Podcasts about lenswork online

LW1489 - Your Own Voice In so many ways, we have entered a new era in photography. It's getting harder and harder to be visually unique. Google is photographing everything. Now more than ever we need to find a way to use our own voice in our 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.

HT2506 - Allocating Our Precious Time The most valuable commodity we have in our art life is not our gear, not our training, not our creative impulses, not our energy and drive. All those things might be important, but they are useless unless we have time. Without time all the potential we've banked by learning our craft and going out photographing will add up to naught. I know it can seem counterintuitive to schedule our creative activities, but in fact having a schedule to work on our art maybe the most important step we can take to make sure our creative endeavors aren't swallowed up by the trivialities of life. 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!

HT2505 - Buried in Lightroom One of the most dramatic impacts of digital photography is the volume of captures that now reside on all of our hard drives. It's not uncommon at all for me to hear that a photographer has tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of images in their catalog that are, essentially, inaccessible to anyone except the photographer. So much creativity buried in our hard drives just waiting for their turn on stage! 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.

LW1488 - Here's a Thought Number 2,500 I hope you won't mind if I take just a few moments to say thank you and to celebrate this, our 2,500th Here's a Thought commentary, over 6 years of daily thoughts about photography and the 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.

HT2499 - Photographers and Commerce What percentage of people who bowl aspire to become professional bowlers? What percentage of people who enjoy cooking dinner dream of open a restaurant? Golfers, swimmers, runners, painters, poets, car drivers, pet owners, people who play a musical instrument? Why is it that so many photographers want to sell their work or at least have their work exhibited in a commercial gallery? 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!

HT2498 - The Natural Look Like I often do with my morning coffee, this morning I watched a few YouTube videos on processing in Lightroom. I've learned a lot from these people, but not always the ideas they think they are teaching. By coincidence, all five videos I watched today were about making images look natural. Why is this the objective? I know I keep circling back to this point, but is photography a substitute for human vision or is it a medium for artistic expression? 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.

LW1487 - The Photography I Love Aesthetic conventions come and go. Culture and popular tastes are constantly changing. Example: There are no radio stations that play big band music anymore even though it once ruled the airwaves. The photographic aesthetic I grew up with and still love to this day is losing audience and slowly sliding into history. All the more reason to spend time with and enjoy the work we love and love doing, while we can. 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.

HT2492 - Observation or Project Terminology is such an interesting thing. For some time now, I've used the term "project" as the nomenclature for something produced with multiple images and a small amount of text or title. Of late, however, I have come to think of the word "observation" as perhaps a better term to illustrate the core of this activity in our art life. Observation is less about what we make and more about what is revealed to us, and as such seems closer to the core of what makes our artwork worth viewing. 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!

HT2491 - Craft Becomes Obsolete, Art Does Not I'm not sure the title of this commentary is actually true, but it does point to a thought that can be helpful. In essence, how we make pictures is constantly changing since the first days of photography. Technology marches on, continually, relentlessly. The content of what are photographs portray, the artistic content, remains relevant and possibly even innovative even after the passage of decades. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LW1473 - The Core of Photography (Brooks is under the weather today, so here is an excerpt from a recent workshop presentation). 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.

LW1472 - Treasuring Our Elders I started photography because of images. The aspect of photography that I didn't anticipate was its power to connect us to people, great people, wise people, sensitive people, artists with a camera. I treasure 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.

LW1471 - A Case for Project Photography We all love creating that spectacular image that gets matted, framed, and hung on the wall. There is a real sense of accomplishment in a single image like this that we can be proud of. A case can be made, however, for project-oriented photography and the different challenges a project presents to us. A single image can be a lucky shot. A project always demands more of us as creators and as masters of the craft. 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.

LW1470 - About Workshops The workshop scene has changed since I attended my first workshops in the early 1980s. I discussed this in one of my podcasts that was posted in 2017. I know not all of you have been following my podcast since its beginning in 2006, so this week I'm reposting that podcast to whet your whistle about this upcoming workshop in Durango, Colorado. 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.

LW1468 - There the Prints Set, Gathering Dust Because of my early training and the generation into which I was born, I'm still a print guy and think of my prints as the most desirable format for my work. That said, every time I look at my boxes of finished prints, sitting on the shelf, gathering dust, I come face to face with the reality of the advantages of the digital world in which we live. 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.

LW1466 - The Questions I'm fascinated with the responses I hear when people look at my work. When I display photographs on the wall, I typically don't include a title for the individual images. This often generates questions, but rarely more than the two biggies — what and where. I can't remember anyone asking why I photographed that scene or photographed it in that way. Curiously enough, once I answer what or where, they almost immediately move to the next image. Does that say something about my work or about them? 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.

LW1465 - The Original, Redux I was recently asked if I sell my original prints. In particular, this individual specified that they didn't want a reproduction, but rather they collect only original prints. It's been a while since I talked about this, so it may be a new idea to some of you. Here's what I said back on September 21, 2019 in my Here's a Thought comment of that day. 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.

LW1464 - When Images Have a Mind of Their Own Every time you click the shutter you have some idea of what you hope the finished image might be. Even if you are just "gathering assets," you have some idea what the image might look like when finished. More than that, can we agree that every time we click the shutter, we do so because we think we have a winner? Why else would you click the shutter? But then something happens to dampen our enthusiasm once when we start to work with the image. If 100% of the shutter clicks are motivated by a winner, why are not all of your images eventually winners? Seriously, what happens to diminish our enthusiasm for an image? 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.

LW1463 - What Have You Learned Like most of you I suspect, I have a group of close friends who are also photographers and we occasionally have a thread of conversation in our email that is both interesting and valuable in our respective art endeavors. It goes without saying for all of us — we never stop learning, and we're always open to expanding our thinking. We are always experimenting. What got me thinking about this was an observation about YouTube. 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.

LW1462 - What and Why Are More Important Than Where Like many of you I suspect, I always look forward to travel photography when I have the time to do so. Now is the time of year when I start thinking about fall photography and start thinking about plans and locations. Every year I'm tempted to make the same mistake, thinking about where I want to photograph rather than what and why. It's so easy to be seduced by the popular destinations , but do I really need to photograph there? Again? Wanting to go somewhere fun and exotic to experience it is one thing, but doing so is not the same thing as wanting to make an artistic statement of some kind with our photography. Confusing these two runs the risk of degrading your photographic skill and efforts to the level of Xerox copy machine. "I was there and saw this" is not the same as "I felt this and want to share it with the world." 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.

LW1461 - The Photo Game Is Changing An incredibly important part of artwork is the wonder of how it could possibly have been done. When that mystery is removed, what's left is considerably diminished, unremarkable, even common. I've seen this happen to photography in the last 50 years. What could make photography wonderful (full of wonder) 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.

Fine Art Photography with Brooks Jensen: The Making of LensWork, Lessons in Finding Your Photographic Voice, Creative Constraints, and Seeing in SixesBrooks Jensen is a fine art photographer, publisher, teacher, and writer. He's best known as the founder, editor, and publisher of LensWork, an award-winning periodical dedicated to fine art photography with subscribers in more than 70 countries. Under his leadership, Lens Work has become one of the most respected photography publications in the world. His online platform, LensWork Online, offers a staggering amount of material, literally terabytes of content, including videos, podcasts, workshops, and creative inspiration for photographers of all levels.Brooks' personal photographic work is featured in Kokoro, an ongoing downloadable PDF journal that reflects his thoughtful and poetic approach to image-making. Brooks is also the author of 13 books on photography and the creative process, including Looking At Images, The Creative Life in Photography, Letting Go Of The Camera' and many others.Notable Links:Brooks Jensen ArtsLensWork Online*****This episode is brought to you by Kase Filters. I travel the world with my camera, and I can use any photography filters I like, and I've tried all of them, but in recent years I've landed on Kase Filters.Kase filters are made with premium materials, HD optical glass, shockproof, with zero color cast, round and square filter designs, magnetic systems, filter holders, adapters, step-up rings, and everything I need so I never miss a moment.And now, my listeners can get 10% off the Kase Filters Amazon page when they visit. beyondthelens.fm/kase and use coupon code BERNABE10Kase Filters, Capture with Confidence.

LW1460 - What Makes a Photograph Special I'm seriously concerned that photography has become too easy. Craft is no longer a serious virtue. Because it has become so easy, it is losing its sense of being special. This is particularly true for fine art photography. What, today, makes a photograph special? 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.

LW1459 - Permanence Is Not a Property of the Medium All of us who are serious about photographic prints have been trained to care enough about our images to process them to the highest archival standards. The premise behind this is that the longevity of our work lies in the permanence of the medium. But is that true? Books are perhaps one of the most substantial ways that we can share our work, but books disappear. Maybe the key to longevity is not the medium but rather the content, relevance, and emotional impact of our work. 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.

LW1458 - Lessons in Editing In 2009, I visited an exhibition in China that included some 1,500 photographs. I learned two things in the presence of such a firehose of images. First, good work does not elevate the whole, but the whole can drag the good work down to its level. Second, that exhibition led me to a better way to use Lightroom's star ratings when editing a project. 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.

LW1457 - Straying from Conventions Everybody complains about dandelions in their yard, but photographically they are just gorgeous little plants. Who among us has not photographed a dandelion once it's gone to seed? This has me thinking about other botanical subjects. Photographs of roses, orchids, peonies, calla lilies, all well and good. But why does no one ever photograph poison ivy, thistle, mullein, and all the other weeds against which we are so prejudiced? The artist's role is to be a seer, and it appears that part of being a seer is to let go of our prejudices. 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.

LW1456 - Too Much of a Good Idea A frequent characteristic we see in submissions to LensWork is when a photographer develops an interesting idea but then carries that idea too far with not enough image variations. The single image, a trilogy, perhaps even a Seeing in SIXES might be sufficient, but the photographer has explored the idea for 60 or 80 images and then neglected the all-important editing and selection process. Our old friend FOMO once 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.

LW1455 - The Powerful Seduction of Representationalism The other day I spent about 40 minutes working on one of the new captures from Eastern Oregon. I converted it to a black and white, dealt with the delicate issues of balancing lights and darks, fussed and tweaked until I felt I had an interesting and artistic rendition of the scene that was an accurate vision of my response. The first comment I received from one of the family members was that she preferred the color image, before I had done any processing at all. This is the core of a huge dilemma in fine art photography. Sometimes our objective for making a photograph (artistic expression) is not at all what our viewers' expectations are (representationalism). 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.

LW1454 - Learning to Self-Critique When I was starting out in photography I had no idea how to self-critique or even that it was a necessary skill I could develop. Looking back on it, I now realize that self-critique is the essence of the creative process. Too bad this isn't a skill that is taught purposely to all beginning photographers. Not what it is, but what it could be. What the image wants to be. Honesty, empathy, some visual literacy for context, and the experience and wisdom that come with practice. 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.

LW1453 - To Thine Own Self Be True A friend of mine was recently offered an exhibition in a nice gallery. He was excited for the opportunity, but then began the negotiations and compromises the gallery requested. For example, the gallery wanted him to adopt a limited edition strategy which he doesn't do. The gallery wanted a certain kind of mat board and framing. Is it advisable that we allow the gallery to influence our artistic endeavors like this? 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.

LW1452 - A Sketch vs an Image One of the most influential artists who have shaped my thinking about photography is, believe it or not, Charles Dickens. As a young writer, he worked for a newspaper to wander the streets of London and create short "sketches" of the scenes he encountered. Sound familiar? 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.