Connected Photographer got its start quite differently than our other magazines. We usually spend a very long time preparing for the launch of a new publication. While we have a pretty large list of prospective magazines, only a very few make it to publication.

Connected Photographer was on that prospective magazine list. Quite honestly, we didn't expect to be launching this magazine anytime soon. But then, something interesting happened. I wrote an article, "Your first digital camera," back in September in Computing Unplugged Magazine. It was really meant to be a "quicky" article, generated out of a conversation with friends, and intended to fill an article deadline I was late meeting.

I certainly didn't expect it to be anything special. But apparently I touched a chord in our readers. I got a huge number of letters in that article, filled to the brim with questions. So I took a few of the more common questions, and wrote a few more articles. And got more and more and more letters.

In less than a month, we started getting letters asking us to start a new magazine on photography, and got still more questions. All those questions resulted the Your First Digital Camera audio workshop, our effort to answer everyone's questions at once, before Christmas.

And now, a little more than two months after my first digital camera article ran in Computing Unplugged, here we are with the first issue of Connected Photographer. With all those photo magazines out there, we've been trying to understand what readers need, and why another photo magazine is necessary. And now, I think we do.

We named the magazine Connected Photographer for a reason. See, photography is not a lone endeavor. Whether you're producing snapshots for your family or professional shots for clients, or even pictures for yourself, connections, both Internet and interpersonal, pervade every aspect of picture taking, production, and creation.

Connected Photographer will have the same editorial style of our other magazines. We'll be personal, accessible, and friendly. We'll cover interesting simple tips for beginners as well as some elements of photography so advanced that only a few people stand a chance of understanding. We'll mix our advanced topics in with beginner topics, we'll have some fun, and we'll all learn to be better photographers, and better connectors.

We will likely review many of the tools, especially those in the digital arena. You can expect Photoshop plug-in reviews, lighting reviews, gadget reviews, and Web service reviews. But like our other magazines, the reviews will be of items that catch the eye of our writers, not just the stuff we think we "ought" to write about. We won't be reviewing every camera that comes along, for example.