Claim OwnershipLensWork - Photography and the Creative Process
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Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience.
Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life.
Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).
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HT2553 - Minutia
It can be quite entertaining to hear photographers talk about their images. Almost without exception, the photographer will examine tiny areas of the image including details, juxtapositions of composition, perfect tonal relationships, extremely subtle things that non-photographers would never see, or I should say never notice. For some reason, photographers think these minutia can make or break the success of a photograph.
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HT2552 - Big Things and Little Things
Some friends of ours are visiting Kyoto this week, many of the same places I visited in 2019 in my last visit to Japan. They are sending lots of pictures and I can't help but observing a difference between what they're photographing and what I photographed. Same locations, different visions. I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise, but it does have me thinking.
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HT2551 - Four Hundred Donuts
We all like a donut now and then. Two donuts on occasion. Three donuts? Might be entering the realm of excess. A dozen? Impossible without getting sick of donuts. Enough is enough and more than that leaves us overwhelmed, repulsed, ill. This comes to mind because I recently received a 400-page monograph of photographs. Roughly 40 pages in and I started feeling numb. At page 100, I gave up, realizing I hadn't really seen the last 60 images at all — and there were 300 more pages left to go! Too much of a good thing finds us racing for the exit door.
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HT2550 - The Best Way to Add Value to Your Photographic Artwork
Not everyone is pursuing the sale of their photographic artwork, but it's also not uncommon. The foundation of this pursuit is to try to build value into your artwork. If history teaches us anything, there are two keys to building value in your artwork: produce your prints prior to 1975; be sure you died in the 20th century. Both are difficult tasks here in 2026, but at the very least, announce you are not feeling well and you fear your art producing days are limited.
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Have you heard me talk about the "airport test?" Name for me 10 famous painters, 10 musicians, 10 novelists. I'll bet you can. Ask 100 people at random at the airport to name 10 fine art photographers. Everybody is familiar with Ansel Adams, and a few might know of Edward Weston. Here are 10 lesser known masters of photography you should study precisely because they brought something to photography that has made a greater impact than their reputation would indicate.
HT2548 - Exposure Tones vs Exposure Textures
The so-called "exposure triangle" is usually thought of as a means of controlling the lightness and darkness of an image, and that's obviously true. But we old timers learned in studying the Zone System that tones are related to textures, particularly in combination with the angle of illumination. Human vision almost never sees tones without textures. Even the absence of texture is a form of texture.
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.
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2547 - Ten Is the Perfect Default
All media have a comfort zone within a common range of sizes, plus or minus. Novels are typically a couple of hundred pages, popular songs 4 minutes, statues are commonly life-size. Exceptions are not uncommon, but it seems as though every medium has its default size. I've always felt that the default size for photography is 10 inches. We might see more detail in a larger print, but do we need to?
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.
HT2549 - From Whence We See the World
Photographing is always a subjective act. I can't think of a single instance in which a photograph is truly objective. After all, as photographers we choose where to stand, when to click the shutter, which things to include in the photograph and not, all of which are subjective decisions, decisions that reflect our point of view, our value system, our statement about what is important to observe. Photography becomes art when we embrace that subjectivity.
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In 2007 I conceived a long-term project that I still believe in. I decided I would do an annual project consisting of five images each year whose subject would always be winter trees. (This was before Seeing in Sixes) This started off as an annual folio project but quickly expanded to an accompanying PDF version. For reasons I can't quite pin down. I did an annual five-image project for 7 years in a row and then stopped. I shouldn't have. In fact, I'm thinking of restarting this annual series. The reasons for continuing this project are still valid and have overwhelmed my lethargy.
HT2542 - Cameras and the Limits of Human Vision
We all need new, better, more feature-packed cameras, right? That is what we are being told everyday by the makers of cameras. But do we really? Has it occurred to you that today's cameras can resolve more detail than human vision? Can register more dynamic range than our media of presentation? Think and execute focus and the exposure triangle calculations faster and more reliably than is humanly possible? What more — from a technology point of view — do we need?
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2541 - The Element of Fun
I tend to be pretty serious about my photography and creative life. Sometimes, I'll have to admit, that seriousness becomes an impediment to something important — fun! When we lose the element of fun, we lose one of the best reasons to be involved with photography. Fine art photography can be a serious pursuit, but it becomes a much more enjoyable pursuit if our creative decisions include a sprinkling of fun and simple joy. Instead of working hard for a picture, can we instead play hard for a picture?
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.
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2540 - There Is No Favorite
I received an email I had to think about before responding. The writer asked if out of the 180 projects I've published in Kokoro, did I have a favorite? I couldn't help feel this was like asking which of all the breaths I've taken today is my favorite? The answer, of course, is the next breath and, no doubt, the next project. This did have me thinking, however, about what work I choose to exhibit, publish, submit, or produce as a digital publication. As the producer, I may value the most recent work, but our chronology of production may have no impact on how others select their favorite work of ours.
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.
HT2539 - The Medium That Encourages Your Productivity
Simply said and factually undeniable, the medium you choose for the production of your images will either support and encourage more work or it will erect barriers that can make your work more difficult, more expensive, more discouraging. It's a matter of balance. We need a medium that challenges us, but not too much. We need a medium that allows us the freedom to create, but is substantial enough to require our sincere effort. We need a medium that allows us to connect with the audience we value.
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2538 - Recognizing Excellence, Second Attempt
"Even those who fall flat on their face are at least moving forward." In the spirit of true confession, yesterday's Here's a Thought was not my best effort. Let me try again from a slightly different point of view, hence "Recognizing Excellence, Second Attempt."
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2537 - Recognizing Excellence
I attended my first workshop 40 years ago. I did so because I wanted to learn the specific techniques that were being taught by the instructors. Looking back on that experience, I realize the most important thing I experienced was seen hundreds of wonderful prints by the three instructors. The techniques I learned back then have been replaced during the digital revolution. The way I learned how to see and recognize excellence in a photograph is still one of the most valuable lessons of my creative life.
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2536 - You Cannot Fake Sharpness
I'm always hesitant to say that we can't do something because there may be a way to do it that I just don't know about. To date, I have no idea how to fake sharpness. I can process an image to fake dynamic range, exposure, contrast, etc. But once an image is captured with soft focus, it's going to look like soft focus forever. At least it will until the software engineers figure out how to resolve this for us.
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Photography, we hope, is an art medium that can have an impact on our life, add content and meaning to our viewing experience. If a photograph succeeds at the highest level, it's not only memorable, but has the ability to change our life. Not many photographs are that powerful and even fewer are universally that impactful. Here are six images that literally changed my life and why.
HT2535 - Sitting Patiently, Waiting for the Response
One of the most challenging formats I produce is what I call "One-Picture Stories." I pull up an image and then just sit with it until an idea, a response, a question, perhaps some sort of reaction occurs. This might take a few minutes; it might require an hour or more. My job in this exercise is to be quiet, be aware, be receptive, be open. It's a quiet meditation where I try to empty my mind of interference and just let the process unfold on its own.
Here is the Special Edition PDF of "One-Picture Stories" that was discussed in Brooks' Here's a Thought
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2533 - Congratulations On Your Photographic Skill
Do we admire Dickens for his extensive vocabulary? Do we admire Beethoven because of his chord progressions? Do we applaud the work of Ansel Adams because of his masterful use of depth of field? I've thought for years that if someone compliments my photographic technique the photograph has failed entirely. Tools and techniques are not supposed to be noticed accept perhaps by students and academics.
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.
HT2532 - Twelve Significant Photographs
I'm not sure if this assertion by Ansel Adams is apocryphal or true, but I know I've heard it my entire photographic life. "Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop." In light of today's realities, is this still valid? It's clearly not valid from a technical point of view. So what did he mean? What are the implications for photography if it's now possible to produce hundreds, perhaps thousands of good prints per year? What's the difference between significant and good?
Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
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Interesting thought. Would you argue that this holds for AI generated photographs as well, so long as the artistic concepts in the prompts is relevant/innovative and the result artistic? It seems like this is the next logical step given today's technology.
Brooks Jensen has a great way of making the creative side of photography feel approachable. I’ve found a lot of the “Here’s a thought…” snippets surprisingly thought-provoking for how short they are—nice quick hits of inspiration https://karlaannephoto.com/.
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great podcasts by the way all your wanted camera updates I fully agree with, I did contact Panasonic a long time ago about implementing on screen picture review and determining focus. I suggest to them maybe they could highlight the in focus areas of the screen about like the manual focus highlighting. I thought this would save a lot of time zooming in and out.
So glad I happened across this podcast - two episodes in, I'm hooked! Thanks for the production.
I find this to be the most continually inspiring and insightful podcast on the creative process of photography and of creativity in general. Brooks has the perfect vocal style and pace for podcasting, which I think adds a good deal to it's overall success. I've heard all of them and have started over recently.
Lenswork Magazine is the finest photography magazine, bar none. It has superb photographs and thoughtful essays about photography. These podcasts are in the same tradition, thought provoking and inspiring short essays on why we photograph. I would not miss a single one. Start from the beginning if you can, they are worth it.
Brooks Jensen's random thoughts about photography are brilliant and thought provoking observations that every person with an intrest in photography should listen to. Brooks is truely a great word smith in addition to a very skilled photographer and one cannot help but be inspired by his words.