The Internet can be a wonderful thing.  Oh sure, there’s a lot of spam, malware and general lameness online, but I’m awed by how much it has added to my personal wealth of knowledge!

When I returned to photography after what now seems a millennium, the entire field of digital photography baffled me.  After realizing that basic concepts about light, composition, depth of field and so on, still held, the how was still a bit of a mystery.

Enter the Internet.  There are videos galore on YouTube and Vimeo.  A plethora of web sites, both professional and amateur, exist to lend guidance, support and inspiration.

Here then, is a brief list of web sites I find useful for a wide range of photographic information:

• Photography Life – one of the first sites I found. It covers reviews, tips, news, and more.
• Digital Photography School. As the name suggests, mostly tutorials and tips.
• Picture Correct. Techniques and tips. There’s always an annoying pop-up when you first visit, but dismiss it and enter the site.
• iPhotography, an online (for pay) course in digital photography.
• ON1 Tutorials. ON1 makes the nifty Perfect Photo Suite of photo processing software, but these tutorials are free for all (with an emphasis on PPS, of course).
• Light Stalking. Tips, downloadable tutorials, more.
• Camera Labs. Camera and lens reviews.
• Digital Photography Review. Camera and lens reviews. Very popular.
• Snapsort, compare cameras (features, prices, capabilities).
• Ken Rockwell, a professional photographer reviews and opines.
• Photzy – sign up and receive a “digital locker” where you can download and store free (and paid) content.

And of what value would these sites be without a place to store and view our photos? Here are some sites and programs I use:

• Dropbox. A free account (which includes photo syncing) of about 5Gb. Pay for more.
• Copy. Like DropBox, with a 20Gb account.
• Flickr. Owned by Yahoo! Gives you 1 terabyte of storage and an online photo editor.
• PictureLife. Much like Flickr. Maybe some developers left and started this?  You gain space by referring others.  Contact me.  🙂
• Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Yes, you’ll need to be a subscriber, but at US $9.99/month for full, current versions of PhotoShop and Lightroom, this is a pretty sweet deal: 1 TB for your creative efforts.

There are many, many more.  I may revise this list from time to time, or add another. For now, this is a quick “bookmark” for ones I use frequently.