PUDUCHERRY: Most people enjoy clicking photos and sharing it with their loved ones. Photography is one of the most common hobbies in the world and one that does not cost a bomb to pursue. It is only a given that some of the most famous websites in the world are those dedicated to photography like Picasa and Flickr. Aiming to be in the same league is Photodilse, which as the word says, is “photos straight from the heart”. Photodilse is a web-based photo sharing website, which aims to spread the love for photography among both amateurs and professional photographers by helping them gain popularity and sell their photos. All that the artists have to do is register with Photodilse and they can start using their profile by adding their photos and related information.
Photodilse is co-founded by two childhood friends, Sudeep Samanta, 21, and Shailesh Lad, 20, both of whom are pursuing their final-year Bachelor of Science from Wilson College, Mumbai. Before starting up with Photodilse, the duo started S&L Dezigners, a website development company and s2chem.com, an e-learning portal for Chemistry. Working on the above websites helped them learn a lot about how things work online.
Photodilse was launched on May 25, 2013 and has more than 150 photo artists around the world who contribute on a regular basis. A casual conversation over coffee and samosas in November 2012 was what spurred an interest in the two to start the photo-sharing website before the website came into fruition six months later. The idea was a hit and initially many photographer friends agreed to contribute, before several of them bailed over the delay in the launch of the website.
To make the navigation of the website better and to cater to specific interests, the photos submitted are classified under different genres such as Wildlife, Wedding (Pre/Post), Monochrome, Macro, Landscape, Street, Fine art, etc. “We are different from Picasa and Instagram in the sense that they are image editing and sharing apps while Photodilse is a dedicated photography website that provides its readers with news, stories and insights of each photograph, the photographers and much more,” says Sudeep.
Photodilse’s USP is its ability to give exclusive space for the artists, a space where they can advertise their exhibits, include their bio, can sell their photos and make good money. Some of the well received photographers on Photodilse are SudhirShivram (Wildlife), ShikheiGoh (Macro), Gian Mark Quidasol (Fashion), Rohan Reilly (Monochrome), CarasIonut (Fine Art) and Elena Kallis (Underwater) .
Shailesh describes the kind of photography community he envisions within Photodilse thus: “A community where a German photographer mentors and guides a Delhi-based amateur artist and an artist from Israel shares his work and gains fans and followers from India and Indonesia.”
Although bootstrapped now, the duo is looking for funding that will eventually help make Photodilse a stock photo website in the impending future. The founders plan to target brands like Canon, Nikon and related companies for advertisement. Many have recommended them to make Photodilse a stock-photo website and they are weighing their options. An e-magazine is also on the pipeline that will cater specifically to photographers. They aim to make revenues from the advertisements on the magazine as well as by conducting photography events.
The duo’s advice to budding entrepreneurs is: “If you want to achieve something, always start early”, a paradigm they have followed in their lives.
— mathew.maniamkot@gmail.com