LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

HT1878 - Twenty Times To really appreciate a new piece of music, I need to hear it at least 20 times so that I can own it in my mind. The same can be said for photography. I have to spend time with an image before I feel like I've seen it. I have to think about it. I have to search for metaphors in my responses. Sometimes I need to know a little bit about the photographer so I can put their photograph in the context of their career. The idea that photography is something to be glanced at just sits wrong with me on so many levels.

HT1877 - The Thought That Goes With Every Photograph Photographs are visual, but that does not mean they are devoid of words, devoid of thought. Every photograph sparks a thought. A photograph might spark thoughts of the beautiful, the trite, the irrelevant, the desirable - - there is probably an example of a photograph for every word in language. Artwork is a gateway to thought. How does knowing this change what we do and produce?

HT1876 - Before You Process an Image Here's an exercise you might find fun. What happens when you spend time with an image before you begin processing it? Seriously, try this exercise next time you are working on images in Lightroom or Photoshop. Before doing anything to the captured file, spend 20 minutes or so just looking at it. Write down any words that come to mind, any thoughts, any ideas. Challenge yourself to write 10 things before you begin processing the image.

LW1398 - Life, As Lived When you decide you want to make a photograph of this particular thing, why is that thing chosen over all others? What is it in that thing that makes it more photogenic than all others? I've thought about this a great deal lately and I'm not sure I have the answer. I do, however, think I have one answer: Idealism. So much of photography as it is practiced is the pursuit of the ideal. 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.

HT1875 - Question or Statement The common perception of a photograph is that it is a fact. Even a fanciful, imagine-based photograph is a statement of how the photographer sees the world. But what doors to creativity are opened if we change that perspective and think of a photograph (or a project) as a proposal to consider? What if your photograph says, "Here's a question" rather than "Here's a truth"? All 1870+ episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available in their entirety to members of LensWork Online, our extensive resource library of our 30-year publishing history. Learn more about LensWork Online.

HT1874 - Composing Using Focus Tracking Here is a slick focusing technique I never thought of, but it works. It replaces the half-press and hold, then compose technique. It's much more intuitive in my brain than back button focusing. It uses "focus tracking" or something I like to call "sticky focus." You really should try this one. All previous episodes of Here's a Thought . . . 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 that looks at failures as a way to learn. 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.

HT1873 - Maximum Black Is Not Magic In my youth, I thought the magic was to achieve a maximum black. It took me several years to learn that the magic is not in maximum black but rather in beautiful gray tones and chords of tones that please the eye. Increasing contrast and overprinting the blacks is rarely the answer. My apologies to Bill Brandt.

HT1872 - Print Size and the Wall Once Stieglitz decided that photography was best consumed as art on the wall, like painting, he set in motion the pursuit of large prints. If it weren't for our predisposition to exhibit photographs on the wall, I wonder if there would ever have been a push for larger and larger prints. And if we collectively did not think of photography as something destined for the wall, I wonder what methodology/medium would dominate the sharing of photographs?

HT1871 - The Competition for Eyeballs All media include an element of narcissism. With every photograph we make, we are essentially competing for attention. Each photograph screams, "Look at me!" This intense competition for eyeballs leads to a secondary phenomenon I think of as "the advertising promise." "Come look at me and you will be rewarded with this goody." The competition for eyeballs is so fierce that we now are overwhelmed with advertising promises way out of proportion to actual content.

HT1870 - Stages of Creative Thought I've talked before about the solutions to problems that pop up from seemingly nowhere. I've recently been reading The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. I found there a fascination quote that discusses this process. Glad to know I'm not alone in observing how creative ideas so often appear unexpectedly.

HT1869 - Artwork Left Behind I remember years ago hearing of a photographer who would leave small prints wherever he happened to find himself. He would leave his artwork on a bus bench, a restaurant table, a seat in the library, literally anywhere the spirit so moved him. I was so fascinated with this idea that I followed this plan the last time I was in Japan.

LW1397 - Looking for Photographs When you want to make a photograph, what do you do? Probably you set out into the world somewhere and start looking for things you might photograph. You are on the hunt for potential. What if you were to point yourself to your Lightroom catalog rather than the world out there? I would propose that searching the world and searching in your exigent collection are pretty much the same thing. 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.

HT1868 - The Absolutely Necessary The ideal kit includes everything I might need. The opposite of how much gear can I take is how little gear can I get by with. Perhaps it's a function of my aging knees and back, but I find myself brainstorming about the least amount of gear I can take with me and still be productive. Obviously I need a camera and lens, a battery and a memory card, but what else is absolutely necessary in order for me to be successful with the kind of photography I do? All 1860+ episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available in their entirety to members of LensWork Online, our extensive resource library of our 30-year publishing history. Learn more about LensWork Online.

HT1867 - Feedback and the Pressure to Conform Yesterday I was talking about feedback and the way the digital workflow makes getting feedback about our work so much easier. Not unexpectedly, there is a downside to such easy feedback; the pressure to conform. All previous episodes of Here's a Thought . . . 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 that looks at failures as a way to learn. 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.

HT1866 - Learning Without Feedback How well do you suppose you would learn tennis if you could never see where the ball went after you hit it? Learning is always a function of action, feedback, assessment. This is equally true for photography and this explains one aspect of the digital revolution that I think is highly overlooked, but has radically changed the nature of photography.

HT1865 - How to Save $1,600 Once again I found myself contemplating the super long 100-400mm Panasonic Leica lens for my m/43 camera. As a part of the research, I decided to investigate a cropped image from the Panasonic Leica 50-200mm I already own. Then the next step was to see what the results would look like if I used either pixel shift technology versus Super Resolution Enhancement in Lightroom. Fascinating results.

HT1864 - Viewing Lights The light we use to view a print or book is so critical in determining how that photograph appears. Unfortunately, we have no control over the light people use to view our work. A story from Paul Strand's biographer demonstrates how frustrating this issue can be for us photographers.

HT1862 - Reflected vs Transmitted I've come to believe that the most fundamental and important decision we make when producing our image-based artwork is whether we want our work seen via reflected or transmitted light. Every subsequent processing decision is based on this first choice.

LW1396 - Commitment and Viewer Fatigue I love photography books, but I must admit that I struggle with big, thick books. I once wanted to read Tolstoy's War and Peace, but struggled for years to make the necessary commitment to its 1200 pages. I feel the same way about 3-400 page photography books. Like big books, big museums also present a challenge. The only way I know how to negotiate my time in a big museum is to concentrate my attention on a manageable number of pieces of artwork. Similarly, viewer fatigue is a real consideration as we produce 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.

HT1861 - What Sets Photography Apart Each of the art media have characteristics that are its greatest strength, that set it apart from other media. A novel gives the writer unlimited control over time; music has the ability to tap directly into our nonverbal emotions; painting provides a medium in which the artist can include or exclude elements based solely on their imagination. What sets photography apart? Seems to me that one of its primary strengths is its ability to show detail even finer than human vision and to carry that detail to future generations. All 1860+ episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available in their entirety to members of LensWork Online, our extensive resource library of our 30-year publishing history. Learn more about LensWork Online.