LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

LW1518 - The Hard Work of Being an Artist The minute we pick up a camera and decide we want to make pictures more meaningful than snapshots, we unknowingly embrace the art life. The first challenge is entirely technical and, at least these days, fairly easily mastered. Well, if not mastered, at least doable with reasonable competence. That's when the hard work of being an artist begins. 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.

Here's a Thought… #2716 with Brooks Jensen Fun Is a Medicine I assume that all of you listening to these commentaries take your photography pretty seriously. You want your photographs to be meaningful, lovely, treasured, valuable. We approach our image making with a serious mindset. Must we? What about fun? Silly? Playful? Not all of our work needs to be momentous. Make something small, fun, light-hearted that you can give away just because it makes everyone smile. Strangely enough, doing so can make your serious work more meaningful. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2715 with Brooks Jensen The Power of Titles Titles have such power to steer the viewer in directions we intend. I've often used the example of Dorothea Lange's famous image, Migrant Mother. What if that image was instead titled, Waiting for the Return of the Soldier, for example? What if Weston's Pepper #30 was titled, The Last Pepper, or perhaps, Tina? Words change perceptions, sometimes with a nudge, sometimes with a sledgehammer. A title, even if it is only one word, can make all the difference in how the viewer sees your image. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2714 with Brooks Jensen To Know a Photographer There are so many photographers I think I know because one of their images has become important to me. I'm a fool to think so. People are complicated; photographers are at least as complicated as people. (Ahem.) I've come to believe that in order to know a photographer even a little we need to study at least a couple dozen images or more. Better if this covers at least a decade or so of their creature career. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2713 with Brooks Jensen An Excuse to Explore the World I'm pretty convinced that I don't need to add any more images to my Lightroom assets. I have enough RAW files in my catalogue to keep myself artistically busy and productive for the rest of my life. I just need to mine deeper into what I already have. That will not, however, prevent me from heading out and capturing more. That's because the core of artmaking is exploring life, exploring the world, exploring our responses to experience. Making the art is secondary; curiosity and inquiry are the primary values in the Art Life. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2712 with Brooks Jensen Why the Sharpest Lenses I've always thought that spending money on the best lenses made more sense than expensive cameras. A blurry picture can always be made with a tack-sharp lens, but a tack-sharp image cannot be made with a fuzzy lens. By the way, how do you know if your lens is sharp? Which apertures? Which focal lengths? You do know, don't you, that manufacturing under the tightest control will still make a lemon now and again? Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2711 with Brooks Jensen One Kind of Photography You know that old business about what books you would want with you on a desert island? Just for fun, if you could only make one kind of photograph for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Landscapes? Portraits? Still life? Wildlife? I think I'd choose abstracts. I could make abstracts anywhere, anytime, with any subjects, with any camera, in any light, at any size, for any purpose. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2710 with Brooks Jensen Your Best Is Often the Least Important An over-emphasized component of fine art photography is the assumption that "making stone-cold winners" is the heart of the pursuit. I would propose that super-winners are not the goal but can, occasionally, be the result. We make art for the process, not the accolades. There is a cultural pressure to be and produce "the best of the best of the best." (stolen from Men in Black) Far too often our very best work relies on a generous helping of luck. Take all the lucky ones you can get, but don't confuse luck with artistic accomplishment. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2709 with Brooks Jensen The Return to Film I think I understand why some photographers are returning to film and analog photography. There is a sense of accomplishment in the production of a wonderful gelatin silver print that is absent (or at least diminished) with an inkjet print or an Instagram post. What is missing from this debate is the source of the thrill. Does the thrill of accomplishment come from the successful command of the medium or from the depth of connection with the content? Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

LW1517 - Why Make Art I don't want to sound morbid or fatalistic, but we are all headed for the ink maintenance tank at some point in the future. A good friend of mine recently survived a health crisis that almost ended his life. Whether or not we want to acknowledge it, we hang by a thread. I know that in the cosmic scale of things photography is not that important, but perhaps ART is. A recent quote from a television show: Science tells us how and where we live; History tells us when; Art and Literature tell us why. The purpose of life is not to make art, but the purpose of Art is to enhance our life. Good to remember that every moment we have is precious. 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.

Here's a Thought… #2708 with Brooks Jensen Better Than I Remembered With some frequency now, I find that as I look back at my older unprinted archives, I'll stumble upon an image with new appreciation. How did I miss this one? Is it that my processing tools are now so much better? Is it that I'm older and more artistically mature? Is it that the passage of time has made it easier to distance myself from the experiential memories of the moment? Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2707 with Brooks Jensen Blind Spots and Habits Now that I've been photographing for decades, there are some subjects and trends that have become more identifiable with a larger data pool to pull from. Evidently, I find walls irresistible. Chairs must be one of my favorite subjects if the count of how many photos of them I have is any indication. Trees and rocks rate high on the list. I have no interest in architecture, but you'd never know it by looking at how many photos I have of buildings. Sunsets, wildlife, urban streets, and sports events are almost completely missing from my archives. I'm wondering if a list of what I've never photographed could lead to something interesting? Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2706 with Brooks Jensen The Creative Life Is a Daily Habit Every waking moment is an opportunity to make a photograph — but we don't. Moments don't rise to the level of photographic importance until we sense them. Photography happens at the intersection of a particular moment and our sensitivity to perceive it. I'll pause for a minute for you to think about that. If true, doesn't it seem obvious that the limitation of creativity is our sensitivity, not the availability of moments? If so, the challenge of being an artist is all about developing our sensitivity to every moment, not the never-ending search for the special moment. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

HT2705 - Abundance Can Be a Curse I had a couple of weeks last fall to photograph in the San Juan mountains of southern Colorado. The weather was perfect, the fall colors at their peak, and I just kept shooting. I now have 967 RAW captures from that couple of weeks. What do I do with 967 perfectly focused, properly exposed, lovely images? They can't all be winners! If I toss half of them, I'll still have 400+. If I keep only the top 10%, I'll still have almost 100. I'm beginning to think that too many is a curse worse than too few. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

HT2704 - A Photographic 2-Minute Drill There is a situational strategy in football when the time runs short. It's called the "2-minute drill." Its essence is accomplishing a lot in very short time. We could borrow this idea for project-oriented photography. If you've only got 20 minutes or so to photograph, how do you turn that into short, multi-image project? How should we prepare ourselves for such opportunities? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2703 - Internalizing the Scene I assume that all of you are aware of the idea that a camera is a mirror, that every picture we make is a reflection of who we are. There is a kernel of truth in this idea, but I don't think it's automatic nor universal. To internalize a scene requires a conscious effort on our part. That moment is the seed of creating artwork. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1516 - Beyond the Rectangle We photographers have quadrilaterals on the brain. Why? The world is not quadrilateral. Why not compose in circles, ovals, or other shapes? Is it because cutting round or oval mats is so difficult? Are we prisoners of the straight-edge ruler? Can we not learn from our lenses — which by the way cast round images onto our quadrilateral sensors? 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.

HT2702 - When a Group Ceases to Be a Group One of the interesting things about a multiple image project is how the viewer assembles the collective idea that binds the images into a unified expression. Show three images as a group and the viewer will try to connect them. When the group becomes too large, however, it can be more difficult to see so many images as a group. I think this is one of the reasons "Seeing in SIXES" works so well. It's the sweet spot between the single image and too many to be a group This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2600 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!

HT2701 - A Personal Pile I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this. I have a "personal pile" of prints that I rarely (often never) share with anyone. They are not embarrassing, nor obscure. They are ones that I'd just as soon not have my feelings about them diluted or polluted with other's opinions. To call them "spiritual" would be too strong, but they are moments that I treasure and would like to preserve. Maybe I'm being silly about these images, but that's the way I feel. 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.

HT2700 - Small Bites I wish my brain worked in a continuous straight line, but it doesn't. I bounce from idea to idea. For years I've fought this by trying to be creative in a continuous straight line. Why not take the easy path and develop an approach to project development and even image processing that uses a small bite strategy? This is not a creativity problem, it's an organizational problem. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

Here's a Thought… #2699 with Brooks Jensen The Creative Life Is a Daily Habit It's almost a cliché to suggest that a creative life is a daily thing. The truth is that it's true. A drop of ink in a gallon of water changes the entire gallon. A drop of creativity in an ordinary day changes the entire day. Does that mean you need to shoot pictures everyday? Might be fun, but for most of us that's impractical. The only thing I know that I can do every day of my life is think about creativity, about photography, about locations, about ideas. Thinking can go with me everywhere, fill a minute here or there, and introduce a drop of creative momentum into every day. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2698 - My Favorite Features of Digital Processing It seems that with digital processing we can do anything — and do it, if need be, at the pixel level. I find, however that there are a few tools that have dramatically allowed me to make images that were essentially impossible in the analog darkroom. These have become so integral in my image making that I can now barely imagine photography without them. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2697 - New Life for Old Ideas Over the last 50 years in photography, I've had a number of ideas that I thought were good at the time, rejected because they were too odd, and now realize they were pretty good ideas all along. I let convention rule my thinking, an attitude that I now realize is always a mistake. Never let convention get in the way of your creativity. Here are three examples. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2696 - Photographs Are Never Real The arguments against AI are often punctuated with concerns about those images being fake. Aren't all photographs fake? All photographs are flat, two-dimensional things that show us the world in a significantly reduced scale. The only sense in which photographs are real is that they are symbols, metaphors, representations of a moment or an idea, stand-ins, pointers, guides, translators, in short a photograph is not "the thing itself" in spite of that notion being repeated in photographic art circles Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1515 - On Your Walls at Home What artwork do you have hanging on the walls at your house? What photographic artwork do you have hanging in your house? Let's consider this more deeply: What percentage of the work you have hanging in your house is yours and what percentage is photography by others? Most photographers I know own lots of work by others, but display in their house mostly their own work. Does that make them egotistical or just proud? Do we display our own work to share or to brag? How does your answer to this question shape what you have on your walls right now? 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.

HT2695 - Creative Possibilities for Two-sided Inkjet Paper The availability of two-sided inkjet paper has opened up fascinating doors of creativity. With two-sided paper we can do folded paper books like chapbooks, or three-fold brochure-like presentations. Another idea is to use two-sided paper for a significantly expanded provenance to a print. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2600 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!

HT2694 - Motivating the Viewer Imagine that I wanted you to read Tolstoy's War and Peace. What would your reaction be? On the other hand, what if I suggested you read today's funny papers because they were hilarious. What would your reaction be? I use these examples to illustrate the relationship between motivation and required effort. A large and complicated thing requires more effort and motivation than a humble and simple thing. Human nature being what it is, doesn't this pertain equally to photography? 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.

HT2693 - Every Picture Is a Story, or Should Be It's probably silly of me to make such a definitive statement, but I can't help but think for the vast majority of images the story told through the visuals is more important than the characteristics of the visuals. Story is more important than tones, more important than composition, more important than the medium itself. Photography is more powerful than to limit itself to a "show" medium; it's a "show and tell" medium. Tones, composition, medium are all tools in service to story. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2692 - Lessons from My EPIC Series I've just posted episode #1600 in my series Every Picture is a Compromise. I started this project with the idea of being helpful, but interestingly enough it's turned out to be an educational opportunity for me, too. Looking at 1600 of my failures and thinking about them more deeply has been an incredible learning opportunity I hadn't fully anticipated. I think the deepest lesson here is that thinking about photography can be almost as valuable as doing it. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2691 - Art As a Shortcut Hopefully without sounding too hedonistic, I would propose that life is experience. Mortality, however, being what it is, prevents us from unlimited experience. One of the purposes of art is that it allows us to expand our experience of life beyond the personally experiential. You can feel through my art just as I can feel through yours. There is a difference, however, between seeing through your eyes and feeling through your heart. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2690 - Start Anywhere Don't have an idea for a project? Pick an image at random and spend some time processing it. It's less important that you're processing that image than it is to be aware of ideas and hints that pop into mind while you're processing. If nothing occurs to you with that first image, pick another image at random and process it. Eventually, without fail, I've found an idea will come to mind even if it is a bit indistinct and fuzzy with the first glimpse. Ideas come from pictures more often than the other way around. Creative momentum is the key. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2689 - New Software Capabilities vs Convenience Features Software updates have become a part of every digital photographers routine. Every time a new software update is announced, I look forward to new capabilities that will open up new ways to improve my images. So many times, however, the so-called "update" has more to do with making things easier than with making things possible. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2675 - Photograph as Memory Trigger A friend recently lamented that she was going through her lifetime of pictures and questioning why she ought to keep all the vacation images of landscapes and trees. She raises a good point. Why should/would any of us be interested in these personal mementos? Her question demonstrates the defining line of demarcation between photography as a memory trigger and photography as an art medium — the intended audience. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1512 - The Box of One Hundred I wish I'd heard of this idea years ago. Each of us has an idea of the best 100 images of our art career. Make a box of prints with those 100 images and store it away someplace safe. If you prefer, make a folder or Lightroom Collection with these 100 images. Make it exactly 100 images. Then periodically review the collection. Once a year, once a quarter, once a month. Add new images that have risen to the honor and remove images that haven't worn well with the passage of time. Keep in mind that it must be 100 only. There are several interesting aspects of this idea that are helpful in moving forward with our art life. 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.

HT2674 - Is It Enough to Be Technically Good? I remember a time when producing a technically accomplished photograph was enough to earn applause. I have many. I would now be embarrassed to show them. I now know they are empty of art but undeniably sharp with beautiful tones. Here in the digital age it has become increasingly obvious that technical prowess is a given, still important, but not much of an accomplishment. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2600 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!

HT2673 - The Invisible That Is Right In Front of Us Why is it so difficult to make a personally expressive image in Yosemite? Why do we keep photographing sunsets ad nauseam? Why can't we see the yogurt from the fridge when it's on the counter next to us? Believe it or not, the answer to all these questions is the same. 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.

HT2672 - Decor Photography and Art Photography The other day I completed a beautiful photograph. Seriously, simply gorgeous. A stunning landscape, magical light, vibrant colors, engaging composition — so wonderful that it took my breath away. I like it; I'm proud of it; I immediately framed it and hung it in a prestigious location here at home. I struggle, however to call it Art. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2671 - Flung to the Far Unknown Sending our artwork out into the world can be a dicey proposition. We lose control of its fate. Who knows if it will survive or where it will survive. (Maybe it all ends up in the Twiloid Zone. We will likely never know.) To us, once it is gone, it is almost as though it never existed. It resides in us only as a memory — like all other experiences in our life, as a building block to who we have become. Is it more important that we create art or the art life? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2670 - The Dangers of Surrendering Control Software and AI are also providing us with tremendous tools. At the same time, there is a risk of allowing them to make aesthetic decisions for us. This is not good. For example, the new "Assisted Culling" tool in Lightroom is designed to replace our human judgment about our failures. I want to look at my failures because that's how I learn. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2669 - Photographic Artwork Isn't that an odd term? Do we refer to painting as "oil on canvas artwork?" Or sculpture as "carved marble artwork?" Is poetry referred to as "verbal artwork?" Do we use the term photographic artwork because not all photographs are artwork? Or is it that it's somehow important to specify the medium when we refer to artwork made by a human using a camera? Why not just call it artwork and be done with it? Why the extra adjective? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2668 - Pretty On the Brain I remember once a photographer said to me that "Ansel Adams was the Helmut Newton of the landscape." I understand what they were getting at and I'm not sure I can disagree. Like most other media of artistic expression, photography loves the pretty. Pretty girls, pretty sunsets, pretty flower blossoms, pretty landscapes, pretty trees, — we photographers have pretty on the brain. Is that a strength or a weakness? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1511 - Ignored, But Possibly a Treasure When I photographed in China in 2009, I assumed that the exotic landscape would create exotic pictures. I was wrong. One day in particular, we were photographing in the landscape on a day that was oppressively dreary and dull gray, heavily misted (or polluted), and boring. China was fascinating, but the photography was anything but. For years, I've ignored those images in my archives because I couldn't let go of the experience. I was wrong, again. 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.

HT2667 - The Grand Illusion of Art One of the supposed virtues of artmaking is that our art becomes a vehicle of immortality. I'm not so sure. Testament, yes. Immortality? Not a chance. Recently we've lost Jay Dusard, Carl Chiarenza, Duane Michals, and Jeff Schewe, all LensWork alums. A week doesn't go by without a letter from a grieving LensWork subscriber's relative letting us know their lost loved one will no longer need to receive LensWork. With each instance, I take a moment to remember them, be grateful for the opportunity to have known them, and remember that our time for producing our artwork is limited, finite, and precious This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2600 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!

HT2666 - The Wider the Focal Length Boy, I'm going to stick my neck out with this one. As a general rule of thumb, the shorter the focal length of your lens, the less personal the resulting image. Consider, for example Monument Valley. The wider the lens the more your picture will look like Monument Valley. The more the viewer identifies the location the less the image is about your response to the location. The implication of this is that we need to work even harder to make the picture our own vision. 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.

HT2665 - Recovering Shadows Is Easier Than Recovering Highlights When determining exposure, especially in high-contrast scenes, we often need to bias our settings to protect either the shadows or the highlights. With my cameras and the way I tend to process images, I'd much rather underexpose and protect the highlights after which I can always pull up enough in the shadows give a hint of life in the darkest tones. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2664 - Our Attachment to Stuff In the early 1980s, I fumbled a lens swap and dropped an expensive view camera lens into the Pacific Ocean. I grieved then and still grieve to this day. Why is stuff so important? Every photographer I know has a piece of gear they lament selling — or losing. Isn't it silly that we can be so attached to stuff? I used to think this had something to do with the loss of potential, but now I'm not so sure. I once had a client who owned a Western store and I learned a great deal about stuff and our sense of self-identity from that experience. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2663 - How Each Image Contributes Although they are both forms of music, listening to a piano recital is a completely different experience than listening to a fully orchestrated symphony. The same can be said when comparing the single, standalone image and the multiple-image project. In the orchestra, each instrument contributes its part to the whole. In the multi-image project, each image contributes its uniqueness yet still exists in harmony with all the others. This is the key to selecting the images to be included in the project. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2662 - One Grain of Sand It's difficult to admire one grain of sand while we are standing on the beach. I offer this as a metaphor for photography today. You and I sweat bullets to make a photograph we can be proud of, but if we look about a bit, we see trillions of photographs being made every year here in the digital age. Even if our masterpiece is spectacular, it is difficult to get it noticed in the tsunami of images being produced every day. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2661 - Images That Changed My Life Knowing my love for photography, a non-photographer friend of mine recently asked if there were images that literally changed my life. I fumbled an answer at the time, but I've thought a lot about this in the recent weeks. I realized I have two sets of answers: images I produced that changed my creative life, and images others produced that have had an enormous impact on me. The most interesting part of this thought experiment is to compare the two sets of images. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2660 - The Drama of Good vs Evil Can you think of an artistic expression that doesn't involve, in some way, the drama of good versus evil, innocence versus the diabolical, the weak vs the strong, dark versus light? (You don't suppose I slipped that last one in for a reason?) If the central themes of art are rooted in drama, why would art photography not also be rooted in drama? If so, that leads us to the question How do we build drama into a photographic image? Perhaps even more informative is the question How do we build drama into a photographic project? This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2600 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!