HT0849 - Equalizing a Photograph

In the world of audio, equalizers area prevalent tool. An equalizer allows me to shape the recorded sound to my ears and even my preferences. In photography such thoughts would be blasphemous. Why? In fact, the rendering tools in my video card or portable device do the same sort of thing as an audio equalizer.

HT0850 - Two Reasons for a Book

Structurally, there are two reasons for a book: gather a group of images together, or to present them in a particular order, perhaps with text that must appear in a specified sequence. If your reason for doing a book is limited to gathering images together, why insist on binding them?

HT0851 - Our Adrenalin Fueled Society

As I observe it, so much of life today is the pursuit of the next hit of adrenaline, or dopamine, or something that stimulates us. It's no wonder photography is not as popular as movies, sports, politics, or sex. I hope there is still a place in our culture for sitting still, breathing deeply, and maybe enjoying a moment with nature, a haiku, a cloud floating slowly across a blue sky, and a photograph that connects us with the quiet side of life.

HT0855 - Finding a Title for Your Project

Here is a simple and effective way to find a title for your project. I've been teaching this method for twenty years and it never fails.

HT0856 - Chess and Photography

I don't play chess, but I understand the fundamental strategy: anticipate your opponent's next moves as a consequence of your moves. The same idea can he used in photography. Anticipate the viewer's reactions to your creation and do your best to move the outcome in the directions you intend. This is especially useful in sequencing your images.

HT0857 - The Importance of Finishing

Nothing teaches us more about being an artist than finishing projects. Learning by doing is always the best way of learning.

HT0858 - The Calm After the Storm

Every time I finish a project, I find myself in that odd space where I'm lost for a little bit, unsure what I should do next. I've learned to trust it: Nature abhors a vacuum.

HT0862 - Photography As a Slow Thing

Movies and TV shows tend to show photography as this frenetic activity with photographers seemingly hopped up on massive amounts of caffeine. I'm sure for certain kinds of photography that's appropriate. The more I work in the landscape, with abstracts, and even with portraits, I find a slower approach to be much more successful.

HT0863 - Landscape or Lightscape

Without light, there is no photography. But why do so many photographers prefer certain kinds of light? Is a photograph successful because of the land it shows, the light it uses, or the mood it creates?

HT0864 - EMI — Eyes, Mood, Idea

Some images just delight our eyes; some images give us a mood or a certain feeling; and some images fill us with ideas and make us think. Of course the best images do all three at once. Maybe this can be developed into a strategy?

HT0865 - If You Don't Feel It

I was reading an article on creative photography in which the writer proposed that if you don't feel it you shouldn't photograph it. I couldn't disagree with him more. That strategy completely removes the possibility that you might feel it later, long after the photographic opportunity has passed.

HT0869 - Better Than My Eyes

Here is a measure of how far we've come with the advancement of technology these days. I used to dream of a lens that would render as much detail as I could see with my eyes. The lenses I'm using today can see far more than I can with my eyes. This has radically changed my photography.

HT0870 - The Monochromatic Color Image

In a position about three-quarters of the way between, I'm seeing a lot of projects these days that are visually monochromatic but have a dot or a splash of color somewhere, or perhaps a slight tint of color that clearly make them a color image. For the right subjects, this is a marvelous approach.

HT0871 - Content First, Artifact Second

We fine art photographers spend most of our creative time on perfecting the artifact, but the general public sees the content of our image first and All other observations are secondary.

HT0872 - SHOUTING with an EXCLAMATION POINT

How you analogize photography will radically change your approach. Do you think of photography as a cousin of painting, or as a cousin of the storytelling we find in novels? Are you making an image that will shout with an exclamation point? Or are you using images more like paragraphs?

HT0876 - Your Intent

When it comes to interpreting your artwork, there seems to be two schools of thought. The contemporary thinking is that we should allow viewers to interpret our work any way they want. I'm not buying it. Besides, how would you know how to compose or process an image if you have no intent?

HT0877 - The Odd Duck

Working a collection of images into a refined project often involves trying to identify those images that are odd ducks, that is, the ones that just don't seem to fit with the rest of them as comfortably as they should. It might be a matter of content, it might be a matter of composition, it might be a matter of any number of factors. The challenge is to find those odd ducks and decide if they're out because they're odd, or in because they make an important contrast to the rest of the images.

HT0878 - Meaningless Precision

There are two aspects of photography, the science and the art. In my youth, I thoroughly overemphasized the science and pursued precision that, in retrospect, were perfectly meaningless. For example, I didn't control the temperature of my film developers to 68° plus or minus a degree, but used sophisticated mercury thermometers to control the temperatures to plus or minus a tenth of a degree. All of which took considerable energy and sophisticated logistics, but didn't improve my artwork one whit.

HT0879 - In and Out of Photography

I've been involved with photography for 50 years now and I can't imagine not being involved in photography somehow. But I know that's not true for everyone. I've been around long enough to see people's interests wax and wane in photography and I've always been fascinated by their stories.