Podcasts about black and white photography

HT2487 - Solving a Non-Existing Problem I can't blame camera manufacturers for wanting to call our attention to their new features. However, it's amazing how many times the new features they brag about have absolutely nothing to do with my photography. It seems as though there are always technical solutions being offered for non-existent problems. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2486 - Creativity on Demand Here we are in that week between the Christmas and New Year holidays when a lot of people take time off from work for a few personal days. For years, I thought of this week as a time I could concentrate on some darkroom work. I'd leap into the week full of enthusiasm in anticipation of a shower of creative ideas and inspiration. That's when I learned that relying on creativity on demand is a strategy that rarely works. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1486 - Alternative Aesthetics Photography has a natural aesthetic we might call photographic realism. The typical photograph is intended to mimic human vision and that aesthetic is the default for most photographs. There does exist the possibility, however, to borrow aesthetics from other media and forms of artistic expression. Recently I've been playing with a dark and moody aesthetic inspired by the look of film noir. 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.

HT2485 - One Lens to Rule Them All Clearly I'm not the only photographer who has dreamed of a single lens that would do everything I need. The popularity of so-called "superzoom" lenses would demonstrate that. I've tried several superzoom alternatives and all of them have left me unimpressed for one reason or another. Even with today's ultra-advanced lens designs and manufacturing tolerances, it seems there is always a compromise that leaves me unsatisfied. Statistically, however, in the last 8 years I've made 92% of my captures with just two lenses that cover the "superzoom" range of focal lengths. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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!

HT2484 - Sometimes the Meaning Requires Time During one of the first Christmas holidays after my divorce in the late 1980s, I drove over to Eastern Oregon on Christmas Day for a little photography. I made one image that day. It took years for me to understand what that image was, but in many ways it changed my relationship with photography profoundly. Among other things, that image taught me that sometimes a photograph can be personally valuable yet have no impact beyond that. That doesn't diminish its importance to us. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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.

HT2483 - Pixels Per Meter I was looking at an astronomy website when it introduced me to a term and concept I'd never heard before. Describing the resolution of an image based on how close the spaceship had come to one of Saturn's orbiting moons, it said that each pixel in the photograph represented five meters worth of subject matter. I've never thought about "pixels per meter" before. I think there is some value in this idea for us terrestrial landscape photographers. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2482 - Useful Photography It seems that most fine art photography tends to be decorative in nature. I love seeing a beautiful print on display in someone's home. Décor is not the only use for photography that is art. There exists an entire approach to artwork that marries the beautiful and the practical. I was in a used bookstore last fall and found a photographic bookmark tucked away in book I was looking at. This is one of the fun games I enjoy playing when I'm scouring through a used bookstore. This lovely photograph was a b/w panorama printed on heavy weight gelatin silver paper. I love this idea. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2481 - Counting Shots My first 35 years in photography were deep in the roots of the analog workflow. One of the realities that was constantly at the top of my thinking was the allocation of the film I had with me and it's finite capacity. Long before I headed out on a photographic trip I had to strategize and calculate the number of shots I would need and carry with me in either sheet or roll film. Looking back on it, I now realize what an incredibly overwhelming decision this was and how that influenced my shot selection. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2480 - A Language I Do Not Speak One of the objectives of art is to communicate with others. That communication does rely, however, on a common language and vocabulary. I was thinking about this last night as I attended my first ever ballet performance — the classic holiday fare, The Nutcracker. I felt badly that this holiday classic connects so deeply with so many and simply bounced off me as I was lost in total incomprehension. I appreciated it the athleticism of the dancers, but the artistic content escaped me. Clearly, this is the result of my lack of ability to understand the language and vocabulary of ballet, a shortcoming for which I accept total responsibility. I feel this way about some photographers, too. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1485 - Do We Still Need a Camera? A long-time LensWork reader asks why Brooks is not an early adopter of AI technology for making photographic artwork. 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.

HT2479 - Screen vs Print Synchronicity A source of constant frustration over the years has been the differences between what I see on my computer monitor and what I see in a print. They're never the same, no matter how hard I try to line up color management, ICC profiles, paper variations, and all the fiddly software controls at my disposal. But then it occurs to me that perfect synchronicity might be an unnecessary goal. After all, the two media are so different that perfect synchronicity is probably a futile objective. Besides, I am the only one who will ever make that exact comparison for my work; everybody else will either see a screen image or a print image but rarely both, and never side-by-side. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2478 - Photography As a Spiritual Practice Photography and spiritual practices would seem to be worlds apart. I'm not so sure about that. Do we need to know the photographer's foundation in order to appreciate their work? Are we aware that our appreciation of artwork is a function of our spiritual foundations? This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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!

HT2477 - Your Philosophy of Photography The mechanical, chemical, and technical aspects of photography do not need a philosophical basis as their foundation. Science is needed and perhaps a certain intuition about the processes will help us develop our craft. The aesthetic aspects of making images do employ a philosophical foundation, even if we're not aware that we do so. Why do you make pictures? Is it to share the truth? Is it to promote beauty? Is it to attain a measure of immortality through the artifacts you leave behind? Do you hope to contribute to culture or history? Or are you fully satisfied with having fun with your photography and that's as much as you hope for? However you think about it, you do have a philosophical foundation for your efforts in photography. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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.

HT2476 - The Balance Between Doing and Finishing These last few months have been a particularly busy time for me photographically. I've been doing lots of work, processing images, organizing files, keywording, brainstorming ideas, getting to know the 3,500 captures I came back with from my trip to the West Coast. I've been doing a lot, but I haven't accomplished a thing. That is to say, I haven't finished anything. This exposes one of my failings as an artist; I can so easily confuse activity for accomplishment. I've been known to spend an entire day working on my to do list but not actually doing anything from that list. It goes without saying that without finishing, no artwork is made. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2475 - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor I suppose everyone listening to this commentary would, to one degree or another, describe themselves as "a photographer." But how we define ourselves and how that creates our self-image can be helpful or hurtful to our creative life. Self-image and the psychology behind it can be a powerful influence on how we think and what we produce. By the term "photographer" do you mean someone who makes images to be framed and displayed on the wall? Do you define yourself as a seeker of truth? Do you define yourself as someone who does photography to make money? If asked, how would you describe the kind of photographer you are? Has that been consistent through the years and decades of your involvement in photography? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2474 - Validation via Publication Last spring, I had an opportunity to show some work to a new acquaintance. They were complimentary and then asked where the images had been published. I found that a curious question. When I told them the work had never been published, they expressed a visible dismissal as though without publication the work was unworthy of their attention. How and when did publication of a photograph become the high water mark of accomplishment in the eyes of the public? I found it doubly curious when I later realized they had not asked if the work had ever been exhibited. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2472 - The YOU Who Photographs When I go out photographing, I often begin with the sense that I need to shift mental gears from everyday thought to artmaking thought. I feel the need to begin the process of "seeing aesthetically." What does that actually mean? How is my aesthetic Self different than my ordinary self? Is it possible that my aesthetic self is simply more in touch with the rules and conventions that define the medium throughout history? If so, is it possible that "shifting gears to art making mode" is actually a barrier to creativity? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1484 - Persistence and Longevity I'm a believer in sustained effort. I know this puts me in direct conflict with today's instantaneous culture, but I'm first and foremost a pragmatist. My 50 years in photography have provided evidence over and over of the virtues of longevity. What do I mean by that? Simply this: if you stick with something long enough, good things will result. 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.

HT2471 - Predictability and Art Lynn and I have been watching a series on Netflix that has become totally predictable. Every plot twist, every character reaction, every conflict between characters has become so predictable that it has turned into a game for us to make such predictions as we're watching. Curiously enough, its predictability has us slowly becoming less interested. Does predictability play a role in all other art media as well? Turning this to our chosen medium, does a perfectly predictable photograph become less interesting because it lacks an element of surprise? This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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!

HT2470 - Enough Camera for the Purpose In my life, I've owned and used an 8x10 camera, a 5x7 camera, a medium format monorail camera, 35 mm cameras, twin lens reflex cameras, and over a dozen different digital cameras. To that list I should add a half a dozen phones that have been pretty good cameras. Isn't it interesting that when I look in my finished artwork I rarely remember anything about which cameras used? More to the point, when I go out photographing today, does it make a difference which camera I bring with me? As long as I have enough camera for the purpose, do I need to put any more thought into which camera I use? This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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.

HT2469 - The Doors Lit My Fire My generation, like most generations, had their own music. As a child of the '60s and '70s, I had no idea that rock and roll was following the well-established patterns that had been established for decades. I was thoroughly unaware that popular music had a 3½ minute barrier based on the recording medium of the day, 45 RPM records. When The Doors created their extended version of Light My Fire, it exploded a limitation whose ripples still affect my thinking today. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2468 - Until Spoken Through One of my favorite quotes about the art life comes from Anaïs Nin who advised "Do not speak unless spoken through." This captures my philosophy of photography in its entirety. I think of myself as a conduit rather than a source; I find it useful to imagine that inanimate subjects have a way they would like to be portrayed; the task of the artist is to feel, not to preach; that photography is about listening to the whispers rather than "chasing the light." I'd rather the light seduce me than be some sort of prey that I hunt. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2467 - Depreciation Happens We all know the bumper sticker wisdom that can be politely translated with the phrase "poo poo occurs." That's the sense with which I titled this commentary, Depreciation Happens. The other day I opened a box in the attic and found a Minolta Hi-Matic 9, a 35 mm camera that was originally manufactured in 1966. On eBay, if I were lucky, I might get $20 for this used piece of gear. That got me thinking about all the things I've purchased in my photographic life, not a single one of which has appreciated in value, not even my artwork. The art life is a privilege we must be willing to pay for. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2473 - Sorry Disney, Snow Is Not White With the turn of the weather, we photographers in the northern hemisphere can start thinking about snow photography. I've always found snow to be one of the trickiest things to photograph because I think of it as being white but photographically it's not. It's bright, but bright and white are not the same thing. What makes snow look like snow are the very delicate gray tones that give pure white its three dimensionality. Snow is an example where ETTR fails us. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2466 - Postpone or Intensify Photography has the ability to lead us to two completely different relationships with existence. We can use photography to postpone our relationship with the world, or we can use photography to intensify our relationship with what is right before us. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1483 - Some Thoughts on Inventing Our Own Medium At its most fundamental and simple terms, artmaking something that expresses something. Notice that in that statement is no specific thing that is produced and no specific thing that is expressed. The question worth pondering is which comes first, the structure of the thing produced or the sentiment that is the expression? 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.

HT2465 - Rotating Batteries Here's one of those dumb little practical ideas that can be so useful. It has to do with using multiple batteries and amortizing the wear and tear on them evenly. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2464 - A Most Welcome Winter Photography Tool Perhaps you've heard the advice, "There is no bad weather, there is only bad clothing." When I woke up this morning, it was -2° F outside. For reasons I assume are obvious, this has me thinking about cold weather photography. One of the most useful tools for hands and batteries are reusable hand warmers. I swear by them. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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!

HT2463 - The Responsibilities of Owning Artwork I had a water leak that dripped into a couple of portfolio cases where I housed artwork from other photographers. I lost 13 pieces of wonderful work that were completely destroyed. Forever. I feel a double sadness in this in that not only did I lose some work that was important to me, but also lost that work to any future it might have had after I'm gone. Owning artwork implies a responsibility to protect it, preserve it, care for it. This is one of the reasons I never give away my prints unsolicited. I don't want to impose that burden on anyone without their consent. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 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.

HT2462 - My New Phone Has Adaptive Display My old phone finally gave up the ghost when its battery wouldn't hold a charge anymore. So off to the phone store and a new phone, and that sizable project of getting the new phone and its settings adapted to my needs. Unfortunately, with this new phone, I was unaware of an "improvement" that Android calls Adaptive Display. Now that I've turned off adaptive display, my images look so much better. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2461 - Variations on a Theme I'm a fan of Sergei Rachmaninoff's piano compositions. I was not aware, however, until last night, of a composition he wrote titled Variations on a Theme of Corelli. The backstory of this work is simple. Corelli wrote a short piece of music in which there is a central tune. That tune captured Rachmaninoff's imagination. Rachmaninoff then took this short musical theme and composed 20 variations that are different in every regard, but still identifiable because of the basic tune. As I listened last night, I couldn't help but think how we could use this idea in our creative photographic expressions. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2460 - With the Passage of Time I'm certainly not the only photographer who looks back at their earlier work and feels a sense of embarrassment. What was I thinking? Of all the negatives or digital captures I had to choose from, why did I think this one was worth printing, matting, and (God forbid) framing? Isn't it equally odd that a few images from those early years seem to have held up pretty well? Can I trust my own aesthetic judgments? Will the images I'm producing today seem ridiculous 5 or 10 years from now? Each finished artwork is a product of its time. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2459 - AI and the Ideal When we say that one photograph is better than another, how do we arrive at that conclusion? When we are processing our images, what is the criteria we use to take the next step in processing? As I've thought about this, one answer keeps reoccurring: all of the decisions we make have the intention of revealing an ideal. What do we mean by "the ideal"? Why is our goal not the truth? When did photography change from a sensitive pursuit of truth into a technological and aesthetic pursuit of a fictional ideal? Now that AI makes the ideal so accessible, will that change our aesthetic objectives? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1482 - The Importance of Momentum Borrowing a phrase from Carl Chiarenza and his book, Pictures Come from Pictures, I'd like to propose that "projects come from projects." We may not be aware of the threads that run through our creative life as we are living it, but in retrospect we can often see how one artistic effort begets another. This is precisely why preserving creative momentum is so important. But, how to do it? 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.

HT2458 - Every Capture Is a Teacher The core of artmaking is the twin fusion of learning and producing. It's easy to see that if there is no producing there is no artwork. It's not so obvious that if there is no learning there is no artwork. Learning comes from many sources, One of the most important is our past decisions. Here is a simple exercise that can amplify the importance of learning with every capture. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2457 - One of One In 1989, I commissioned a metal shop expert to create an adapter for my Arca Swiss monorail view camera that would allow me to use Polaroid 3¼ by 4¼ film packs. This led to a summer-long project that today exists as a box of matted Polaroid originals that are all unique prints. I recently found this box of prints and reviewed that 37-year-old work, completed half a life ago when I was 34. A lot of those prints are wonderful, but what do I do with them? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2456 - The Most Memorable Photographs of our Age Time has a way of filtering out the unimportant. Think back 500 years ago. We don't remember local politics, but we do remember the great art from that era. What will people, 500 years from now, look back at our era and find most remarkable? I'll guarantee you it won't be your work or my work, nor even the photographs of the masters like Ansel Adams or Edward Weston. No, they will look back at the images the astronauts captured while on the moon, the Voyager, Cassini, and Juno expeditions to the distant planets, the Hubble and Webb telescope images of distant galaxies. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2455 - To Prime or Not to Prime There is no question that prime lenses have a reputation for being superior in comparison to zoom lenses. The most expensive lenses are often the very best primes. They are often faster, sharper, and many photographers swear by them. There is a trade-off to a prime lens, however, that's not always obvious but one that persuades me convincingly against primes. Think "optical cropping." Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2454 - Decisions vs Execution Art making is the fusion of decisions and execution. It's not at all uncommon for photographers to explain that they became a photographer because they can't draw decent stick figures. That is to say, execution prevents them from being a successful pen-and-ink artist, or painter, or musician. Unlike in photography, with these media, there is a barrier that cannot be crossed with luck. With photography, however, we can both be lucky and master the execution of the craft with relative ease, especially here in the digital age. This seems to imply that the decisions we make in the process are even more weighty than in other media. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2453 - From My Distant Past Twice now in the last few months, I've received a kind-hearted compliment about one of my pictures — in both cases, however, from images I made more than 25 years ago. I'm always grateful when someone compliments my work, but it does leave me wondering about my more recent efforts. I suppose it makes sense for us to receive compliments about our ancient work with grace and humility. There is a part of me, however, that wants to bring out a few hundred examples recent work and bring them up to date. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2452 - Photographing Is Not the Same Thing As Making Art I have 200,000 digital captures in my Lightroom catalog. Does that mean I have 200,000 pieces of artwork? Of course not. So I ask you, precisely, at what point in the process does the digital capture transmogrify into artwork? When you finish processing the image? When you make a print? When you use the image in a PDF? When you say, Quod Erat Faciendum (It is finished)? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2446 - Caravaggio Ignored His Eyes Caravaggio, the Italian painter from the 16th century, is well known for his use of a technique called "foreshortening." Today we would call it " focus stacking." It's curious to me that this view of the world is impossible for the human eye. Essentially, Caravaggio had to ignore his eyes and what he saw in order to paint using this technique that seems so real. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2445 - To Increase Sharpness, Move the Sun Yes, lens sharpness, stabilization techniques, and resolution all add to build a sharp image. As a pragmatic photographer, however, I can't help but observe and admit that the most important way to increase apparent sharpness is to use the angle of incidence between the light source and the subject that maximizes visible contrast and detail. Light that strikes the subject at an extremely low angle does more to increase detail than buying a sharper lens. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2444 - Dark Writing I've thought for years that photographers often think about tones exactly backwards. There are lots of photographic gurus who preach that we must pay special attention to the light. Early in my dark room days, it seemed obvious to me that we don't create a print by adding light to the paper, that instead we start with white paper and add shadows. Photography is supposedly "light writing" but getting the blacks right is what we actually do. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

LW1480 - Art and Story Art, as an inanimate object, doesn't do anything, Art doesn't do, it tells — it tells us about some thing, some place, some person, some moment, some feeling, some idea. Art can cause something in us to take place by simply looking at the artwork and thinking about what we see. That process of looking and thinking lays bare the fact that every piece of artwork is a launching pad for a story, or perhaps a cluster of stories. There are biographic stories, production stories, materials stories, acquisition stories, relationship stories, provenance stories. This list can be quite lengthy. To me as an artmaker, the ones that are most interesting are always about the content, which so often is tied to metaphor and meaning. This is the realm of the artmaker. 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.

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!