Apogee Celebrates 11 years

Apogee Photo Magazine

Apogee Celebrates 11 years!

magazine cover In the summer of 1995, Apogee began as a text-only Internet news group under the auspices of the University of Colorado Health Sciences. The original founders of Apogee, all professional photographers, planned this forum to organize and help photographic educators interact with each other to improve both their teaching resources and their buying clout.

As photography teachers, the founders were constantly challenged to find economical yet effective ways to advertise their services. Realizing their plight represented a need other photographers would share, in October of 1995, the founders expanded Apogee’s mission to include a workshop directory with information about photographic tours, schools and workshops.

The readership wanted more. Thus, in April of 1996, the first official issue of APOGEE PHOTO MAGAZINE went on-line with freshly expanded content. The inaugural issue contained 6 articles in addition to the "Letter From the Editor."

These articles were:

Scott Kilborn Loves Breaking Stereotypes:
He writes about a policeman / artist friend as he points out that someone's job is only part of the story.

Helen Longest-Slaughter Tackles the Problem of
how someone weighing less than 135 pounds can carry comfortably more than 50 pounds when hiking.

Michael Fulks' Fascination with Infrared Film and How to Correctly Use It

John Sexton remembers his 22 year friendship with Morley Baer, 1916-1995
accompanied by David Fullagar's portrait of Morley, 6 weeks before his passing.

Robert Hitchman Shares His Love for Photographing Waterfalls,
Advice on proper exposure, filtration, and the best lighting/weather conditions are covered.

Our "PhotoSmith," Mark Smith Joins Us With A Column About The Basics In this first issue,
Mark covers the most important thing about photography, Light!

By 1997, Apogee had attracted international interest with challenging photography contests. Soon, contributors from around the world were submitting articles and examples of their work.

Readership mushroomed until the original workers were overwhelmed. In the summer of 1997, new staff members were hired—professionals from the realms of photography, art, communication and education.

Our web server statistics show our visitation rate continues to grow at a steady pace. Since early 2001, Apogee reaches over 116,000 gross readers, and approximately 350,000 page views per month.

In June of 2001, Image Works, an independent reviewer of web sites, rated the Apogee site and gave it 101 points out of 100. We received a bonus point and have earned the status of "Best of the Web."

In content, Image Works said: "Apogee Photo Online Magazine maintains a significant presence on the Web and compares well against similar commercial online journals." "Apogee offers solid in depth conversation on a wide variety of photo related subject matter. Anyone with an interest in photography can find an area that addresses their interests. In this, Apogee is second to no other photo magazine on the Net, and there are many fine photo magazines on the Net."

Apogee will remain in flux as it grows, adjusting to new technology, new demands, and more readers.

Also that year, Writers Digest included Apogee Photo Magazine in their list of "The 50 Best Places on the Web to Get Published."

September, 2001 hit the magazine hard as it did many businesses in the US. Many of our charter advertisers went out of business or could no longer advertise because of the 911 disaster, and the fear of traveling held by many at that time. But Apogee Photo Magazine has rebounded to its former robust self, attracting a wider variety of advertisers, while at the same time maintaining its quality of content in order to attract more readers.

In the first quarter of 2002, Apogee Photo Magazine began its monthly newsletter. It now goes to over 3000 addresses each month, announcing that month's articles and contests.

In the past year, we have been working to update and refurbish. We have added a new search page to help readers search our vast archives better. We have updated our archive pages to make them more useful and we hope that that will help everyone to take advantage of the hundreds of articles now in our archives. We have also started several online classes, so please join in for an exciting journey into the photographic world and let your creative talents shine. http://apogeephoto.groupee.net/groupee

In this coming year, we hope to expand the number of articles we produce in a month, as well as introducing our readership to new writers from around the world. We are also planning a "Critique Your Photo" section.

We hope that you will join us to see the exciting things we have planned as we begin our twelfth year!