LW1390 - Gear, Part 3, Gear Guilt I have an uncomfortable relationship with photographic gear. I have some gear that looks great, implies that I'm a serious photographer, has basic and exotic capabilities, and makes me feel, when using it, like I'm a serious photographer. And then I have gear that has none of the above characteristics but just makes great pictures. When it comes to making serious art, why do I feel slightly guilty if I'm not using a "serious" camera? Where did I pick up that myth that the quality of the artwork is a consequence of the gear? 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.

HT1819 - Slow Shutter Speeds Handheld We are so lucky today to live in the age of image stabilized cameras. We can shoot handheld at amazingly long shutter speeds, at least compared to yesteryear. That said, it's not perfect, not every shot, and that leads to a strategy. Whenever I'm pushing a slow shutter speed, I simply shoot a bunch of exposures, often using burst mode. I don't care if 19 of the 20 exposures are slightly soft due to camera movement, as long as one of them is luckily sharp enough for my needs. All 1800+ 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.

HT1818 - Where to Go I have no doubt that their intentions are well meant, but advice from others on where we ought to go in order to make great photographs Is universally bad advice. It's not that good photographs can't be made there, wherever it is, but rather that such places are usually the source of innumerable clichés. I much prefer to just follow my own nose, discover my own locations, interpret the world as I see it, which I've been doing now for 50 years without ever being disappointed no matter where I find myself. The key to a great photograph is never in the subject, but rather found in our response, whatever the subject may be. 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 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.

HT1817 - Not Quite Perfect If we could wave a magic wand and achieve perfection, we probably would. Not having such a magic wand, we must accept that our images will fall short of that goal. How far from perfect is still acceptable? I ask this as a serious question. For example, how far from perfection are you willing to accept focus, tones, composition, noise, color accuracy, or the rendition of detail? To be even more practical, how much corner softness are you willing to accept in a lens?

HT1816 - Not Medium, but Media, Plural Not that long ago, photography was primarily produced in one medium, the print. Today there are at least a dozen media we can use to produce and share our images. This provides us with both unprecedented challenges and almost limitless opportunities.

HT1814 - ISO 12,800 Revisited In my film days, I shot mostly using ASA 25 film for the finest grain possible. To this day, my natural reflex is to shoot at the lowest ISO on my digital camera. Recently, I shot an entire project using ISO 6400 and ISO 12,800, processed using Lightroom's new DeNoise tool. Wow. A full 9 stop improvement over my film days!

HT1813 - Electronic Shutters Growing up in the era before digital photography, it never occurred to me that there was any other way to construct a shutter than a mechanical one. Even when I adopted digital means, I still used the mechanical shutter exclusively. I've now changed that philosophy and use electronic shutters for almost everything. My images are sharper, my camera is quieter, and there is less wear and tear on my expensive machine. The two most important exceptions are fast panning and indoors under artificial light.

HT1812 - Suffering Is Not a Measure of Excellence How much you have to endure is not in the least related to the excellence of your photographs. The minute a photographer starts to tell me their capture story, I get suspicious. Besides, if an image is easy and falls into your lap, does that mean it's an inferior image? All 1800+ 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.

LW1389 - Gear, Part 2 - Game Changers Eight game-changing developments in photography that have revolutionized my creative life. The impact of these becomes apparent when I try to imagine doing photography without any of these revolutions. 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.

HT1811 - Connect the Dots, um, Images In the early stages of developing a project, the search is for images that connect to one another without repeating. I like to think of this as similar to the child's game of connect the dots. Only when the dots are connected in the correct sequence will the bigger picture become apparent. 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 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.

HT1810 - A Camera for the Car How many times have I been out and about when I unexpectedly see a terrific image with gorgeous sunlight, but I'm frustrated because my camera is at home on the shelf? The most expensive and capable camera is useless if it's home on the shelf. I finally learned that lesson and now have a camera that I keep in the car at all times.

HT1809 - Reasons for Techniques Last weekend, I was involved in a big workshop with dozens of photographers discussing their images in an educational setting. It's always fun to see how someone accomplishes a photograph, but I can't remember a single instance where the photographer explained why they wanted to create the effect they were demonstrating. They would say something like, "I want a darken this corner, so I did this," but they never explained why they wanted to darken the corner.

HT1808 - The Perfect Lens We all want flawless, optically perfect lenses. What if I were to ask you for a quantitative measure of the sharpness you need? How sharp is sharp enough? Is sharpness a constant across all genres of images? Or is acceptable for one subject overkill for another? To complicate this further, this fails to take into account such variables as viewing distance and print size. Enough is as good as a feast.

HT1815 - Learning by Looking and Listening A major turning point in my photographic life began when I started attending workshops. You might think that the most valuable part of a workshop is having your own work critiqued by those who are more talented than you. That's important, but the best part for me was listening to the workshop instructors talk about their images. Every image included a tidbit that I absorbed for use in my own learning curve. This is precisely why I do the series "Every Picture Is a Compromise" over at Brooks Jensen Arts — my way of paying it forward.

HT1807 - They Will Come Do you remember that scene in the movie Field of Dreams when Ray is assured that if he builds it, they will come. I believe this very strongly when it comes to finishing a photography project. It's as though there is some law of nature that a finished project invariably attracts and audience. We may not be able to predict the size or scope of the audience, but they will come.

HT1806 - Where Are the Photographs? Last week I was staying at the house of some friends in Florida who are avid scholars and art people. I counted 83 framed pieces of artwork hanging on the walls of their very large home. Curiously enough, there was not a single photograph other than a few family snapshots.

LW1388 - Gear, Part 1, Does Gear Make a Difference? I'm much more interested in the products of photography than I am in the methods of photography. To me, gear is a necessary evil. My objective with all gear related decisions is to find the least problematic solution I can. I can look at images all day, but get bored by gear talk in about 3 minutes. Manufacturers seem to want to focus our attention on megapixels, frames per second, and video capabilities - - none of which is if the least importance to me. Besides, when I assemble a project from the images in my Lightroom catalog, I can never tell which camera was used unless I look at the metadata. As far as the images themselves, there doesn't appear to be any visible differences between on camera and the next. 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.

HT1805 - Small Stories So much of fine art photography these days is supposed to be GRAND. The Grand Landscape, for example, is usually about big and sweeping vistas. I much prefer the small stories. I'm sure that's because they are more experiential. I can only witness a grand landscape, but I can live in a small story. All 1800+ 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.

HT1804 - Blown Highlights As a general rule of thumb, I avoid blown highlights at all cost. But like any general rule of thumb, there are exceptions. A recent project photographing indoors using table lamps as the only source of illumination created images that always had blown highlights which I was perfectly happy to accept. I tried to think of another example where I'm comfortable with blown highlights and could only think of one - - reflections of the sun on chrome automobile trim. 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.

HT1803 - 11 to 1 Shooting Ratio Here is a possibly meaningless statistic. In looking through my Lightroom catalog, find that I statistically need eleven shots in the field for every shot I end up using in a finished project. That ratio can be a lot higher. I found many examples as high as 40:1, but it is a rare exception that results in a used image when there is only a single capture in the field. It seems that working a scene intensely is a better strategy for me than run and gun.

HT1802 - JPGs vs RAW, Again The flexibility of a RAW file has always seemed such a better strategy that I've never given JPEGs out of the camera a second thought. I recently had an chance to see Gordon Laing's book touting the virtues of shooting JPEGs out of the camera. I understand the challenge, and have to admit that Laing's images are terrific. I thought that maybe I need to try this, just for fun. Until, that is, I remembered Adobe's Enhanced DeNoise and Super Sharpen, newly introduced software solutions that only work on RAW files.

HT1801 - Retrospectives For as long as I can remember, one of my favorite types of photo books has been the lifetime retrospective from a master photographer. Here in the third decade of the 21st century, I'm beginning to wonder if the idea of retrospectives has any place in today's photo publishing.

HT1800 - Older Cameras When I purchased my first digital camera in 2002, it was very primitive technology and therefore had pretty severe limitations in terms of its capabilities. But it appears to me that the technology reached a comfortable plateau about 2018 and any digital camera after that date likely has just about everything you might need. Said another way, today's expensive cameras may not be necessary if you can achieve your results with far less expensive used gear.

HT1799 - Why Beauty? Photo Karma. You don't make the world a better place by perpetuating ugliness. Understanding is a kind of beauty. Beauty is not the same as pretty.

LW1387 - You're Dead, Now What? Sorry to say that all of us are mortal. Have you given any thought to what you are leaving behind as your lifetime of photographic output? Who will deal with all of it? Not a fun topic, but a necessary one, unless, that is, you have a foolproof plan for immortality. If so, please share it with the rest of us. Thanks. 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.

HT1798 - A Flourish, a Dash of Spice, a Jot of Sparkle For decades now, the presentation of a photograph in the fine art world has been codified to the white, bevel-cut mat board. Is that the limit of our creativity? Would it be awful if we were to jazz up the presentation of our photographs to something more exotic? All 1790+ 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.

HT1797 - Artificial Motivations The world of photography includes a lot of artificial motivations to produce our work. Contests, deadlines, club meetings, workshops, and review sessions come to mind. These are good, and they are not so good. Here's my experience with artificial motivations. 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.

HT1796 - Defining Your Personal Standard of Excellence We each produce our work to our own personal standards of excellence. Do you know what yours is? As an exercise, can you write down 10 qualities of a photograph that define your standard of excellence?

HT1795 - The Humility of Photography Yesterday I was talking about the arrogance of photography, but the opposite side of that coin is its inherent humility, particularly if we follow the advice of Anais Nin to "not speak unless spoken through."

HT1794 - The Arrogance of Photography Have you ever stopped to think how arrogant photographers are? Essentially, the fundamental act of sharing our photographs is the assertion that the viewer should see the world the way we do! Our photographs assert that our vision is somehow more sensitive, skilled, informative, or aesthetically pleasing, than the viewer's natural vision. But is any of that true, or is it just a presumptuous game?

HT1793 - The Single Copy Photography is, as we all know, infinitely reproducible, at least in theory. More frequently, we produce a single copy of an image or a small project. Those single copies are both special and, in the long run, incredibly fragile, even risky. Their chance of survival is pretty slim. Assuming it is important for our work to survive, what should we do about this?

HT1792 - WWMWT - What Would Minor White Think? Minor White famously said, "Don't just photograph what it is, photograph what else it is." I don't think he meant just turning up the volume. I wonder how he would react to today's common approach of photographing not just what it is, but photographing the hyper-real version of what it should be in our imagination? Viewing a photograph is like striking flint on steel. The spark may be tiny, but from that spark can grow a bonfire. I don't want to place words into Minor White's mouth, but I think he meant that the photograph was the spark and the viewer's reaction might be the bonfire.

HT1791 - Artists Need Money Photography is an expensive pursuit. Where does the funding come from? For almost all of us, it never comes from the sale of our artwork. It's too bad there doesn't exist some funding mechanism for artists outside of the normal buy and sell commerce paradigm. This is an issue that is routinely ignored in photography schools and workshop programs. That said, it will be worth your time to consider this thorny issue because it will be one that haunts you for the rest of your photographic life. All 1790+ 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.

LW1386 - Photography Is Not About Photography A novel is not about the process of novel writing. A poem is not about language and rhyme. Music is not about the manipulation of an instrument. All arts, including photography, are about something else, about life, about emotions and feelings, about thoughts and impressions, about our responses to life. We use tools to create our responses in a particular medium, but ultimately it's not about the tools nor the medium. 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.

HT1790 - Borders Are Tricky Every picture has a border that surrounds it. That border can be a thin key line or a massive field in which the image floats like a canoe in the ocean. What determines the size of the border? That is an aesthetic decision. Who determines the size of the border is a more important decision. Because the viewing experience will unavoidably include the aesthetics of the border, you should be the one who explores the possibilities and makes the final decision. 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.

HT1789 - déjà vu All Over Again I just listened to a long podcast in which the speaker was rejecting AI and even advanced content-aware fill and deletion as somehow corrupting the true nature of photography. He proposed that we need a line of demarcation between "pure seeing" and "photo-like painting." Didn't we already have these discussions when digital photography threatened analog photography? Must we really have debates of these obscure concepts?

HT1788 - Yesterday's Limitations Are Gone There was quite a bit of criticism 15 years ago when some of us chose the micro 4/3 platform for our gear. The drawbacks — reiterated over and over by the photo press and competing manufacturers — was that m4/3 images were noisy, low resolution, and could not achieve shallow depth of field. That was all true enough back then, but here in 2024 we have Enhanced Denoise, Super resolution, and the new Lens Blur tool, all a click away in Lightroom and Photoshop.

HT1787 - Read the Damned Manual I've been frustrated with a silly problem with my picture taking that I can seem to resolve to my satisfaction. I've tried several solutions, but always been disappointed with the inconsistent results. With a sense of desperation, I decided to see if there might be a solution in the instruction manual that came with the camera. Yup, there it was, a simple setting that completely resolved the issue. I am cringing now to think of all the images that failed because I was too lazy to read the manual.

HT1786 - Sophistication Needs a Docent With every passing decade — no, with every passing year — our culture, our technology, and our lives are becoming more sophisticated. Now more than ever, we need a docent to help our viewers to understand our artwork and the context from which it springs. Either that, or we have to dumb down our art to a sort of lowest common denominator of preparedness.

HT1785 - The Best Camera Ever Of the 230 images we published in Light, Glorious Light 2023, 167 had metadata that identified the camera used. Of those 167 images, there were 103 different camera model numbers. The most used camera was the Canon 5D Mk III which was used to make 12 of the images we published. A whopping 90 of the cameras used were represented by 1 image only! What's the best camera ever? Answer: The one you own and use.

LW1385 - One of One Although many artists seem to want to deny it, I find no reason whatsoever that art should not obey the economic laws of supply and demand. The reality of our photography is that we have infinite capacity to supply, based on the fact that photography is infinitely reproducible. Also, there is almost zero demand. We could make the decision to limit our additions to one of one, but that would require the courage of our convictions 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.

HT1784 - The Popularity Contest I know how to become a much more popular photographer. It's simple; produce work that most people want. There are three paths that almost guarantee your work will be popular. Nudes, pretty landscapes, pictures of celebrities. Which explains why I will never be a famous photographer. All 1770+ 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.

HT1783 - The Goal of Exposure Like so many of you, my fundamental philosophy about exposure and development was derived from those wonderful Ansel Adams books on the technologies of the wet dark room. His key idea was that the purpose of exposure and development was to create the best negatives for printing. That's still is the foundation of digital exposure, but the approach is completely different. 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.

HT1782 - The Peers in Your Neighborhood Having a peer group in a pursuit like fine are photography is a valuable way to get feedback and to learn how others see your work. Zoom meetings can be a good way to connect with others who are serious about photography like you are. In-person meetings offer more, particularly when it comes to looking at prints and other hand-made expressions like chapbooks or folios. Finding peers, now that is another challenge.

HT1781 - Art by the Square Inch One final thought about giant prints. Is it fair to say that a lot of photographers who are engaged in making giant prints are doing so for commercial reasons? The bigger the print, the higher the price! Doesn't that seem to equate value and size in a silly relationship. Are longer novels better and more valuable than shorter ones? What about music? Does the length of a piece of music have any relation to its quality or value? Painting, sculpture, poetry? Perhaps the only example that immediately occurs to me are Subway sandwiches. A 12-foot party sandwich sells for more than a regular 6-incher. But I'm not sure I like the equivalence of deli sandwiches and my fine art photography.

HT1780 - Giant Prints For this discussion, I'm going to define a giant print as larger than 17x22". How many of you have made a giant print? Even one, in your life? I did so, just for the challenge and learning curve of making a giant print. I'm glad I did it. I'm even more glad to learn that I don't ever need to do that again. But, at least I know I can if the urge ever pops up again.

HT1779 - Megapixel Madness Fewer and fewer people are making large prints (that require high megapixel counts), yet the camera manufacturers keep pushing higher and higher megapixel cameras. Conversely, more and more people are showing their images via screen devices that typically require no more than 2-4 megapixel images, but are using high megapixel cameras. What's going on here?

HT1778 - Art As an Investment Value is a convention of agreement. When the Baby Boom Generation was massive and there were a large number of people who were collecting fine art photographs, perhaps there were enough people who agreed in the value of a photograph to make it seem like a worthwhile investment. Now that so many Baby Boomers are downsizing and divesting their precious photograph collections, there is downward pressure on prices. Sorry to say it, but I'm seeing lots of photographers who are coming to terms with the truth that their collections aren't worth what they thought.

HT1777 - Acorns and Oaks It's amazing how the beginning of a giant oak is completely contained within the acorn. I often think of this analogy when I'm stewing about a photography project. Within the acorn of an image their lies the future project. Those acorns, however, require some nurturing, some thought, so maturing, some time. The oak never appears from nothing, fully grown. Neither does the photographic project. Not every acorn grows into an oak, but every oak comes from an acorn. All 1770+ 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.

LW1384 - The Big, Exciting, Oppressive Project One of my pet peeves is when I learn from a mistake, forget the lesson, and then make the same mistakes all over again. This is precisely what I have done in the last year or so that I'm now regretting. Lost opportunities are sometimes lost forever. And it was such a dumb mistake! If I had just remembered this simple advice, who knows what I may have accomplished instead of wallowing in an easily resolvable problems. 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.

HT1776 - Visual Conventions There are conventions in photography that influence what and how we produce our images. For example, it's a convention in photography that images representing dreams are soft focus and often have a heavy corner vignette. Images of pristine nature have crystal clear air and tack sharp details. Are these conventions inviolable, or is there a way to avoid conventions and still make a comprehensible image? I think of M. C. Escher and his images that blur the line between the subject and the background. Or Duane Michals who writes on his images with abandon. Breaking conventions is a great way to expand creative boundaries. 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.

HT1775 - Yesterday's News, Lifespan of a Book, Part 2 Concluding thoughts on the lifespan of a book.

HT1774 - Yesterday's News, Lifespan of a Book One of the dominant reasons for wanting to do a book of your photographs is to preserve them for the future. Let me ask a pragmatic question: when was the last time you purchased or looked at a photography book that was published 30 or 50 years ago? This question becomes even more revealing if we eliminate the photographic masters. Will your book actually preserve your images?

HT1773 - Look At This In LensWork #94, we published an article I wrote titled, Look at This. The fundamental idea is that every time we exhibit a picture we are essentially saying to our audience, "Stop what you are doing and take a look at this!" Having done so, the audience expects to find something - - something important, something significant, something worth their time. As artists, part of our responsibility is to be sure there is something important, significant, worthy of their time, or at least memorable. If there isn't, they will feel they have wasted those precious moments from their life.

HT1772 - Parkinson's Law and Your Photography When the walls are full, the drive to produce diminishes. If you don't think I'm right about this, might I propose that you give away every single one of your matted and framed photographs and then live with those blank walls for a few weeks.

HT1771 - YouTuber Photographs For obvious reasons I won't divulge names, but have you noticed how so many YouTube photo experts rarely show their own photographs, haven't updated their web pages for years, or in general don't appear to be people who actually produce photographs? However, they sure do have lots of opinions about equipment!

HT1770 - Your Other Hobby I ran through a list of all the photographers I know, and every one of them has a secondary hobby. They're creativity does not extend only to the camera. They may write poetry, dabble in paint, play a musical instrument, excel at cooking, or throw the occasional pot. Creativity is a habit of mind, not limited to one medium. All 1770+ 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.

LW1383 - The Art of the Container A project needs an enclosure. For years I've tried making these myself, all in custom designs. I realized, how, that there is a whole industry about boxes and various enclosures that we can use without having to make them ourselves. I started doing some research on Amazon.com and so far I've come up with a couple dozen different boxes that could be used to house a collection of prints. Not just paper and heavy board, but also bamboo, pine, myrtle wood, acacia wood, tin boxes. From 4x6 to 9x12 and some that could be very interesting for panorama projects that are 4x9" and even narrower. 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.

HT1769 - Photographic Literacy and Media As we continue to observe a generational difference in the consumption of photography, I wonder if that's affecting photographic literacy? That is to say, if someone primarily knows photography through the internet, do they have a different understanding of photographic literacy than those of us who grew up in the golden age of books? 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.

HT1768 - Photographic Literacy If I describe a friend as being highly literate, what would that mean to you? Does it mean that they know how to read? Or does it mean they are widely read across multiple genres of literature? Or does it mean they know a particular kind of literature with incredible depth. So what does it mean to be photographically literate?

HT1767 - About DPI I received an email asking about submitting images to us for publication. We ask for images that are not less than 3400 pixels on the long side. The author wanted to know how many DPI the images should be. I'm asked this question from time to time and it always exhibits certain confusion about the relationship between pixel dimensions and DPI. I'll try to clarify it in this commentary.

HT1766 - Excuses for Becoming a Photographer I know ever so many photographers who say they picked up the camera because they can't draw decent stick figures. I'm not sure that's true. How would our inability to draw improve if we put as much effort into it as we do photography? Furthermore, is the craft of any medium the central core of being an artist?

HT1765 - Aspects of Photography I Detest This topic is one that was suggested by a listener. I was fascinated by the question. Try as I might, I couldn't come up with a single part of the process in which I find no joy of one kind or another. I even enjoy throwing the crappy prints into the trash. On second thought, there is one aspect I'm not fond of at all.

HT1764 - Motivations to Photograph "It's a beautiful building. You should photograph it," she said. In those 8 words, she encapsulated the misunderstanding of photography as an art medium. I cannot think of a better example of the mischaracterization of "camera as Xerox copy machine" rather than a tool for artistic expression.

LW1382 - Something Physical, Something Lovely I'm all in favor of the internet as a means of sharing our photographic images with the world. I'm also, and perhaps even more so, a fan of the physicality of photography. There is a different appreciation for an image when it's physically preserved as something lovely, something 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.

HT1763 - Just How Many Ansel Adams Photographs Ansel Adams is undoubtedly the most famous and recognized photographer in history. How many of his images can you bring to mind? Seriously, make a list of the images you can recall from memory without looking at his books or the web. All 1760+ 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.

HT1762 - The Ignored Ones I have about a thousand photography books in my library which probably contain an average of 150 images. There are, no doubt, tens of thousands of images that I have only glanced at and then ignored. As I've recently been thinking about this, I've gone back and looked at some of those ignored images. I've been pleasantly surprised how many of them are far better than I originally thought. It's not that they were unworthy of being published, but rather that I was not prepared to understand 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.

HT1761 - Purchased, But Not Consumed For years, I've felt a little guilty about all the books I've purchased but never read. I've recently become aware of the fact that I'm not unusual in this regard. I have about 3,500 books in my library, a lifetime of collecting. I'm often asked if I've read all of them. I have to confess that I haven't, but I have read in all of them.

HT1760 - Close Is Worse Than a Miss When you want to use, for example, a "Dutch angle" that tilts the horizon, you will be far better off to tilt the horizon substantially. If you tilt it just a bit, it's much more likely that viewers will think it's a mistake rather than a conscious compositional decision. Close, but a miss, will always be easily interpreted as a mistake.

HT1759 - Abandoned Places For reasons I'm not sure I understand, lots of photographers seem to be fascinated with photographing abandoned places. We see lots of submissions of abandoned farmhouses, all kinds of factories, barns, and amusement parks! Sometimes these projects are fantastic, but more frequently they might be characterized as explorations of "crumbling architecture." The architecture is usually a lot less interesting than the stories of people and older times that these abandoned buildings can portray.

HT1758 - Empty Magnification In microscopy, there is a term/concept that is useful for us photographers. The term "empty magnification" means making an image larger without revealing any additional data or detail. The same thing happens when we push and enlargement too far, we make the photograph larger without providing any additional information.

HT1757 - Seek What They Sought Some 2,600 years ago, the Chinese sage Lao Tzu advised us, "Do not seek the wise men of old. Seek what they sought." I can't help but think that he was speaking directly to us photographers here in the 21st century. Instead of chasing the Yosemite of Ansel Adams, the Point Lobos of Edward Weston, or the New York of André Kertéz, perhaps we should look beyond their work to the deeper beauty, honesty, and introspection they were trying so diligently to capture in their photographs.

HT1756 - Frozen Movement Photography's great strength is that it can freeze a moment in time. Photography's Achilles heel is that it freezes a moment in time. The best photographs are those that freeze movement in time, rather than a moment. After all, life is movement. There is a world of difference between a pose in a photograph and a gesture arrested in a photograph. All 1750+ 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.

LW1381 - Not Subject-based Far and away, the most common basis for a multi-image project is a subject-based project. Well over 85% of the submissions we received are subject-based, of which a subcategory is location-based projects. Perhaps that is the very reason to push ourselves to think in other terms for the basis of 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.

HT1755 - After Your Initial Ideas Are Exhausted There is a very typical pattern that repeats in the creative life. We find something we're interested in and we photograph it intensely. Eventually we run out of ideas and stop. It's then that the real challenge of being an artist begins and where we will find the greatest rewards. Pushing beyond our own limits is the creative 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.

HT1754 - Custom 1 and Custom 2 I rely heavily on the custom programming I can predetermine and save for the mode button on my camera. My settings may not be ideal for your photography, but they might provide examples of why you should take the time to create your own custom configurations. Employ the powerful capabilities of multiple custom settings that will configure your complex camera for your most common shooting scenarios.

HT1753 - Micro Shadows About a week after you begin photography seriously, you will undoubtedly run across the idea of the "golden hour." As a black and white photographer in my youth, the "golden" part of golden hour never made sense to me. However, the incredible detail that is revealed by angular light made the golden hour special even in black and white. The term I prefer is "micro shadows."

HT1752 - One in a Trillion Yesterday I made a photograph. There were a trillion other photographs made yesterday, too. Why is mine so special?

HT1751 - Daily Projects Nothing jump-starts momentum like a designed project with a regular schedule. Commit to X number of days and stick to it. Not only will you finish a fun project, but you will find your curiosity ramps up, seeds will be planted, and your creative vision will sharpen.

HT1750 - Tripods and Creativity The obvious purpose for using a tripod is to hold the camera stable for sharper pictures. That could be the least important reason to use a tripod.

HT1748 - Exactly What Is Too Easy? Last week I was asking the question about whether or not photography has become too easy. I should have been more explicit. The craft aspects of photography have become easier and success is more assured, but the art aspect of photography is as difficult or more so than it has ever been. 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.

HT1747 - Bilateral Asymmetry Nature teaches us a very interesting lesson that's applicable to photographic composition. The world is roughly bilaterally symmetric, but never bilaterally identical. Harmony and difference go together.

HT1746 - The Sharpest Aperture Early on in my photographic career, I read that each lens has a sharpest aperture. Being a skeptic at heart, I decided to see if this was actually true. It is, and that has led to a lifelong obsession with testing.

HT1745 - I Miss Oliver A very large part of the reasons I'm so passionate about photography are the people I've met and been fortunate enough to know. Perhaps the individual I miss the most is the late Oliver Gagliani. He was, without a doubt, the closest example I ever experienced to a pure artist.

HT1744 - 10,000 Tidbits My approach to learning photography has been somewhat undisciplined. I never went to photography school or studied formally within any educational institution. Instead, my method has been based on the adage of 10,000 tidbits of information, 10,000 hours of practice, and 10,000 failures to learn from.

HT1743 - The Creative Format Most cameras these days record images with an aspect ratio of 3 to 2. It's always amused me that, therefore, most images I see are in that same aspect ratio. Why? Exploring alternatives, like square images, round images, trapezoidal images, etc. Is a fun and productive way to introduce new vision when you feel yourself becoming a bit creatively stale.

LW1379 - Windows and Artifacts When you look at a photograph, there is an underlying and unstated context that thoroughly influences how we see. A photograph can be an artifact, a physical thing that we appreciate as a work of art, as an "art-i-fact." But there is another context that can completely change the way we interpret what meets our eye. Particularly for photographs that are matted, framed and hanging on a wall, the viewing experience can be more like looking through a window. These two pretexts are as different as different can be. 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.

HT1742 - The 21st Century Challenges Has photography become too easy? Where is the challenge of photography here deep in the digital age? For many, the most serious challenge is not creativity, but money. Money for cameras, money for printers and ink, money for travel, money for matting and framing, money for a website or for publishing a book. 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.

LW1380 - Art and Your Deeper Self Like most of you, my initial attraction to photography was the fun and challenging pursuit of making a nice picture. Most of us know, however, that our interest in photography is more than just the pursuit of a pretty picture. I've noticed a universal transition from "pretty pictures" to "personally significant pictures." What is that about? 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.

HT1741 - Limitations of Our Nervous System Hawks have better eyesight than we humans do. Does that mean they have a better understanding of our photographs because they see more detail than we do? As I age, I've had to come to terms with the limitations of my eyesight and that leaves me an ever greater opportunity to deepen my artistic sensitivities. All 1700+ 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.

HT1740 - The Future of Books, Part 2 In addition to the commercial challenges of books, there is also a creative aspect of books that foretell a future problem. Photography books tend to be either a collection of unrelated work, that is a catalog of a photographer's best images, or a book contains a large scale project that requires considerable time to produce and consume. Here in the age of the "quick cut," I find fewer and fewer people are willing to devote time to such lengthy enterprises as reading a book.

HT1739 - The Future of Books I worry about the future of books, especially art books for photography. The reason is that books are first and foremost a commercial product, not an artistic one. It's expensive to produce a book, and if there's no market for it, there's no reason to produce it. And then there is the discouraging problem of distribution.

HT1738 - 62 in Four Days The totals are in from my recent trip to Acadia. Four days of photography have resulted in 62 images I would be proud to exhibit or publish. I can't help but think this is ridiculous. Has photography become too easy?

HT1730 - The Edge of Change The ultimate criteria for a technique or even a piece of gear is: DOES IT WORK. It makes no difference if it should work, theoretically. The only thing that counts is real world results.

HT1736 - Remembering Your Memories The photographs you produce are a capturing of your memories. To the rest of us, your photographs are a new and unique experience. As photograph makers, we need to take this fundamental difference in mind.

HT1735 - Color As a Component of Composition As a long time black-and-white photographer, like so many I've made the transition to photographing in color here in the digital age. One thing I'm still struggling with is the idea of using color as part of the composition. 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.

LW1378 - Remind Us, Show Us, Reveal to Us In the broadest possible overview, photography does one of three things. It either reminds us of something, it shows us something we cannot see for ourselves, or it reveals to us some truth previously unknown. I've often found it useful to think about this as I work an image or a project. What do I want this image or project to accomplish? Does it work as a reminder, a window, or a revelation? 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.

HT1734 - Options or Distractions We now have more options to choose from than we could ever have predicted. But all these options are both a blessing and a potential distraction. It is so easy to get mired in the options that we lose sight of the goals we originally set out to accomplish. All 1700+ 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.

HT1733 - Tips and Tricks A sizable percentage of photographic education (especially on the internet) is of the variety known as "tips and tricks." I'm discouraged by this because I don't think the creation of art is based on a foundation of tricks. Rather than relying on tips and tricks, why not place our faith in discipline, hard work, sensitivity, experimentation, observation, patience, and effort. Leave the tips and tricks to the stage magicians.

HT1732 - A State of Being I know that on the surface photography appears to be the making of an image. As a photographer, however, I've come to realize that doing photography is even more about achieving a certain state of being, a way of life, an engagement with the moment. The image is the point of termination, but it's not the goal.

HT1731 - Making Do Wouldn't it be lovely if we owned the perfect camera? Wouldn't it be lovely if we could command the weather at our will? Wouldn't it be lovely if the light was perfectly cooperative with our whim? But the reality of life is that things are never perfect. Art making is an attempt to create the perfect creative statement in the midst of an uncooperative world.

HT1730 - The Edge of Change It's amazing how many photographic opportunities exist at the edge of change. Where the water meets the land, sunrise when the night turns today, when winter storms clear, when leaves fall, when it snows in the desert. Wherever there is change, look for photographic opportunities because they abound.

HT1729 - Over Time Photography is a powerful tool for showing us the evolution of something over time. Think of a simple project that shows us the same scene over four seasons. But these kinds of projects are always logistically easier if they are close to home, locations where we have easy access.

HT1728 - Naming Is Not the Same As Knowing A few years ago I was out photographing with a nature enthusiast. Every time she set up the camera, she would tell me the name of the tree or plant she was photographing. I think I was supposed to feel informed by her identifications, but when I asked her to tell me more, she couldn't. She confused naming with knowing. 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.

LW1377 - Visual Confirmation, or Visual Revelation I believe there is a deep rooted limitation in the ubiquitous social media thumbs up or thumbs down. It is primarily used as a visual confirmation (thumbs up) that the photographer has faithfully produced what we expect them to produce, or (thumbs down) they have missed the mark. Such a rating system completely eliminates the idea of visual revelation. 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.

HT1727 - Prints, Books, Screens For simplicity sake, I'll propose in this commentary that there are three basic ways we can view a photograph. Photographs can be expressed in a physical print, the commercially printed book or magazine, or some type of digital screen. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. The question of the moment is, which is your favorite way of viewing photographic work? Why? Seriously, why? All 1700+ 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.

HT1725 - Another Example of Learning by Doing Maureen used to refer herself as "Two Time Mo." She knew that anything she tried to do that I was new to her would require at least two attempts before she'd get it right. At least two. This reminds me of Tchaikovsky.

HT1724 - Nuance the Message It's easy to misinterpret a single image. A project that includes a few images offers us the ability to surround the central idea with greater clarification. Just as a thesaurus provides us nuance in language, so a multiple image project provides us nuance in our visual medium.

HT1723 - Answers Training courses, workshops, YouTube videos, how to books — they are all designed to give you answers. But do you really want answers? If photography becomes simply a matter of following instructions to a predetermined answer, doesn't it lose its power to be a meaningful artistic pursuit?

HT1722 - Adding to the Pile Is a Lightroom catalog of 200,000 images a better indicator of quality than 50,000 images? Does adding to the pile of images we already have mean that we've produced better artwork? Is artwork measured numerically or should we be striving towards some other, more sensitive goal?

HT1721 - The Photogenic We've all had that moment when we look at something and think to ourselves how photogenic it is. What is it that makes something "photogenic"? Isn't this another way of saying that it will make a picture that looks like we expect it to look, that is, sort of a cliché? 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.

LW1376 - What I've Learned from Weston's Pepper #30 Edward Weston's image known as Pepper #30 is one of the most celebrated and iconic images in all of photography. Why? I was asked that by a LensWork reader. Attempting to answer her, here are some important lessons I've learned from this classic 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.

HT1720 - Exact Duplicates An unavoidable reality of digital printing is that we can make exact duplicates. This was practically impossible to do in the analog darkroom, so every print had its own unique characteristics. Collectors know this and choose carefully. But in the digital world? Do limited editions even make sense? All 1700+ 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.

HT1718 - Voice Command Shutters I just discovered a very cool feature on my smartphone. I can use my voice as the shutter release trigger. I simply say shoot, smile, cheese, or capture and it will take a picture without me having to press a button. This reduces a lot of handling fuss and camera movement. Why can't this feature be built into my DSLR camera?

HT1717 - The Next Generation of Cameras I don't need more megapixels, but I could use an easier menu, built-in GPS, a larger screen, programmable shutter release stiffness, audible beep for out-of-focus images, in-camera metadata notes, and longer battery life.

HT1716 - The Constant Pull of Diversions Getting old is the process of learning what's important and letting go of the unimportant. Today's life is filled with 10,000 diversions all vying for our attention. Time is a precious commodity, and perhaps the most important strategy we can adopt is a vigilant resistance to the trivial.

HT1715 - 100 Gifts I do photography for fun. I do it because I enjoy it. I do it because I'm motivated to share my life experiences with others. The more I can share, the happier I am. So why not engage a project to give away a hundred gifts just because I can, just because it's fun, just because it's rewarding to do so?

LW1375 - The Standard Appearance In light of the infinite choices of processing that are available to us, what is the objective of processing? What is the standard you use as the goal for your processing steps? Is the goal of processing to mimic human vision? Exaggerated human vision? Is it to reproduce your imagination? How do you choose what your objective for processing is? 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.

HT1714 - Center Stage, or Supporting Actor Photography so easily slides into the supporting role, a background player, the decor of the room, the illustrative/accompaniment of the all-important text. 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.

HT1713 - Managing the Consumables I don't worry anymore about running out of film, but I do worry about running out of space on my memory cards or battery power. So, I've stocked up on both. Never once have I needed to change my card in the field, but every time I'm out photographing I need to change batteries. All 1600+ 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.

HT1719 - About Dates It's a common practice to add the date to the title of a photograph. In fact, location and date have become the default for titling prints. But there are two dates that are equally important and I rarely see them both listed.

HT1726 - Ranking Artwork I will admit that sometimes I enjoy the absurdity of YouTube. An example was a video I watched the other day that purported to rank from best to worst the albums of Joni Mitchell. Against what criteria would such a project unfold? Is it remotely valuable, useful, or universal to rank artwork?

HT1712 - Notes That Work Images create thoughts and ideas. Thoughts and ideas can lead to projects, even if you don't have an image yet in mind. Note in our image's metadata can work, but it's cumbersome and not always available when the idea pops up. For years, I've used Microsoft OneNote for this purpose. Evernote is a powerful software, too. Regardless of what you use, capturing ideas, quotes, images, questions, and thoughts is an important part of the creative process.

HT1711 - Ultra-Deep Depth of Field Last weekend in Acadia, I was photographing floating leaves on a pond. To gain access, I was using a long telephoto lens which resulted in many images with insufficient depth of field. The ones that solved that problem were the focus blends and 100% of the images that I photographed with my ultra-wide lens.

HT1710 - The 24 Megapixel Sweet Spot Isn't it interesting how many new cameras are being announced in the 24 megapixel range? It's almost as if the industry has figured out that that's as much as most people will ever need. After all, 24 megapixels are enough to do a wonderful book, or a 16x20 print. And on those rare occasions when you need more there are a few workarounds like stitching and multi-exposure high resolution mode.

HT1709 - Global Shutters Contain yourselves. With the news of the new Sony a9 Mark 3 and its global shutter, we can all now take photographs at 120 frames per second. I have no doubt that the money behind research and development for this camera came chiefly from hard drive manufacturers.

HT1708 - Sunday Morning Books For 30 years now, I've had a habit of setting aside time on Sunday morning for looking at art books. Most of those, of course, our photography books, but not always. It's time in which I can give my full attention to others creative expressions.

HT1707 - Rachmaninoff In The Background When I'm busy doing something else, like cooking dinner or reading the newspaper or even chatting with friends, it's nice to have music playing in the background. There are, however, certain types of music that don't work for this purpose, for example the piano concertos of Rachmaninoff. I have to listen to his music with concentration and single-focused intensity To play Rachmaninoff in the background as ambience seems disrespectful. I feel the same way about photography. 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.

LW1374 - Telephones, Books, and the Future of Photography I know this dates me, but I just can't get used to the idea of looking at photographs on my telephone. I'm more comfortable looking at photographs on my computer monitor, but even that's not ideal. That leaves books as my favorite way of seeing photographs, but what about all those photographs that aren't published? 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.

HT1706 - The Eternal Battle of the Artist For as long as there has been art, there has been the battle waged by the artist to cajole recalcitrant materials to conform to the artist's vision. This requires effort, talent, sometimes a gift from God. What happens when a means of production is developed that completely eliminates this contest, when the artist (or photographer) can easily produce whatever they can imagine? Aren't we getting dangerously close to that in photography with the pixel level control of digital workflows? All 1600+ 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.

HT1705 - Captions Not Allowed If I were to pick at random one of your photographs, I'll bet you could tell me an associated story that expands my appreciation of your image. Every photograph has a story. So why is it that photographs framed and displayed on the wall never have that story as a part of the artwork? When was the last time you saw a photograph that even had a title as a part of the artwork, let alone the full story?

HT1704 - Out, Out Damned Ball Head In the course of my photographic life, I've probably owned 30 or more tripod ball heads. I love the concept, but I hate the drift. I'm going back to a geared head because I detest equipment that fights me.

HT1703 - Advice on Where to Photograph It's amazing how many times I will be given advice on where to photograph by a well-meaning friend or relative. If I'm advised to go left, I've always found better photographs by going right. My advice is to always ignore advice and instead follow your internal spidey sense.

HT1702 - It Will Be Better Next Week I'm recording this in late October of 2023, my first fall in The Northeast. For the last month, I've heard all the locals claim that the color in the fall leaves will be more intense next week. Come to think of it, I've heard about the virtues of "next week" my entire photographic life.

HT1701 - Going Through the Motions Sometimes, I just don't feel it. I'm there with my camera, the subject is lovely, the light is gorgeous, and I've got nothing. My inclination is to not photograph, but doing so anyway is a great way to break the momentum of ennui.

HT1700 - A Simple Habit That Saves Hours I can't seem to change lenses in the field without getting some dust on the sensor that ends up being those big ugly blobs in the sky. A simple habit has saved me hours of spotting out those dust spot blobs. 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.

HT1699 - The One That Sparks an Idea With some frequency, I have an image that haunts my imagination. It's often an odd duck, with no other images in my Lightroom catalog that are similar to it. But somehow this lone image sparks an idea that grows into a much larger project. All 1600+ 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.

HT1698 - Take Your Time Perhaps this is more about me than anything like a general principle, but I just can't hurry when I'm making art. Hurried art is messy art. I have to allow time or I just end up disappointed.

HT1697 - Bootscreen Brainwashing Every morning I boot up my Windows 11 laptop and am greeted with a beautiful photogenic scene from somewhere in the world. Every damned day. Is this what people think of when they think of fine art photography? Certainly artistic photography is more than saturated colors and idyllic landscapes.

HT1696 - Increase the Flaws William Blake said , "The fool who persists in his folly will eventually become wise." Can we apply this to our mistakes? The new Lens Blur tool in Lightroom is an example.

HT1695 - Avoiding the Seduction to Catalog Whenever I find myself in a location that offers lots of different compositions, a rut that I easily fall into is what I characterize as "cataloging." This invariably leads to a shallow collection of repetitive images.

HT1694 - Even Winners Produce Losers Can we all agree that not every Ansel Adams, or Edward Weston, or Wynn Bullock image is a winner? Sometimes even the great photographers would produce a questionable image. When I produce crap, I find it comforting to remember that.

HT1693 - Previsualizing the Finished Size I stopped using the Ansel Adams idea of "previsualization" years ago. His idea was to mentally predict the tones you want before you expose the film. The next step was to develop the negative to achieve those tones. As far as I know, Adams never discussed previsualization relative to print size. 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.

LW1372 - Apprenticeship There are two ways to learn - - organized cramming (like in school) or an apprenticeship, where you learn by absorbing wisdom over time. Organized cramming is great for things like math, engineering, grammar, or science. Apprenticeship learning is best for the arts — things like furniture making, cooking, and photography. 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.

LW1373 - Gershwin in the Age of Hip Hop I love big band music. I don't love hip hop music. Similarly, I love classic landscapes of the 20th century, but I'm not crazy about New Topographics or socially aware photography that is all the rage today. By definition, that puts me out of touch with so much of contemporary photography. As I get older, I'm having a harder and harder time determining whether or not I am an old fuddy-duddy or a preserver of historic values. What should be our response to artwork we don't like? 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.

HT1692 - A Few Thoughts About Metadata Believe it or not, 70% of the entries to this year's Light, Glorious Light book project arrived without the photographer's copyright information in the metadata of the file. All 1600+ 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.

HT1691 - Small Prints There is a substantial difference between looking at a large print and looking at a small print. Sometimes it's best to make an image small so that it can be visually digested in a single gulp. My long-standing love affair with the 2¼ x 3¼ contact print.

HT1690 - You Will Fail Ah, those fickle beholders. They just can't be pleased all of the time. There will always be people who don't like any image you create. It is part of the process. The issue is not will you fail, but how you handle that failure that counts.

HT1689 - Judging Our Own Work To paraphrase Charles Dickens, we are the best judge of our own work, we are the worst judge of our own work.

HT1688 - Ready at the Drop of a Hat What would you do if a gallery called today and asked if you could exhibit your work this weekend? Would you be ready to accept such an invitation? Do you have work ready to go at the drop of a hat? If not, might this be something to consider in a world where opportunity meets preparation?

HT1687 - Photography Is More About Editing Than It Is About Photographing Clicking the shutter is easy. If that was all it took, we'd all be Master photographers. The hardest part of making our artwork is what follows, after we click the shutter. I think of editing as the completion of the process that follows the exposure — image selection, processing, sequencing, and final presentation.

LW1371 - The New World Challenge of Volume Compared to previous generations of photographers, we have it so easy. We can produce dozens, even hundreds of wonderful images with speed and ease that would astound 20th century photographers. What are the implications of this? First is that the gorgeous, beautiful image is no longer a rarity. Also, we can photograph a project of images in a few days. The implications of this volume of productivity are not yet clear, but we can predict that the changes will be profound. 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.

HT1685 - KeyIines, Drop Shadows, and Over-printing With digital processing, photography is creeping closer and closer to graphic design. For example, we can now easily modify our photographs to include keylines, drop shadows, and printed textures. For some, this may seem like photographic blasphemy, but for others it opens a new world for us too creatively express ourselves. All 1600+ 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.

HT1684 - What Our Print Borders Communicate I've been around photography long enough to realize that how we treat the border of our photographs is a fashion that changes over time. For example, when I see a scalloped border with a month and year date in it, I know it was printed in the 1960s, probably by a drugstore. But that's just the beginning of what we learned from the borders of a photograph.

HT1676 - For Ever, and Ever, and Ever Finding the Atmospheric Relationship

HT1682 - The Root Deception in Photography Every human-made photographic image is composed of dots. The world is not.

HT1681 - Defining the Audience for your Work Whether you are conscious of it or not, you make your work for someone. It might be for yourself, for the elite audience of fellow photographers and collectors, for strangers on Instagram, for the general public, or for your friends and family. Knowing which audience is important to you is a critical step — and might very well change everything you do.

HT1680 - Prioritizing the Flaws As the bumper sticker tells us, "Poo-poo occurs." But not all problems are equally problematic. If we can prioritize the flaws in our images and apply a ranking to them, that can help us determine which areas need our attention most urgently.

LW1370 - Collapsing Attention Spans I worry about the future of the still image. 100 years ago, the primary method to view photographs was to see original prints. 50 years ago we primarily saw photographs in books. Today we primarily see photographs on a fleeting web page. Attention spans would seem to be collapsing dramatically. Should we accept this as inevitable, or push to extend viewing times to something more historic? 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.

HT1679 - Every Picture Has a Background Finding subjects is relatively easy. Lots of things capture our attention. But every time we aim our camera at a subject, we also unconsciously aim it at a background. More often than not, I find it's the background that can ruin a photograph, although it rarely makes the photograph great. The best we can hope for is that the background does not compete with, distract from, or diminish the subject. 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.

HT1686 - Which Comes First Does new technology inspire our creative ideas, or do our ideas demand that we pursue or learn a new technique? Is this just a chicken or egg scenario? Perhaps there is something deeper to this question that's worth thinking about. 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.

HT1677 - Every 20 Minutes Let me propose an odd experiment that I first heard about from my friend AlIan Bruce Zee. It has to do with timed photography stops.

HT1676 - For Ever, and Ever, and Ever One of the ever-present themes in my early days of photography was the importance of archival processing. Now that I look back on it, I'm not sure I understand what's so important about making sure our work will be available to future generations. Will they really care? Or will they have contemporary art that will draw their attention?

HT1675 - Kertész and the Self-portrait In a very real sense, every image André Kertész made was a self-portrait of one kind or another. Very few of them include his physical appearance, but all of them reflect his psychological state of mind. In some small measure, isn't that the strategy for all our photographs, even our landscapes?

HT1674 - Do Not Disturb, Artist at Work I've said for years that a camera is one of the best excuses for going out and exploring the world. Most people, when they see you pull out your tripod and your dark cloth, will be exceedingly courteous while you do your serious artwork. Announce you are gathering images for a book project, and strangers have set up crowd control so that I can do your work. Restores my faith in humanity.

HT1673 - Your Photographic Checklist People who are interested in birds will often keep a checklist record of the birds they've seen. I've known photographers like this, too. They'll keep a checklist of the images they need to have in their portfolio as some kind of indicator of their success as a photographer.

LW1369 - Controlling How We View Photographs As an analog printmaker, I was in control of the size of my images. Every image had an ideal size. Here in the age of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and large computer monitors, I'm no longer the one who determines how big my images are. Except for prints. Maybe that's a reason to still make prints. 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.

HT1672 - Burst Mode The most obvious reason to use Burst Mode is to capture the fleeting. It's useful for sports, animals, facial expressions, and for finding just the right moment in a sequence of events. But there are two other reasons to use Burst Mode that aren't so obvious. 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.

HT1671 - Title Cards, Part 2 Yesterday, I was discussing whether or not the title card on the wall in the gallery is part of the artwork. There is one more aspect of this discussion that deserves our attention. All 1600+ 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.

HT1678 - How Many Images One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is how many images should be included in a project? Is there a minimum? Is there a maximum? How do you know when there's too many or too few? All 1600+ 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.

HT1670 - Title Cards Is the title part of the artwork or is it separate from the artwork? The way most photographs are displayed in galleries, the title is on a card off to the side. It functions more like a part. My suspicion is that most photographers title their work because it's part of how they want their photograph to be seen and interpreted. Then why put the title on a card off to the side?

HT1669 - Where, Oh Where As I get older and look back on my photographic choices, I realize that it's far less important where I photograph than I've thought. Most of my best photographs and projects come from random locations rather than from careful planning.

HT1668 - Learning from the Best I don't know a landscape photographer who isn't a fan of other landscape photographers. But if we consider ourselves image makers rather than exclusively photograph makers, why wouldn't we also study the landscape painters? Who is your favorite landscape painter? And if you don't have one, is that because you haven't taken the time to study the landscape painters and learn what you can from them?

HT1667 - Camera Operators The other day I received an email in which the writer took me to task for conflating the words photographer and artist. Therein lies an incredibly deep philosophical discussion about whether or not we are primarily camera operators or image makers. We are obviously both, but image making is the goal and camera operation is only the means.

HT1666 - Fragility The world must think that photographs are incredibly fragile. Why else would we entomb them behind glass when we frame them? We don't do that with paintings; we don't do that with watercolors, or etchings, or pen and ink drawings, not even when they are created by the Masters of the art world. So why do we think photographs are so fragile?

HT1665 - Pacing The other night I watched a movie from the 1970s, my young adulthood. I thought it would never end, the movie, that is, not my young adulthood. The pacing in the movie was so slow by today's standards. Like it or not, life happens at a fast pace these days and that equally pertains to our multi-image photography projects.

LW1368 - Why Do You Want to Be Better? I haven't counted, but it seems as though there are 10,000 YouTube videos whose goal is to improve your photography. Have you stopped to consider why you think you need to improve your photography? And why is it that you think new camera techniques or compositional techniques will make your photographs better? What do you mean by "better?" Is it possible that the pursuit of better is merely a procrastination for not doing the work now? 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.

HT1664 - Photography As a Process We all assume that the purpose of our photography is to make prints, or at the very least digital images. But what if neither of those was the ultimate objective of being a photographer? What if we were to look at photography as a process we engage in that has no goal other than the activity of doing it? Somehow, I think our pictures would improve. All 1600+ 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.

HT1663 - Been There, Done That Assuming the place won't change is not only a denial of reality, but leaves out half of the equation. Even though you've been there and done that, the you that you were back then is no longer the "you" you are now. The current you may have something new to see, feel, and photograph.

HT1662 - Some Days Are Diamonds, Some Days Are Excrement Earlier this year I had back-to-back days of photography and I finally had a chance to review those images. How could it possibly be that the first day was so terrific and rewarding and the second day, photographing in the same area, produced absolutely nothing of interest or value whatsoever?

HT1661 - Signal to Noise Ratio The concept of signal to noise ratio is something we photographers are familiar with, particularly when it comes to our cameras and digital noise. This same concept can be applied to the content of our photographs (signal) compared to the craft of photography (noise).

HT1660 - Money As the Deciding Factor I'm naturally resistant to the idea that excellence is a function of budget. When manufacture's marketing tells me I can improve my bird pictures by buying a $20,000 lens; when my landscape photography will be improved if I spend $30,000 on a medium format ultra-megapixel digital system; when workshop programs tell me I need to spend $15,000 for them to take me to an exotic photographable location, I just cringe — and rebel.

HT1659 - Will It Make a Difference I've been looking at gear again this week because Panasonic has introduced an updated version of my beloved G9 camera. The G9 II has some substantial upgrades and is tempting. But for $1900 it had better have an impact on the images I make or that temptation evaporates.

HT1658 - Out They Go I have a complete, pristine, and almost unused set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. What do I do with this in the age of Google? What about those shelves full of National Geographic magazines? What do I do with those in the age of Instagram? How long will it be before Facebook and Instagram are similarly obsolete and anachronistic? What about our photographs?

LW1367 - The Other RGB We photographers live in a world of RGB, but no I'm not thinking about red, green, and blue. As creative artists I prefer to think of RGB as Rethink, Gamble, Breathe. 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.

HT1657 - Breathtaking It seems that so much of photography today is intended to take our breath away. There is the "wow factor" that every photographer seems to pursue with unwavering effort. Why has that become the ultimate criteria for a successful fine art photograph?

HT1656 - Print Quality vs Content Quality As a publisher, perhaps I'm particularly aware of the incredible improvements in the quality of book printing in these last 50 years. That said, when I find an older book that really impresses me, I know it's image content is strong and overcomes whatever primitive printing was used. Content is, and always has been, king in spite of the emphasis by so many of today's manufacturers and photographers who place so much emphasis on print quality.

HT1655 - The Photography Section in the Bookstore With very few exceptions, I find the photography section in bookstores is overwhelmingly populated by "how to" books. How come the Literature section in bookstores is not overrun with manuals on how to operate a typewriter or a word processor?

HT1654 - Outdoor Photographer, RIP I was shocked the other day to learn that the magazine Outdoor Photographer has ceased publication and their website has been taken down. I never subscribed to that magazine, but I respected their contribution to the field of photography publishing. They had an impressive subscriber base of over 100,000 people, and you think that would be enough to keep them vital. Guess not.

HT1653 - Display Copies, Another Thought From time to time, we all have an opportunity to show our work to friends or family, people who stop by the house, maybe it'll workshop. But the process of showing our work puts it at risk for damage or normal wear and tear. That's why a display copy is a good idea. I talked about this in Here's a Thought #002 in March 2019. But here's another use for display copies.

HT1652 - That Moment When Autumn Arrives Every year, there is a memorable moment when I know that fall has arrived. It's a combination of the air, a stillness, a leaf falling, an undeniable shift in my thinking. For years I've tried to capture that moment in a photograph. Every year I fail, but I still keep trying.

LW1366 - Structuring Our Creative Life I've really enjoyed my two and a half years traveling around the country in the trailer. I've done an awful lot of photography, that is, I've captured a lot of new images. In retrospect, I also have to admit to a structural flaw in my plans. There's been very little time for producing my artwork, and at this stage in life, that should be what I'm doing most aggressively. 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.

HT1651 - Glossy, Semi-gloss, and Matte Surface characteristics of photo paper go through phases of popularity. In the '70s when I was cutting my teeth in photography, glossy surface ruled the roost, but it had to be the right glossy. Not that RC plastic glossy, but a beautiful F surface was preferred. Nowadays, matte papers seem to be the most popular, but we're also entering a phase where canvas and aluminum are gaining popularity. What does the surface texture of the paper contribute to the artwork?

HT1650 - October in Maine I'm headed up to Maine next month for a couple of weeks of photography and I'm quite concerned about it. I'll be there during the peak explosion of fall color. But I don't want to make pictures of beautiful fall leaves, at least not like everyone else does. I know I will be seduced into doing so, but I'm really hoping to find my own response to that beautiful landscape.

HT1649 - The Unsold Ones It's always great to be asked to exhibit your work. Nothing is quite so motivating for productivity than a deadline. And if you're lucky, you might sell a print or two. But what will you do with the other 26 prints that don't sell? Where will you store them? Can you afford the expense of the unsold, framed inventory?

HT1648 - Twenty Bucks Burning a Hole in Your Pocket In Portland, Oregon there is a weekly event known as Saturday Market. It's mostly craft booths or street food and it's an awful lot of fun. Everyone goes there intending to spend a little money just because it's cheap entertainment. I learned a valuable lesson about this from my Chinese calligraphy teacher who, for years, had a booth at Saturday market.

HT1647 - Brown, A Love-Hate Relationship Brown is such a lovely tone in a monochrome image, but it's also a bear to get right. I think it's because brown is made up of all colors mixed in exacting proportions. And this is where it becomes a challenge. Too much red in the brown can result in pink skies. Too much yellow in the brown and images can look muddy.

HT1646 - Paper Properties The most common physical medium for photographs is paper. I wonder why it is that the fundamental properties of paper are never used by photographers? Paper is a pliable material that might offer some interesting properties we could use creatively. For example, paper can be folded, crumpled, sewn, dyed, twisted, and torn.

HT1645 - The Absent Photographer I was looking at a coffee-table book of photographs of the Grand Canyon. There were all well-crafted, beautiful images. They were also completely devoid of any sense of a photographer whatsoever. The perfectly objective photographer is the absent photographer.

LW1365 - In Praise of Used Bookstores I love used book stores. I have nothing else to add. Just love them. 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. LensWork Online includes hundreds of hours of audio, video, and downloadable content - literally terabytes of content, content, and more content. All 1295+ of Brooks Jensen's podcasts, the complete Here's a Thought... video library, Looking at Images commentaries, Creative Labs and new channels for 2020 including Finding the Picture and Those Who Inspire Me (and Why). We add new content literally every day. You can learn more about memberships to LensWork Online at www.lenswork.com. And don't forget that all members can download the digital versions of LensWork for your tablet or computer. LensWork Online is the most content-rich resource for ideas and inspiration you'll find anywhere on the Internet.

HT1644 - Once It Was Difficult Olivia Parker inspired us to explore the incredible complexities of split toning. I attended a week-long workshop to learn Jay Dusard's ferrocyanide bleaching technique. I don't even want to remember the hours I spent trying to master the concepts in Minor White's little yellow Zone System book. And now all of these can be accomplished with a single mouse click.

HT1643 - Imitation Is Not the Sincerest Form of Teaching We know that imitation is a form of flattery, but when it comes to teaching art, imitation is not the goal. The purpose of a teacher or mentor or workshop instructor in art is to help the learner to make their own art.

HT1642 - Art Stories Yesterday, I was talking about my friend and her extensive collection of framed art on the walls of her home. As we toured her collection, she told stories about the artists she had known, many of whom were friends. I couldn't help but contrast with the visit I'd had a few years ago visiting an important photography collector whose stories were all about the acquisition and the monetary value of his collection.

HT1641 - Surrounded by Art I recently visited a friend who loves art. She gave me a tour of her house and I counted 139 framed pieces of art on the walls of her home. I found it interesting that what connected her collection was not media, but content.

HT1640 - Volumetric Satisfaction In the intersection of art and commerce, there are two opposing strategies. Sell relatively few pieces for a high dollar amount, or sell lots of pieces for a low dollar amount. Which volumetric approach appeals to you the most? High volume dollars per photograph, or a high volume number of photographs?

LW1364 - Disposable, Flippant Artwork What is the future of what we know as "fine art photography"? I have no idea, but I do have some concerns, especially as the public seems more and more to think of photography as a device for selfies and disposable images. 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. LensWork Online includes hundreds of hours of audio, video, and downloadable content - literally terabytes of content, content, and more content. All 1200+ of Brooks Jensen's podcasts, the complete Here's a Thought... video library, Looking at Images commentaries, Creative Labs and new channels for 2021 including Exploring the Back Issues and Q&A with Brooks and friends. We add new content literally every day. You can learn more about memberships to LensWork Online at www.lenswork.com. And don't forget that all members can download the digital versions of LensWork for your tablet or computer. LensWork Online is the most content-rich resource for ideas and inspiration you'll find anywhere on the Internet.

LW1363 - Competitive Artmaking So much of culture today is based on competitive posturing. I've never been comfortable with competition in artmaking. Yes, competition may motivate us to strive for better results, but that's not the problem as I see it. The problem is that in order for competition to be fair, there need to be rules that must be followed, and judges that must enforce the rules — both of which are antithetical to creativity. 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. LensWork Online includes hundreds of hours of audio, video, and downloadable content - literally terabytes of content, content, and more content. All 1200+ of Brooks Jensen's podcasts, the complete Here's a Thought... video library, Looking at Images commentaries, Creative Labs and new channels for 2021 including Exploring the Back Issues and Q&A with Brooks and friends. We add new content literally every day. You can learn more about memberships to LensWork Online at www.lenswork.com. And don't forget that all members can download the digital versions of LensWork for your tablet or computer. LensWork Online is the most content-rich resource for ideas and inspiration you'll find anywhere on the Internet.

LW1362 - The End of the Trail, Sort Of Big news about my travels and a thoroughly unexpected lesson learned! 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. LensWork Online includes hundreds of hours of audio, video, and downloadable content - literally terabytes of content, content, and more content. All 1200+ of Brooks Jensen's podcasts, the complete Here's a Thought... video library, Looking at Images commentaries, Creative Labs and new channels for 2020 including Finding the Picture and Those Who Inspire Me (and Why). We add new content literally every day. You can learn more about memberships to LensWork Online at www.lenswork.com. And don't forget that all members can download the digital versions of LensWork for your tablet or computer. LensWork Online is the most content-rich resource for ideas and inspiration you'll find anywhere on the Internet.

LW1360 - Digitally Remastering Your Still Photographs What do you do if a project you finished a decade ago can suddenly be radically improved based on new software features? Do you go back and redo that old project so that it looks better with the new capabilities? Or, do you leave it as is as a testament of the times in which it was completed? 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. LensWork Online includes hundreds of hours of audio, video, and downloadable content - literally terabytes of content, content, and more content. All 1200+ of Brooks Jensen's podcasts, the complete Here's a Thought... video library, Looking at Images commentaries, Creative Labs and new channels for 2020 including Finding the Picture and Those Who Inspire Me (and Why). We add new content literally every day. You can learn more about memberships to LensWork Online at www.lenswork.com. And don't forget that all members can download the digital versions of LensWork for your tablet or computer. LensWork Online is the most content-rich resource for ideas and inspiration you'll find anywhere on the Internet.