A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by Samy's Camera in Santa Barbara [Calif.] to check out their new location. After examining a new camera bag, I went over to pick up some product literature when the Spring [2005] edition of PhotoMedia caught my eye. I don't know if it was the large format of the magazine or the eye-catching cover photo, but I pulled one off the rack for a look-see. I had never seen a copy of PhotoMedia before, but this one was going home with me, that was for sure.

I headed over to the checkout counter to pay for it, but pulled up short when I noticed it was free. I went out to my car — my wife was patiently waiting.

After 50 years of thinking [in terms of] traditional film, I am now joining the digitized world, and it ain’t easy. I have yet to get beyond the auto setting on my newly acquired Nikon Coolpix 5000. Your article in the Fall 2003 edition of PhotoMedia, [“The Revolution Will Be Digitized (Like It or Not . . . )”] spurs me onward.

I should add that this issue is my introduction to PhotoMedia. I especially was taken with the photos and stories about the seldom-recognized heroes of the Iraq and Afghan conflict. This issue will be on my coffee table for some time to come.

Ned Porges, Century 21 North Homes Seattle

Your fall 2001 issue of PhotoMedia, entitled “Photojournalism: Telling the Story,” was superb. Given the deadline pressures and historic events of Sept. 11, you managed to pull together an exceptional issue that’s well worth keeping for years to come. The cover shot [by Ricky Flores] of firefighters raising a flag at Ground Zero the day after the World Trade Center attack was especially impressive. It offered an alternative perspective of that now iconographic image...

Journalists, like all humans, always have a choice. Judging from his letter in the Winter 2000 issue of PhotoMedia regarding the Columbine incident, Denver photojournalist Barry Staver, invoking personal reasons, deserted his profession. Instead of taking advantage of his privileged involvement with the story and approaching it in what could have been an original and poignant account, he chose to stand back and blame colleagues. It's particularly unfortunate that he chose to criticize those that photographically covered the story...