HT0546 - Pushing Complexity

The opposite of minimalism is not chaos, it is ordered complexity. Ironically, the more complex the scene, the more need there is for eliminating the unessential. Study Thomas Joshua Cooper.

HT0547 - Your Corpus of Work

Discovering Michael Connelly and his extensive library of work, compared to discovering your work from an exhibition you had, say, five years ago. What is your strategy for sharing your corpus of work when a new person discovers your work five or ten years from now?

HT0548 - Static Artwork in an Active World

Most of us probably have some of our work framed and hanging on the walls of our home. How often do you change the images on display? We all know that the cost for producing a print is miniscule compared to the cost of framing it. My alternatives to framing

HT0549 - In-Between the Trophies

All photographers are on the look-out for that once-in-a-lifetime spectacular image. These are the trophies of many photographer's efforts. But in between those rare moments lie innumerable possibilities for smaller, more humble, yet still interesting and meaningful projects.

HT0550 - How Much Time

I used to think that doing a project implied a large commitment of time. I'm not so sure anymore. Looking back, I realize that I have projects that took me years to complete and others that I did in about 20 minutes. Time is in no way connected to creativity.

HT0551 - Dormant Seeds

Look back in your photographic archives, particularly for images that you don't remember making. These images come from deep within us and are seed images for projects that our creative muse is whispering to us to pursue.

HT0552 - Gravity

Buddhism teaches what they call "The Four Dignities of Man" — walking, standing, sitting, lying down. I got to wondering if this might be a way to look at my photographs that could lead me to a previously unseen project. I found that there are photographs that move, that resist gravity, that respond to gravity, that succumb to gravity. Kind of crazy idea, but a fun one to play with.

HT0553 - Rules

In life, there are four kinds of people: rule-makers, rule-keepers, rule-benders, and rule-breakers. This applies to art and photography, as well.

HT0554 - The Secondary Market

After the original sale of a print, photographers derive no more income from subsequent sales — the "secondary market" as it's known in the gallery world. Of course, if galleries are involved in a secondary market sale, they earn income, but not the photographer. I've always thought this was a bit unfair to the creator of the artwork, but it is what it is and I see no possibility or future for trying to change it.

HT0555 - The Secondary Market for Kokoro

Because I give away my PDF publication Kokoro, I don't derive any income from it. Nor do I drive any income from the "secondary market," — i.e., if people share my PDF with their friends. But I don't drive any income from the secondary market of print sales either, so in that regard I haven't lost anything. In fact, if people share my PDFs with their friends, it helps me accomplish my primary objective which is to share my work with others.

HT0556 - Real People

No doubt, the most emotionally satisfying exhibition of my work was at a small farming and ranching town where most of the attendees showed up in pickup trucks and wore overalls and jeans.

HT0557 - Reading Between the Lines

An interesting thing about multiple-image projects is that the message we hope to convey through the project is greater than any of the individual prints. There is both a cumulative and an interpretive part of projects that are fascinating. But it's the connective ideas between the images that really are the glue that holds the project together

HT0558 - More Than One Choice

Occasionally, one of my old habits from my view camera days kicks in and I make the mistake of only making one composition and one exposure from a scene. This is, no doubt, a leftover habit from my sheet film days. But it's irrelevant to day! When I am thinking with a more modern strategy, I shoot multiple compositions and In multiple ways so that I have a choice when I'm back home working the image for use in a project.

HT0559 - Parallax Corrections

If you've ever tried to use the parallax correction transformations in Lightroom, you know that you can lose some of the objects on the very edge of the field of view after cropping. With this in mind, I try to become aware of when I might need parallax corrections and when I do, I use a slightly wider angle lens or move back a bit to compensate for the anticipated loss of the edge of the image.

HT0560 - Gear Extremes

From a marketing point of view, what seems to be differentiating one new camera from the next is how well it performs in extreme conditions. ISO 215,000, extreme long shutter handheld exposures, endurance under extreme environmental temperatures both hot and cold, megapixel counts that are only useful in extremely large in large prints, and burst rates that are of practical use in only extreme conditions. But for 98% of us using our cameras in 98% of normal photographic conditions, I'm not sure I see any difference between one camera and the next.

HT0561 - Universality or Better

There is no question that JPEG2000 is better than JPG, but I'll take the universality of JPG every time. Pages is a convenient Mac word processor, but I'll use Microsoft Word or even better the RTF format for sending my documents every time for its universality. And for digital publishing of photographic projects, again I'll use PDF every time rather than some other, better delivery format for the simple reason that PDFs are universally accessible.

HT0562 - Unlearning and Relearning

In 1968, Alvin Toffler (the futurist) said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." For example, how many of you are using today the same camera you were using ten or twenty years ago?

HT0563 - The Pretty Picture

A part of being human is the desire built into us to long for utopia. Pictures of the beautiful sunset, the pretty girl, the pristine mountain scene, and the cascading waterfall or the perfect flower blossom are part of this legacy from our ancient DNA.

HT0564 - 2, 3, and 5

In the world of design, the numbers 2, 3, and 5 are particularly revered and there's every reason for us to pay attention to those design rules in the presentation of our photographs. What particularly fascinates me about this is that this appears to be a universal thing across cultures, too, which makes me wonder if it isn't something biological rather than merely a cultural convention.

HT0568 - A Full Frame Nit Pick

As a matter of personal preference, I have always liked an aspect ratio that is a bit more squarish than a long rectangle – 4x5 rather than 3:2. So for me to shoot a 24 megapixel full frame camera would only net 21 megapixels at my preferred aspect ratio.

HT0569 - Cute Dessert

I can only imagine what Edward Weston wound think about the setting on one of my digital cameras that is for photographing "cute dessert." In fact, if you want to know the difference between fine art photography and snapshots, just considered the difference between Pepper #30 and cute dessert.

HT0570 - Fine Art Photographers

Photography is a hot commodity thanks to iPhones and Smartphones. There are more photographs being taken on more devices today than ever in the history of photography. I'm not sure, however, that the recent downward trend in camera sales tells us anything about photography and fine art photographers. We fine art photographers are a tiny subset of photography. Whether there are more or fewer fine art photographers, there's no way to know for sure, but I'm not worried about the long-term trend for photography and art.

HT0571 - Monitor Calibration

A global issue that can cause problems with every image you process. Trust me on this one: You need to own and regularly use a hardware calibration device for your monitor. There are several that are good ones, and all of them are better than a wing and a prayer that your monitor is giving you accurate information.

HT0575 - Seamlessness

The ideal relationship with a camera is when you no longer need to think about how to use it, but when you just do so. Like when a musician just thinks the music and their fingers make it happen without conscious effort. A great reason to not change cameras any more often then you absolutely need to.