Though it is probably unfathomable now, just a little over a hundred years ago, photographers were on the cutting edge of modernity, as photograph cameras were then advanced technology. While realistic paintings of people and scenery would take a number of months to be fully completed, those earliest cameras could capture an image within many minutes to a few hours. As the technology progressed and cameras became less expensive and more accessible, more of the average population could have their own pictures and portraits at home-due to the time and patronage costs, painted pictures were most often the privilege of the wealthy and elite. Things have continued to evolve to the degree that now almost anyone can have their own personal camera, and almost everyone does.

Along side the cameras themselves, the ways and processes by which people have shared the resulting photographs has also evolved. Original cameras would imprint images on glass plates, and now most cameras imprint images on electronic sensors and computer chips, although the plastic film of decades ago is still preferred by some photographers. All of this affects the manner by which people share photographs; glass plates are considerably heavy, cumbersome, and thus not easy to reproduce and transport, whereas images on electronic chips can be reproduced and shared almost instantly, and repeatedly, with computers. Though plastic film is more pragmatic than glass plates, neither one of these formats come close to computer chips, each of which can hold thousands of images that can be shared with anyone around the world within seconds.

With glass plates and plastic films, photographs had to go through another lengthy reproduction process anytime someone wanted to give some to others. With photos stored on computer chips, and film-developed images that have been digitized with a scanner, photographs can be shared via the internet faster than the first photographers could have ever imagined. The photos can be sent to people directly, via email, or they can be viewed in a more common place, like a blog or online photo gallery.

More so than email or blogs, using online photo galleries can potentially be more functional or productive, even lucrative, than simply letting others look at your photos.

Whether it is a free online photo gallery, offering basic features and limited storage, or a paid online photo gallery, with more, sometimes unlimited, storage and greater customizability, photographers that use them effectively are often able to see career growth to various degrees. There are a number of other options and features, like site membership, online printing, and a range of online store options, that are not available from the majority of free online galleries. Even if it is a free online gallery, what a photographer does with either is really only limited to their imagination.

Whenever you enter in photo gallery into Yahoo, do you find what you need?