Welcome to TOP 2.0, all-purpose time-wasting website for photo-dawgs of every stripe, age, sex, color, nationality, description, economic stratum, and media preference. No need for brandname tribalism or fat-wallet one-upsmanship here; just a relentless cascade of cool crap about this fascinating lifetime hobby. Just try to keep up.

Our main feature is the daily Weblog. To go there, click the title on the right that says "Weblog (Main Page)." If you'd like to skip this welcome page, here is the direct link to the blog page for your bookmarks:

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

If the top post on the blog doesn't interest you, don't worry. It changes all the time. You are allowed to skip.

We have a new address: www.theonlinephotographer.com. Please make note of it! For reasons unknown to the webapprentice*, the URLs will only propagate properly in your address bar if you use the "www." So there's that. We'd promise to work on it, but we have a lot of things to promise to work on.

Since its founding in November 2005, The Online Photographer (known as TOP) has become one of the most popular photography sites on the Web. It's edited and organized by Mike Johnston (that's him in the little picture), a veteran photo magazine writer and editor, joined by more than three dozen other contributors, when and if they can be coerced.

After a year and five months on Blogger (accessible through the "Ye Olde Site" link), version 2.0 was launched Monday, June 4th, 2007. It may take a few weeks to populate some of the new features with content. Okay, months.

Want to advertise? Go here. Want to support the site? Just take a look at what our advertisers have to offer. They pay us so you don't have to. 

What it's all about
TOP was founded so "photo-junkies" of every sort would have a place where they are assured of finding new content every day. We publish 363 days a year (excepting Christmas and Christmas Eve) and average 2.5 posts per day.

We cover anything and everything of interest to practicing photographers. Our focus is more on art and accomplishment and less on technique and equipment than many of the largest sites, but we do cover gear and technical issues as well as artists, photojournalism, shows, and people.

What can you find on TOP?
------------------• Photography news
------------------• Industry notes and critiques
------------------• Book reviews
------------------• Equipment user reports
------------------• Opinion and editorials
------------------• Product recommendations
------------------• Gallery and museum show info
------------------• Humor and satire
------------------• Profiles of photographers
------------------• Information about techniques
------------------• Photography-related links
------------------• Occasionally, the odd off-topic posting

"...And a lot more," as they say. And when we say it, we're not kidding. Readers feel that the main strength of TOP is its great variety. Don't like something you read? Scroll down, wait for tomorrow—there's always something different coming.

Who we're for
Our audience is wide-ranging and eclectic. We are used as a student resource in several college-level photography programs and courses, and are fortunate to have among our readers some world-renowned art photographers and high-level, world-famous pros. Most of our readers, naturally, are hobbyists and passionate amateurs. We have more women photographers among our readers than some of the more "techie" sites do. All comments are moderated so there are never any unpleasant "flame wars." (There's one cardinal rule for comments: "No ad hominem.") We welcome everyone who has an interest in photography.

T.O.P. was recently named by National Geographic Traveler (on nationalgeographic.com) as one of the best places to learn about photography on the web (at the link, we're in section 3, second paragraph from the bottom). "My favorite website," said Dan Westergren, Picture Editor for National Geographic Traveler, "where you can find discussions on all aspects of photography."

Internationally famous Photoshop guru Scott Kelby, Editor-in-Chief of Layers magazine, awarded TOP his 2006 "Scotty" as "Most Interesting Photography Blog."

(click on image to see larger)

Our audience, continually growing, exceeds 350,000 hits a month. We have readers in Iceland, Belize, Bermuda, Bahrain, Great Britain, Uruguay, Malaysia, Australia, Pakistan, and Bali, among many other places around the globe—more than 55 different countries altogether. (We asked.) About 45% of our audience is from the U.S. and 60% is North American.

So come on in and have a look around. If you enjoy photography—especially if you enjoy it a little too much—chances are you'll enjoy The Online Photographer.

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*Our web "master" is still a long way from attaining master status.