Recently I’ve needed to share not just still images, but videos. And YouTube just wasn’t going to do what I wanted. Then I discovered Vimeo.
Since I’ve started shooting and producing videos with my digital SLRs, I needed a way for people to view them easily over the web. And I also wanted to be able to share slideshows I’ve created from many of the photo workshops I’ve taught. My problem with YouTube was mainly with its quality. That’s what had me looking to Vimeo, and it looks like a perfect fit for what I want to do.
It’s a site that lets you post videos like YouTube, but at better quality and much more control. There’s both a free option and a paid. I chose the paid
Uploading the Peru workshop video I created.
(one year for about $60) because I wanted to take advantage of the ability to have multiple albums, and more importantly, create channels.
The albums let me separate out different groups of videos. For instance, the shows I’ve been creating for Disabled Sports USA over the last year can be in their own album, and I can password protect access to only those people who need to see them.
And the channels option lets me create a place where I can point people who are interested in the photography workshops I lead. I can even personalize it with logos and a unique URL. If you want to see what that’s like, go to 
http://www.vimeo.com/channels/reedhoffmann.
At heart I’m a stills guy, but video and audio have become more and more important in our multimedia society. I’ve realized that if I want to stay current in the business, I need to continue to expand my knowledge and skills. And Vimeo makes it easier for me to share, and more importantly, get feedback on that work.