How to start learning crypto

I'm a PHP hacker with front-end experience and a love of building new things.

As a result of the NSA/Prism scandal, I, like many of you, have become passionate about helping to pioneer an open web. I've been dreaming ideas on this front for the past few years, but haven't taken the time to jump in because well, I wanted to work my way to the knowledge. Now I'm feeling I don't have time to wait.

So while I'm a decent PHP programmer, I don't know much at all about security (beyond what it takes to build and secure a web app), cryptography, and other related fields.

I'd like to start this thread for people like me that are very interested and passionate about this, but don't know where to start.

Books, people, tutorials...all of it is good info. If you had to start in this field today, how would you study?