Starting to lose respect for Mike Johnston

[Andre Noble]

Honestly never heard of him until this post

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Having or losing respect for bloggers is an interesting topic. Blogs, whether they are a hobby or a job (as I think it is the case with Mike Johnston and The Online Photographer), occupy a grey area in many respects. I read and usually enjoy Mike's blog, although I'm not sure why exactly. I remember I added his blog years ago to my Google Reader feed and it survived the almost automatic transition to Feedly. He writes well (for internet’s standards), has an identifiable style and seems to be knowledgeable. But the truth is I read his posts as part of a long feed of photography blogs. That means I sometimes don’t even realise who posted what.

It’s me against the immensity of internet. I filter as much as I can, cancel subscriptions when I get bored of a blog, and, from time to time, I add a new blog to the feed. I suppose bloggers, even if they are pro or semi-pro, have a similar problem with the immensity of internet and the challenge to post something that stands out on a regular basis. A guy working from home, with no editorial board or colleagues to discuss interesting ideas, no editing, no quality control, no sanity check whatsoever. Even if they have thousands of followers and people commenting their posts, it must be a "small world" and not very healthy.

As a result, my respect (i.e. attention) for bloggers is based on different standards than those I apply to professional publications. The former are quite lax, the latter are stricter (especially if I pay a subscription).

 

[Vaughn]

At that time, I was in my 20s and when a new gf learned that I could process and print any pics we took and that nobody else would see them... time for a glass of wine.

Dang -- all my lady friends have all been camera-shy.

But my kids' friends seem to have fun with the instant cameras (late teens) -- I think they find holding a photo in their hands instead of in a computer to be a unique and fun thing.

 

[Mark Crabtree]

TOP is the only photography blog I read regularly. A lot of posts are of no real interest to me so I just give them a glance, but on a pretty regular basis he has something very interesting to say, or points me to something interesting. When I do Google searches on photography related issues it is amazing how many links to Mike's writing turn up, and they are usually among the most interesting and relevant results.

I don't see any reason to expect he could turn out 5 great posts a week, but I'm amazed at how many he's had over a very long period of time.