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I recently went digging through the internet’s memory to piece together my own digital history — everywhere I’ve shared my work online since I first got a photo on the web. What I found surprised even me. Here’s the trail, in order, with links so you can follow along.

2001 — LearyPhoto on CompuServe

My earliest known web presence was a personal photography page hosted on CompuServe’s “Our World” platform, under the name LearyPhoto. The Wayback Machine has a capture from June 6, 2001 — which means this page, or one very close to it, was live right around the time web archiving itself was just getting started.

• LearyPhoto — Wayback Machine capture, June 6, 2001

I also later registered a dedicated domain, learyphoto.com, though it’s no longer live today.

March 21, 2006 — I Start Blogging

In February 2006, I began teaching photography to YWAM students in Kona. Seeking a way to share tips and lessons beyond the classroom, I started a blog on March 21, 2006. My earliest post I can find, titled “West Africa,” was published on Blogger under the name Storyteller:

• Storyteller: West Africa — March 21, 2006

That blog ran for a decade or more, covering gear reviews, technique breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes stories from assignments. A few favorites from along the way:

• Storyteller: Be a Joiner — December 2008
• Storyteller: Nikon D4: Breaking it in — April 2012
• Storyteller: TTL Nikon Off Camera Flash Kit — July 2013
• Storyteller: Fuji X-E2 at ISO 25600 — July 2014
• Storyteller: Why I bought the Nikon D5 — October 2016

2001–2010 — Building a Photo Archive

Alongside the writing, I was building out a professional photo archive on PhotoShelter, organized by decade. The earliest bucket covers 2001–2010, holding ten separate galleries from that stretch of my career:

• Galleries — Sorted by Years, PhotoShelter Archive

2009 — PictureStoryteller.com

By September 2009, I was writing regularly at PictureStoryteller.com, a blog dedicated to photography education and visual storytelling. My earliest dated post there:

• The Ten-Thousand Hour Rule: Key to Success in Any Field — September 9, 2009

That blog has grown into hundreds of posts over the years, covering everything from technique and gear to the philosophy behind the work — much of it shaped by my mentor, Don Rutledge:

• Don Rutledge Archives
• Photojournalism Archives

Present Day — StanleyLeary.com and Appen Media

These days, my main hub for client work is StanleyLeary.com, and I write and photograph for Appen Media, covering North Atlanta communities — Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton, Johns Creek, Sandy Springs, and Cumming.

• StanleyLeary.com
• Bio — StanleyLeary.com
• Appen Media — Community coverage
• Roswell man made history as baseball’s first designated hitter — Ron Blomberg feature, June 2026

Find Me Elsewhere

• Instagram — @stanleyleary
• LinkedIn — Stanley Leary
• Facebook — Stanley Leary
• Vimeo — Stanley Leary

Why This Matters

Looking back at 25 years of digital breadcrumbs, what strikes me isn’t the platforms — CompuServe, Blogger, WordPress, PhotoShelter, Appen Media’s CMS — it’s that the throughline never changed. Whether I was posting on a free CompuServe page in 2001 or filing a story for Appen Media this year, I’ve always been doing the same thing: finding people, learning their stories, and doing my best to tell them honestly. The platforms come and go. That part hasn’t.

If you’ve stumbled across any of my old work I haven’t mentioned here — an old print, a forum post, a guest article — I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a note.