About us

The story of Focus on Photography Forum

Focus on Photography Forum was born out of another forum: Photography on the Net, POTN for short. POTN was started in 2001 by Pekka Saarinen and lasted 22 years until Pekka closed its doors on 1 January 2024. He made the announcement on 4 October 2023.

After reading the grim news of POTN's demise, we were all in shock, heartbroken, and in denial. Although traffic was much less than in the past, there was still an active community. So what to do now? Several of us went looking for an alternative forum to check out but unfortunately all felt alien in one way or another. And of course the community wasn't there. The only way to have something close to POTN was to create a forum ourselves and hope the community would move over.

Levina kicked it off on POTN and a team was formed. Unfortunately, although motivated and of good will, it was too large and indecisive. After two weeks we only had a name and the clock was ticking. A few people left and the project threatened to stall. But then Sam stepped up to the plate and saved the project. Baan was right there with him. So were JJ and Joeseph. And Levina. It is this team of five that, after leaving the initial team, moved quickly and within 10 days created the very forum we now call Focus on Photography.

Whatever time we had to spare, we worked on the forum, during work, after work, sleeping late, middle of the night, waking up early; the only thing on our mind was creating a forum that would feel as a home away from home. And so, with hard work we managed to go from nothing at all to a fully functional forum in under 2 weeks. We then invited the first small groups and within a week - on 20 November 2023 - opened our doors for all.

And so, here we are: Focus on Photography Forum, a forum by photographers, for photographers. All we wanted was to keep the POTN community together and we hope Focus on Photography can be a new home for all to enjoy, POTN-refugees and new members alike.

We thank the initial team for their contributions and for giving the forum a name.

Have fun, stay safe, and let's see those pictures!

The Focus on Photography founders:

- Baan
- Duncan (aka Joeseph)
- JJ (aka gjl711)
- Levina de Ruijter
- Sam (aka West Coast Birder/Scrumhalf)