LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

HT2443 - Color by the Truckload If there is a photographic aesthetic that defines the early years of the 20th century it will undoubtedly be the fine art black and white print. We are 100 years removed from that era, and it appears to me that the photographic aesthetic that defines the early years of the 21st century is MORE COLOR. Slap it on with a trowel, and crank it up to 11. Is this trend virtuous because it's a wonderful aesthetic or simply a choice we engage now that we have the capabilities to do so? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2442 - Limitations Money is limited. Time is limited. Access is limited. Equipment is limited. Techniques are limited. It's a wonder we can get anything done with all these limitations. But that's the thing about the art life, we are surrounded by limitations that conspire to interfere with our productivity. If we let these limitations inhibit our work, it's not the limitations that need to be removed, but rather our willingness to allow those limitations to intimidate us. Artmaking is always about what we can do, not about what we can't. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2441 - No One Will Ever See It The often insurmountable distance from production to consumption. Rick Beato has a YouTube channel all about contemporary music. It's surprising how many times his topics pertain perfectly to our lives as fine art photographers. Here is an example that is so spot on that I thought he was talking directly to me — art without an audience. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2440 - Bit Rot Might Be Destroying Your Backups Have you heard of a thing called bit rot? I hadn't either, but it turns out it can be slowly leading your backups to failure. And speaking of backups, it's that time of year again when it's a good idea to back up all your computerized data, images, and those 1s and 0s that are the measure of your creative life. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2439 - The Space That Supports Your Work Once I had seriously committed myself to photography in the 1970s, I didn't fully realize the implications that would govern my choices of living space over the next five decades. Whenever I found myself needing to move, the first and determining question in any place I considered was where to put the darkroom and the print finishing studio. Over the years, I've slowly come to realize how the space influences what I produce. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2438 - Fall Fog Season I know so many photographers who get excited about the fall season and all those wonderful colored hillsides of orange and yellow keaves. For me, fall is less about leafy colors than it is about fog. (Isn't it odd that we photographers put so much emphasis on the sharpness of our lenses, but love the photographic effect of fog?) Fog and snow — there is no question about it — are my two most favorite atmospheric forms of weather for photography. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1479 - Photography Lessons from Japanese Woodblock Prints I've been an admirer of Japanese woodblock prints (known as ukiyo-e) for quite some time now. Everyone is familiar, for example, with Hokusai's image The Great Wave Off Kanagawa from his project 36 Views of Mount Fuji. One of the things that's fascinating about these artists' work is how many times they did numbered series, e.g. 53 Stages of the Tokaido by Hiroshige, or one of my all-time favorites, 100 Aspects of the Moon by Yoshitoshi. There's a great deal to learn that we can adapt to photography about working in series. 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.

HT2437 - What I Hope to Accomplish with These Thoughts One of the criticisms I have about a lot of workshop instructors is that their basic premise is to persuade and motivate the participants to do photography the same way the instructor does. "Here's my technique, go Thou and do likewise." That is decidedly not my purpose with Here's a Thought. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2436 - The Second and Third Layer of Comprehension How much time does it take to fully understand a photograph? Of course, there is no single answer for the simple reason that photographs are so varied and often have different purposes. That said, doesn't it seem obvious that through social media we are all being trained to see photographs at a surface level only, then swipe left and move on under the assumption that we've really seen it? But, have we? What about those deeper levels of comprehension that require effort, time, a certain amount of commitment to an image? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2435 - Processing and the Time of Day As strange as it might sound, I've noticed that how I process an image depends on when in the day I do it. Finicky details and complex processing steps are best done in the morning when my eyes are fresh and I'm most energetic. Aesthetic decisions and experiments are best done late in the day when I'm just a bit tired and my subconscious has an easier time poking through the barrier of the intellectual mind. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2434 - Anticipating the Ways a Picture Might Fail There are many ways a picture can fail. Instead of thinking about what we need to do to make a picture succeed, what if we turn that around and anticipate the ways it might fail? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2433 - 1,000 Captures When I used medium format film, I got 8 shots per roll of 120. I took 200 rolls of film with me to Japan in 1990, well over half of which came back with me unexposed. I came back from Colorado last week with 1,000 shots just of fall colors. My how times have changed. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2432 - Even 2500th Second Can Blur During the initial review of images from the trip, I was surprised to see some handheld shots that were not sharp even though they had been shot at 1/2500th of a second and used image stabilization. How does this happen? How can I fix this issue in the future? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2431 - Mean Stack Noise Reduction Repurposed Back in 2022, I created a video in our LensWork Creative Labs series in which I discussed something called Mean Stack Noise Reduction. That technique is not obsolete in light of Adobe's AI Noise Reduction, but those images have a new and thoroughly unexpected use. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1478 - The Reason We Do Photography All of us involved in photography have a reason we are so passionate about it. Knowing that reason can be helpful in directing our actions and recognizing those parts that will require discipline. What, precisely, captures your eye? When your heart skips a beat and you can't wait to pull out your camera, what is it that causes your enthusiasm? The light? The shadows? The subject? A composition? The picture you strive to make? There is no right answer to this question, but there might be a consistent answer for you. Perhaps reviewing your "best images" might give you a clue. Seems to me that knowing this aspect of your creative response to the world would be useful information. 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.

HT2423 - Roads Making photographs and sharing photographs are two different things. Many of us make photographs because we can't not make them. Sharing, however, is an optional activity. As an optional aspect of our creative life, it's more likely that we'll think carefully about how much we are willing to spend on sharing. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2429 - Stuff Not Used When I get back from a big trip, one of the decompression things I like to do is review my gear use. Since I put so much time and thought into the kit I'll take with me, doesn't it make sense that I should review and see if my planning was well thought out? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2428 - Volumes 1, 2, and 3 Large bodies of work are difficult to consume. Think War and Peace versus haiku. Novelists know the advantages of breaking their narrative into smaller parts — chapters, sections, volumes. We can do that, too, as long as we remember that each section is its own entity and doesn't repeat the previous ones. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2427 - Ruthless Editing to the Narrative I believe we have the opposite problem from the one our photographic forefathers had. Their challenge was to make a great photograph with primitive materials. Today, we can make hundreds or thousands of flawless images with ease. How do we choose which ones to show? We edit to the narrative, but first we need to determine what the narrative is. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2426 - Sensor Clean X2 I cringe every time I see those fuzzy blue circles in the sky that indicate I have dust on the sensor of the camera. I was given a suggestion by a reader about one way to deal with this and used it religiously these last two months as I was out in the dusty West photographing. I'm delighted to report that I had not a single indication of any dust on any shot. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2425 - Not Just the Most Recent Now that I'm back from two months on the road, it's time to see what I have. For me, that process most often starts with building some collections based on potential projects. I add images from the recent trip into collections and then start scouring my previous images from the last couple of decades and add any of them to the appropriate collections. This forces me to think outside the recent captures and to be sensitive to larger trends I may not be conscious I've been working towards unknowingly. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2424 - Problematic Bokeh A peculiar property of a long focal length lens is that it can render a semi-distant object ever-so-slightly outside the depth of field. Instead of looking like a nicely out of focus area from a shallow depth of field, it can look like a poor performing lens that simply can't render those objects sharply. The only answer is to stop down to increase the depth of field. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1477 - The Problem with Location-Based Projects I've returned from my 2-months on the road and am starting the long process of reviewing the 3500 RAW captures. Almost immediately I divided the images into 43 potential projects, but then realized that all of them were location-based project ideas. There is a weakness in this that is not obvious. I call these types of projects "Portrait of a Place." They are easy to unify into a project, but there are alternatives that are often better. 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.

HT2423 - Roads Landscape photography is inextricably tied to roads. Even if we are hiking into rough terrain, we get to the trailhead via a road. Photographically, not all roads are equal. I've been tooling down the Interstates to get home and doing no photography along the way. For me, photography is always at its best when I'm traveling down a dirt road. If you are not familiar with them, you need to know about Delorme maps. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2422 - They All Come from Projects What most of us tend to show matted, framed, and hanging in a place of importance in our home are the very best images we've created. But where do these come from? My observation is that most of those super winners rise from the midst of a project and become super winners due to actions beyond our control. For example, Dorothea Lange made lots of pictures for the FSA, but Migrant Mother rose from the crowd to become iconic. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2421 - The Difficulty with Gray I've started to work on some of the images from my trip and in particular those from the Badlands of South Dakota. These are tricky images to process just right because of an unexpected issue. Light gray can look either alive or depressed depending on the surrounding mat board or digital background. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2420 - Things or Moments Ask a photographer what it is they make pictures of and the chances are they will answer THINGS or perhaps PEOPLE. Perhaps, but more likely than not what they capture a moment, at least in their better photographs. I always try my best to remember this when I'm out photographing, like when I was at Shiprock last week. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2419 - Bad Light Yesterday I was photographing in the South Dakota badlands and had a moment when I thought, "This is really bad light." It took me a minute to remember my own advice that there is no such thing as good light or bad light. There is, however, light that doesn't serve our preconceived ideas. "Bad light" really means that we are imposing our will on what the landscape is giving us. In other words, there is no bad light, there are only bad expectations. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2418 - Returning with a Zoom Lens In the 1980s, I made a photograph of the hills near my grandmother's home in Tensleep, Wyoming. I was never thrilled with that image and finally had the opportunity to revisit the area last week. I found the hill I had photographed and realized instantly why I was not happy with the previous effort. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2417 - Gathering Strategies I've talked on numerous occasions about my strategy of gathering assets while I'm in the field rather than pre-visualizing finished images. I've never mentioned, however, what I actually do while I'm gathering assets. Here's a quick overview of how I work in the field. Some may see this as indecision; I see it as providing options for when I'm back home making art. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1476 - Minor White and the Symbolic Image Minor White (one of my all-time favorite photographers) advised us not to photography only what it is, but to photograph what else it is. A catchy quote, but what does this actually mean? One answer is to think of photography as a medium to express metaphors and symbols. This prompts three levels of thinking: photography of something, photography about something, and photography that points to something. 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.

HT2416 - The Most Important Thing We Need We photographers are always on the hunt for a subject, a new technique, better equipment, and more time. I've come to realize, however, that the most important thing we need is access. How many times have you driven past a gorgeous scene with beautiful light but there's no place to pull off the road to make a picture? Or there's a fence, or gate, or barrier, or a regulation that blocks us from the position we need to make the picture. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2415 - Thinking in Groups Yesterday in my Here's a Thought about Going Back, I inadvertently dropped a pretty big hint about thinking in groups. Where do we find the seeds for our projects? It all starts by thinking in groups. The most common group consists of a selection of images from a given location. Next are projects about a common subject. That's not the only way to group images into a project. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2414 - Going Back I've had two instances of going back to photograph again something I'd already done once before. It's often said that we can't go back. I think there is every reason in the world to go back, not the least of which is that things constantly change Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2413 - Waiting for the Light Yesterday, I was at a terrific location for high altitude mountain photography. The scene was lovely, the rocks majestic, and the snow a perfect accent to add texture to the rock face. The only thing that was missing was a splash of winter sun. I decided to wait. Five hours later, I got the break in the clouds I was waiting for. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2412 - The Crucial Missing Element from So Much of Fine Art Photography One of the most common reactions I have when I see great artwork is that I cannot comprehend how it was done. There is some magic in the fact that it exists which leads to wonderment about how the artist accomplished it. People used to feel that way about photography, too, but now the magic in photography is so easily dismissed with "It's been Photoshopped" whether that's true or not. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2411 - Fleeting Ideas It's said that Charles Dickens during his long meandering walks through London, would always carry with him a notebook. He would jot down descriptions of interesting places he saw. He would capture interesting phrases people used or their accents and ways of speaking. He would then refer to these notes while he was writing his novels, using the little snippets of conversation he had overheard. Not a bad idea for us photographers, too. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2410 - The Unexpected Project Some of the best advice I've ever heard came from a workshop instructor from my early days in photography, Stewart Harvey. He said the best photographers are ones who spend the most time photographing. He also said that the word "photographer" is a verb. He also said, turn around — which is incredible sage advice for photographers. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1475 - The Dilemma of Volume I remember a time when the creation of a single outstanding image was enough. In fact, that single great image was the goal. And it still can be. But while we are all still making single images, the mass of images that is building in our Lightroom catalogs is applying a pressure that previous generations could not imagine. This week — admittedly a spectacular week of fall colors in Colorado — I've added over 700 images of beautiful yellow, orange, red, and gold colored leaves to my asset base. This doesn't count the 900 or so images from previous trips. What do I do with them all? 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.

HT2409 - The Unrecognized Masterpiece Earlier this year I was reading a book on creativity and the author proposed that even the best creators and artists rarely are aware they are producing a masterpiece. Instead, they just create and work to the best of their abilities and don't give attention to whether or not their results are a masterwork. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2408 - Viewer Fatigue vs Disinterestedness We've probably all had the experience when showing a body of work that the viewer doesn't complete the entire project from start to finish. Does this mean they've lost interest somewhere along the way? Or is it possible that it's viewer fatigue and they've simply absorbed as many images as they can? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2407 - Paul Strand Paul Strand has been a favorite of mine for over 50 years. Three of his books are in my top 10 all-time favorites list. Time in New England (1950), Un Paese (1955), and Tir a'Mhurain / Outer Hebrides (1962). One of the aspects of his work that I love is the mixture of portraits, architecture, life style, landscape, and nature — all in the same project. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2406 - GPS EXIF Data I can connect my cameras to my cell phone in such a way that each image I photograph records the GPS information from my cell phone into the ex of data of the image file. For some time now, I thought that was a pretty neat trick. But I've come to realize I never used that data, not even once, and the extra drain on my camera batteries is inconvenient. So, I've stopped capturing GPS data and haven't missed it a bit. I'm sure for some of you it's incredibly valuable, but for me it's turned out to be superfluous and completely unnecessary. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2405 - I Am Not a Landscape Photographer Don't get me wrong, I do photograph the landscape. But the purpose of my landscape photography is not to make a statement about the landscape but rather to use the landscape as it means to explore other ideas. For example, I have a project that is solitary trees in a vast landscape. The project is not about the solitary trees, but about how I was feeling after my wife passed away. Photography as metaphor, as Minor White advised us to photograph what else it is. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2404 - From the Overlook I was recently at a scenic overlook where there were quite a number of others using what appear to be fairly modern digital cameras and long lenses. It occurred to me that probably all of them, or at least almost all of them, would end up with a very lovely photograph. The light was beautiful, the view from overlook was breathtaking, and their cameras quite capable. A lot has changed in the last 50 years of photography. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2403 - Sales Are Not a Measure of Success Unless, that is, your objective with photography is to provide an income. When someone tells me it's their best-selling image, what I hear is that this is the most expected, most cliché, most common photograph they've made. This does not mean that your worst selling photograph is your most personal, most unique, most treasured photograph that you've made. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1474 - Choosing Your Camera I've been a presenter at two different events in the last 10 days, and in both events I was asked about my camera. I'm not a gear-centric guy and this isn't a gear-centric podcast, but the truth is that we do need to use gear. The right gear makes the task easier and the wrong gear can easily become a barrier to what we want to accomplish. With this in mind, let's consider gear for just a few minutes. First, when you look at a famous image, so you need to know what camera was used? 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.

HT2402 - Has photography become too easy What are the implications when thousands of photographers are making tens of thousands of spectacular images? What happens to the value of accomplishment when the product ceases to be rare? The photographic priesthood has dissolved. In its place we have a perfectly democratic medium. This is a good thing for the simple reason that it will refocus our efforts toward meaning and content rather than impressive technological accomplishments. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2401 - Where the Mona Lisa Was Painted Photographers are compelled to include location information in their image captions. Why? Does the viewer need to know this? Maybe we should reveal the location where the image was printed. Or the date we signed it. Or who was with us when we framed the print. Or how old we were when we photographed it. Or who our travel agent was to the exotic locations we visited. Which information will do the most to connect our viewer with our artistic intent? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2400 - The Importance of Being Thick-skinned Photography at times can be so cruel. Our best plans can evaporate in technical failure. Our precious artwork can be rejected by a monstrous editor. Ahem. The work we love like children can leave others cold. No one said the life of an artmaker would be lollipops and rainbows every day. To quote one of my favorite lines from The Princess Bride, "Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something." Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2399 - My Theory on Locations I continue to believe that location is an overrated commodity in photography. Perhaps this doesn't prove my idea, but in the last month on the road I've captured images for 15 small projects from 13 different locations I never anticipated or never knew existed. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!