The Mavericks

It is election season and one of the buzz words of the season is "maverick". So how about the photography and camera world? Let's spotlight some mavericks, mavericks for different reasons, but mavericks none-the-less!

We start with the super-maverick, Ken Rockwell. Every single iota Rockwell publishes is subject to intense debate. Posts like $5 film camera versus $5,000 dSLR are instant classics. A unique style, both in content and presentation create a unique identity for the Ken Rockwell website.

The next maverick is Thom Hogan. Thom is considered among the internet photographers as the #1 Nikon pundit, and every word he writes is read and analyzed by thousands of Nikonians. Further maverick points for not using a traditional publishing-industry approach to his e-books, and instead going direct to the photographers. And bonus maverick points for a "1.0" website, and *gasp* no RSS feed.

Next up, we have Rice High, with a maverick approach to brand loyalty, and the maverick style of Rice High is frequently drawing the ire of some Pentaxians.

There are hundreds (if not thousands) blogs about the photography business and the business of photography, but very few have the unique style and approach of Foto-Biz.com. A spartan but cutting style that gets straight to the point, as if each word costs dearly and has to be used judiciously.

We have a new maverick to add, the RED CEO! How many camera company CEOs post regularly on the company's forums, and even have their own sub-forum and are not afraid to mix it up with the forum users? Imagine the Canon, Nikon or Sony bosses coming down from their Ivory Towers where they are catered to by armies of sycophants to face the actual users!

Agree? Disagree? What other mavericks did we miss?

Reader Suggestions

• Wrotniak.net, a great resource for Olympus cameras and photography, jam-packed with valuable information