slides - Free 14-day trial and a flat $10/mo afterwards.
Adobe Portfolio - Adobe has joined the portfolio game with this add on to the Creative Cloud.
Cargo Collective - Offers users free-standing websites and a wide variety of customizable templates. $99 per year or $13 per month.
Flosites- Slick portfolio websites and cool extras like Instagram story templates
format- One of my favorites. I’ve built quite a few sites using their platform and they look great. Easy to use interface. Basic plan for $6 per month, pro plan for $12 per month.
Graph Paper Press - Wordpress themes for photographers. Great comparison pricing chart at http://graphpaperpress.com/pricing/. Pricing starts at $0 and goes up to $149 a year.
Indexhibit- Honestly, I don’t really get how you use Indexhibit, but I know a lot of photographers like it so I’m including the link!
Koken - Content management and portfolio templates
LiveBooks - This used to be a really popular platform, and everywhere you turned, you would see one of their templates in action. They were bought by Wedding Wire a few years ago, and seem to be trying to re-boot the business.
Pixpa - Portfolio, storefront, blog, all integrated seamlessly.
PhotoFolio - Formerly known as APhotoFolio. Company was founded by Rob Haggart of the popular APhotoEditor blog. Nice templates. Very popular so without some customization, many sites look very similar.
Photoshelter - Portfolio templates and advanced photo archive tools. Buyer portal allows creatives to find photographers by specialty, location, etc. Company is great about offering free advice to the photo community through downloaded white papers on topics like SEO and blogging.
SmugMug - When I asked on Facebook for recommendations from photographers for sites they love, SmugMug came up multiple times. People commented that they like the templates, and the easy-to-use ecommerce and print fulfillment features.
Viewbook - Gallery basic plan starts at $4.99 per month, $9.99 for a standard portfolio, and $19.99 per month for the pro plan. Portfolio app available for viewing on ipad.
Visura - Visua offers a website portfolio platform as well as a searchable network of photographers for buyers to explore.
Wix - I used to make fun of Wix websites. They were so dated looking, even when they first came out. But they’ve done a lot of work to modernize their templates and it shows. Lots of integration options for ecommerce.
Zenfolio - Robust ecommerce soultions. Free 14 day trial. Basic plan starting at $25 per year. Premium for $100 per year.
Format
Photoshelter
PhotoFolio
Lauren and I recently completed updating her website: http://laurenedith.com/. We reworked her galleries to emphasize her mix of interiors and spaces, with a focus on California and it's indoor/outdoor lifestyle. I love the way it came out, and now have some serious wanderlust for a trip to Northern California.
Check out the beautiful photos of the factory where handmade wallpaper is crafted (in the Work, Shop gallery). Stunning!
