I just recently received an e-mail from SmugMug saying that it is my one year anniversary and is time to renew my account. Also, sometime this month, it will be time to decide if I wish to renew my yearly subscription at Kelby Training.
Last year, I let my Lenswork subscription expire, as well as the one from Outdoor Photographer. More than likely, I’ll let my Kelby Training subscription, which is $199/year, expire. I only used it a couple of times, so it really wasn’t worth it. As for SmugMug, I don’t know. I like the service, but I just don’t update my gallery that much. This is one of those cases, though, where it doesn’t hurt much to keep it. It’s only $59/year, or something like that. Also, now that I’m messing with CSS, I might try my hand, again, at maintaining my own gallery, but it’s not a top priority.
I guess that for the most part, I like to try something, see if it is useful, then let it go if it isn’t. Why keep paying? In this economy, that might be pretty foolish! 
There is nothing wrong with these products, but I think that they have a shelf life, so to speak.
Have you found any subscriptions, relating to your photography, that you continue to renew?
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9 Responses to “Renewals”
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Paul,
Like you I will often “try” something and then decide I don’t gain enough benefit to renew it. For my gallery I use “Zenfolio” with unlimited storage for $40/year–a keeper for another year.
I’ve had a “.mac” account and .mac email address for years (since I first got a Mac) but I’ll not renew it again. It’s $99/yr and not worth it to me now. Even so this is a hard decision as I’ve used that email address to register some products so there’ll be addition headaches with changing and dropping everything.
I have Kelby Training and have used it enough this last year to make it worth renewing at least one more year but I may drop a magazine subscription.
Not too many things to renew here, but all of them keepers for sure: flickr as the main sharing/showcasing/storage for my pictures – all my blog entries show flickr images as blogger does not offer too gracious space and variations on image formats. And the photoclub alpha membership, with incredible printing quality in their bimonthlies as well as a lot inside information for a comparably low price.
Your lead shot works well for me: the vertical/horizontal structures of the white item as well as a certain mood that probably evokes childhood memories: the bikes, the dry leaves, washing on the line. Good.
LOVE the photo!!
I’ve let all but a few subscriptions lapse. The only magazines I continue to get are the ones that match my interests completely and I truly enjoy reading when they arrive. The rest I can check out online and see if I’m missing anything. Lensworks and Nature’s Best are two that I recently renewed.
I’ve renewed only 2 subscriptions (well, 3 if you count Extended) Lenswork and Lenswork Extended, and ReidReviews.com. The latter has great equipment reviews, including Zeiss lenses on Nikon, Canon and Pentax cameras. More importantly, though, are the great photographic insights that are usually buried in the reviews. I find myself reading reviews of things I’m not really interested it (like Leica lenses) to see what treasure lies in the review.
I’ve also let my outdoor photographer subscription lapse. It’s not an expensive magazine, but I simply don’t read it. I really don’t like that mess of ads, editorals and ads in editoral disguise…
Otherwise, I have my subscription for my own (virtual) server on which I run my blog and a couple of private photo galleries, not more than that. I now and then buy photo magazines directly at the news stand – but there’s so much great information and photos on the web, that for me time is usually the major limiting factor, not the availability of information.
But magazines are still great for travelling, of course.
@Micki: Thanks. This photo reminded me of lots of homes in my neighborhood when I was growing up. We lived in a poor neighborhood and no one had clothes dryers, or any such luxuries. When I saw this, I just had to stop and take a picture. Nostalgia.
For budgetary reasons, I no longer have any subscriptions to periodicals. All that I have left is my Zenfolio subscription – and for some reason I keep renewing my PBase subscription. The PBase one is cheap, and if I update the site it will get decent Google rankings.
I am crazy about the sight of clothes hanging out in the open air. Brings back another time and another place. Placing the door in the shot was the master stroke.
The only two that I keep renewing are my NANPA membership (to get access to decent insurance) and my flickr pro account. Everything else I’ve tried has come and gone.
Lenswork was good and worthwhile, but over time I seem to have moved on, and it never did. Most of the other magazines were too superficial and generally lacking in content after more than a year. I still listen to Brooks Jensen’s podcasts, because his thoughts were always more interesting to me than the portfolios that were printed in his magazine.
My pbase subscription has now lapsed – not going to renew as I haven’t used that site for over a year.