Online Photo Album Development using PHP and GD: Part 1

You know the feeling. You come home with a brand new digital camera or scanner, and immediately want to show off your work! I've been there. I purchased a Fuji digital camera last year and found myself snapping pictures of anything and everything; and trust me, sometimes I wonder why I bother taking pictures! :) The benefit of going digital, as we all know, is there are no expensive costs for film, no wasted photos, and no under/over exposed pictures.

So what's the disadvantage of digital? Unless you print every photo taken, or unless you have everybody hovering over your shoulder while you show them pictures from your computer, there really is no economic way of showcasing your photos. You could sit there and email your shots, which would seem like the better choice; but, eventually, either your bandwidth costs will increase, or upset family members will be calling you complaining about the abundance of large-sized emails they've been receiving from you! :)

There are many services available out there that allow you to upload your favourite photos, and display them in a personalized gallery for viewing online. While the costs associated can vary (in my experiences, prices I've found have ranged from $4 to $20 per month).

There's nothing more fulfilling than creating your very own customized online photo gallery. The added bonus is that your viewers don't have to navigate to another website to view your photos. By creating your own gallery, your visitors can view your artistic pieces directly from your already existing website.

You may be asking yourself,