LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

HT2611 - My Medium Is Better Than Yours The word "photography" is an umbrella term that includes dozens of different means of manifestation and distribution of an image. From daguerreotypes to digital prints, from lantern slides to web galleries, technology has provided us with dozens of ways to create a "photograph." Which of these are the most admired, most collectible, most respected of the various imaging technologies? Silver gelatin or platinum/palladium? Analog or digital? Or is this an incredibly silly question? This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2610 - There Will Always Be One More Tweak Pablo Picasso famously said that the trick in painting is knowing when to stop. I think this is true in photography as well. There will always be one more tweak we can make to an image to improve it. And when we think we have it perfect, with the passage of time, we'll realize there is one more thing we could do. Ad infinitum. Perfection will always elude us because it's a constantly moving target. At some point, we must be willing to accept "good enough" and let go of the pursuit of perfection. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.

HT2609 - Creativity Is a Private, Personal Thing Maybe I'm just stubbornly resistant, but I find I simply cannot get excited about suggestions from other people about what I should photograph or how I should put together a project. I think of creativity as a very private and personal activity that is carried out in a space that is strictly my own. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I found this to be true my entire creative life. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2608 - Embracing the Pause I've learned over the years that I can't be creative all the time. I used to feel guilty about the pause between creative outbursts. I eventually came to realize that it's actually useful to be creatively on fire followed by a cooler period. The trick is to keep this momentum swinging back and forth and not let either state dominate for too long. Too much creativity and we burn out; too much pause and we end up procrastinating. A steady but swinging rhythm seems to be the sweet spot for me. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2607 - Better by What Standards With today's powerful digital processing, we can easily remove any element of a captured image. Doing so will make our artwork better, right? Doesn't this depend on the criteria we assign as better? Removing an object makes the image less truthful. Moving an object makes the image less geometrically or optically accurate. Changing the contrast or the tonal relationships makes the image less like human vision. Altering the natural colors makes the image artificially intense. How do you define "better" in your work? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2606 - The Trendline of Photography In the early years of the 20th century, photography struggled to establish its reputation as a medium for artistic expression. As a medium, it gained widespread popularity and acceptance as the 20th century progressed. What about now, a quarter of the way through the 21st century? Is photography more respected as a result of the changes in the last 25 years, or has its reputation diminished? Has digital processing, the iPhone, and Instagram made photography more revered as an art medium? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1503 - Nurturing Your Creative Impulse I would bet that a significant number of photographers would claim their most valuable tool is their camera. I would propose your most valuable tool is your creative impulse. If anything you do or have needs tender loving care or special attention, it is those creative impulses. All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content. Sign up for instant access! You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

HT2605 - What Is vs What Becomes The fundamental characteristic of photography is that it shows us what is, the instant that is. This differs so dramatically from performance arts where the basis of the medium is observing what unfolds over time. For example, movie plots are about what might happen to the characters over the next hours, days, or years. Does it make any sense for us to challenge ourselves to introduce some of that into our photography? Isn't this one of the advantages of the multi-image project? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2604 - Bigger Than Real Life The very first print I ever sold as a young photographer was an image of a 1-in mushroom cap that I printed to 16x20". I didn't realize at the time what a rarity that is, but looking back on 50 years of photography that may be the only image I've ever made were the artwork was bigger than the object photographed. Almost without exception, we photographers squeeze reality to fit within the confines of our comparatively diminutive prints. Rather than outsize the world via our product, we try to outsize our emotional response. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2603 - Our Digital Files and Our Mortality Our generation is facing a very strange conundrum, at least strange compared to previous generations of photographers. They may have left their negatives behind, which likely does not leave behind a possibility of posthumous prints. Our legacy involves the eternal possibility of Ctrl-P. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.