Followup

I think I found the place I mentioned Mark Brautigam before, the photographer who did the series "On Wisconsin" that I linked to the other day. It was in 2011, in a post called "A Few Examples of Naturalism in Photography." Some of the links in that post are broken now.

Do you actually read old posts on TOP? I often wonder how many people do.

Hope you're having a good Saturday.

Mike

Product of Interest this week:

As Porsche does with the 911, Fujifilm just keeps refining its perfect pocket camera and making it better and better. Also available from Amazon.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Comments

[Gordon R. Brown]

I do read the old TOP posts.

[MIKE JOHNSTON]

I go back and read old posts when you or someone else refers to them.
More than once a month

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I do read old posts on TOP; sometimes. When you link one that sounds interesting and I don't remember in detail, I usually click, sometimes read the whole thing. I also occasionally find them cropping up in web searches, and am likely to at least look at them there (and, again, sometimes read the whole thing).

I'm generally into naturalism in my photography.

I do find myself liking some works that aren't basically naturalistic—for example, many of the Hubble shots that are processed for artistic effect are false color, not anything like what one could see even with a super-sensitive human eye, but I love them. And some of the new astro-landscape photos (where they combine a night landscape with the sky over it, at an entirely unrelated exposure, orders of magnitude more) (but some of them feel fake; they're all if not fake at least very un-natural, but some feel fake to me, and I can't yet tell why).

It's weird with abstract photos; for those I tend to reject them if they "seem" manipulated to me. Somehow, finding and capturing the abstract is very different (in my head) from imagining and painting / drawing it. I'm not that susceptible to abstract art, but there are enough hits that I can't just dismiss it (and there are things that don't hit for me but I can still see they're not just random mess).

[Sal Santamaura]

...Do you actually read old posts on TOP?...

Yes. Whenever a search for something takes me to one or when clicking on bookmarks I've got for your posts of particular interest.

Unfortunately, the older ones on blogspot seem to have recently disappeared. From now on I"ll remember to save, rather than simply bookmark, those TOP posts that will be of potential personal interest.

[John Holmes]

Mike, I love that old post. I really miss having articles like your old one to read. Since most of us don’t go back that far in time to find such writings, I would like you write some current articles on similar topics …. Even if you have to repeat some of the same words, etc.

[Roger Bartlett]

Yes, I do. And often it is not the photography articles. Movies and music get a re-read. Very much enjoy them all.

[V. I. Voltz]

I read a lot of old posts on TOP. I was very grateful for archive.org when the Old Site became unavailable and joined the internet of lost things.

Voltz

[James]

Hi Mike. Yes, I read old posts when you link to them. I sometimes find them more interesting than when first viewed. Remember a little while ago when you mentioned the Olympus 17mm and linked back to the original review? I remembered how great the black and white shots of London were (close to where I was born by the Thames) but didn’t remember the color shot of the family- two children in focus and the parents out of focus behind them. Now that is a shot anyone would be proud of.
When the lockdown started I promised myself I would follow each link from commenters names to help pass the time. Fantastic! I found sites belonging to commentators living in places I’ve worked near (Indiana, Buckinghamshire UK, Western Australia) and one site with a shot of a tube station (subway) in London real close to where I was born.

[Bear.]

Occasionally. But sadly, I do remember reading your 2011 post, as I was particularly struck by the juxtaposition of Weegee and Linda McCartney then and now. Don't recall the Mark Brautigam pic but like it.

[grigoris]

sometimes i read old posts, not very often though. everytime i want to suggest something i red in your blog about photography to a new aspiring fellow photographer i search your site (and the old blog, too) to find what i remember(for i want to mail him a link). it is a happy occasion as i rediscover in this search other interesting old posts.

[Roger Bradbury]

A few months after I found your blog and became a regular reader, I went back to the beginning and worked my way back to the point I'd started. That was a long time ago and I went right back to the first post of the old site.

When I became very ill in 2012 it was six or seven weeks before I left hospital and could catch up with TOP; just the job really while I was still recuperating and couldn't get out much.

Other than that, I seldom read old posts unless you've linked to an old one or I want to look something up to make a comment, as I did today for the next paragraph.

I put my name into the search bar above and found that I first commented on this blog in April 2009; I think I'd been a reader for a while before that. Good grief; twelve years! : )

[Doug Reilly]

I do! Among them: Ctein’s posts about puer tea (totally hooked), and reviews/discussion about the m4/3 system. I find the coverage to be even-handed, realistic and free of the extreme ends of the fanboyism/hater spectrum.

[CR]

'Do you actually read old posts on TOP? I often wonder how many people do.'

All the time! I like using the search engine function site:https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com to find old posts on different subjects e.g. 'digital black and white' or particular cameras or lenses.

[Ben Rosengart]

Yes. I’m an egotist so I go back to the ones I’m mentioned in. 😂

[DavidF]

Is this question really about you wondering how often your old posts are accessed? Since you make your living from this blog, it is in your interest to know which of your old posts are still attracting eyes.

I'm sure you know that there are tools, starting with Google Analytics, to answer this kind of question. Perhaps this is a rabbit hole you don't want to enter ...

[David Lee]

Not as much as I used to. But just a few days ago I was going to look for the post about sleep apnea. Remeber some very interesting comments there. And who can forget your “Geat Photographers Of The Internet” post!

[Gerard Geradts]

I read all post from the beginning. I did that twice.
Over the years I lost my interest for photography, but there is enough stuff to learn and enjoy and inspire.
I do my warkout on a Waterrower, Learned of it on TOP, Same Goes for my coffeegrinder, Baratza, and coffee car, Airscape.

And I truly admire the honesty, you display in your writing.
I try to write, to get things out of my Brain into something coherent, but that is very difficult. Even when I know that no one Will be reading my scripture, it is hard to be honest. And you do it, for the world to see.
I really admire that.

Greetings from a warm Utrecht, nicest city of our provincie Utrecht.