HT2427 - Ruthless Editing to the Narrative I believe we have the opposite problem from the one our photographic forefathers had. Their challenge was to make a great photograph with primitive materials. Today, we can make hundreds or thousands of flawless images with ease. How do we choose which ones to show? We edit to the narrative, but first we need to determine what the narrative is. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2426 - Sensor Clean X2 I cringe every time I see those fuzzy blue circles in the sky that indicate I have dust on the sensor of the camera. I was given a suggestion by a reader about one way to deal with this and used it religiously these last two months as I was out in the dusty West photographing. I'm delighted to report that I had not a single indication of any dust on any shot. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2425 - Not Just the Most Recent Now that I'm back from two months on the road, it's time to see what I have. For me, that process most often starts with building some collections based on potential projects. I add images from the recent trip into collections and then start scouring my previous images from the last couple of decades and add any of them to the appropriate collections. This forces me to think outside the recent captures and to be sensitive to larger trends I may not be conscious I've been working towards unknowingly. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2424 - Problematic Bokeh A peculiar property of a long focal length lens is that it can render a semi-distant object ever-so-slightly outside the depth of field. Instead of looking like a nicely out of focus area from a shallow depth of field, it can look like a poor performing lens that simply can't render those objects sharply. The only answer is to stop down to increase the depth of field. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
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.
HT2423 - Roads Landscape photography is inextricably tied to roads. Even if we are hiking into rough terrain, we get to the trailhead via a road. Photographically, not all roads are equal. I've been tooling down the Interstates to get home and doing no photography along the way. For me, photography is always at its best when I'm traveling down a dirt road. If you are not familiar with them, you need to know about Delorme maps. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2422 - They All Come from Projects What most of us tend to show matted, framed, and hanging in a place of importance in our home are the very best images we've created. But where do these come from? My observation is that most of those super winners rise from the midst of a project and become super winners due to actions beyond our control. For example, Dorothea Lange made lots of pictures for the FSA, but Migrant Mother rose from the crowd to become iconic. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2421 - The Difficulty with Gray I've started to work on some of the images from my trip and in particular those from the Badlands of South Dakota. These are tricky images to process just right because of an unexpected issue. Light gray can look either alive or depressed depending on the surrounding mat board or digital background. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2420 - Things or Moments Ask a photographer what it is they make pictures of and the chances are they will answer THINGS or perhaps PEOPLE. Perhaps, but more likely than not what they capture a moment, at least in their better photographs. I always try my best to remember this when I'm out photographing, like when I was at Shiprock last week. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2419 - Bad Light Yesterday I was photographing in the South Dakota badlands and had a moment when I thought, "This is really bad light." It took me a minute to remember my own advice that there is no such thing as good light or bad light. There is, however, light that doesn't serve our preconceived ideas. "Bad light" really means that we are imposing our will on what the landscape is giving us. In other words, there is no bad light, there are only bad expectations. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2418 - Returning with a Zoom Lens In the 1980s, I made a photograph of the hills near my grandmother's home in Tensleep, Wyoming. I was never thrilled with that image and finally had the opportunity to revisit the area last week. I found the hill I had photographed and realized instantly why I was not happy with the previous effort. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2417 - Gathering Strategies I've talked on numerous occasions about my strategy of gathering assets while I'm in the field rather than pre-visualizing finished images. I've never mentioned, however, what I actually do while I'm gathering assets. Here's a quick overview of how I work in the field. Some may see this as indecision; I see it as providing options for when I'm back home making art. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
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.
HT2416 - The Most Important Thing We Need We photographers are always on the hunt for a subject, a new technique, better equipment, and more time. I've come to realize, however, that the most important thing we need is access. How many times have you driven past a gorgeous scene with beautiful light but there's no place to pull off the road to make a picture? Or there's a fence, or gate, or barrier, or a regulation that blocks us from the position we need to make the picture. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2415 - Thinking in Groups Yesterday in my Here's a Thought about Going Back, I inadvertently dropped a pretty big hint about thinking in groups. Where do we find the seeds for our projects? It all starts by thinking in groups. The most common group consists of a selection of images from a given location. Next are projects about a common subject. That's not the only way to group images into a project. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2414 - Going Back I've had two instances of going back to photograph again something I'd already done once before. It's often said that we can't go back. I think there is every reason in the world to go back, not the least of which is that things constantly change Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2413 - Waiting for the Light Yesterday, I was at a terrific location for high altitude mountain photography. The scene was lovely, the rocks majestic, and the snow a perfect accent to add texture to the rock face. The only thing that was missing was a splash of winter sun. I decided to wait. Five hours later, I got the break in the clouds I was waiting for. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2412 - The Crucial Missing Element from So Much of Fine Art Photography One of the most common reactions I have when I see great artwork is that I cannot comprehend how it was done. There is some magic in the fact that it exists which leads to wonderment about how the artist accomplished it. People used to feel that way about photography, too, but now the magic in photography is so easily dismissed with "It's been Photoshopped" whether that's true or not. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2411 - Fleeting Ideas It's said that Charles Dickens during his long meandering walks through London, would always carry with him a notebook. He would jot down descriptions of interesting places he saw. He would capture interesting phrases people used or their accents and ways of speaking. He would then refer to these notes while he was writing his novels, using the little snippets of conversation he had overheard. Not a bad idea for us photographers, too. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
HT2410 - The Unexpected Project Some of the best advice I've ever heard came from a workshop instructor from my early days in photography, Stewart Harvey. He said the best photographers are ones who spend the most time photographing. He also said that the word "photographer" is a verb. He also said, turn around — which is incredible sage advice for photographers. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!
Victoriajohn
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/.
haider ali
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Justin Photo Coe
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.
Stephen Blankenship
So glad I happened across this podcast - two episodes in, I'm hooked! Thanks for the production.
iTunes User
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.