Here's a thought…

The most recent three videos are available below.
The entire collection (including all previous episodes)
is available to members of LensWork Online.

April 2022

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Saturday

HT1153 - The "Wow" Factor

What is the "wow factor"? 1.) Never seen anything like it. 2.) How did you do that? Am I missing any? Nowhere is there any consideration to aesthetic content. This is precisely why I don't give much merit to images that rely on their "Wow" factor to impress.

HT1154 - 129,600 Possible Views

One of my close photographic buddies has developed a sort of ritualistic habit every time he makes a photograph. He walks around his intended subject 360°, looking at it from every angle. He also squats and then stands on tiptoes which adds another potential 360° around vertically. That's a theoretical 129,600 possible views. He's one of the best photographers I know, and I suspect this strategy has a lot to do with it.

HT1155 - Location, Location, Location (Perhaps Not)

As I've gotten more older experienced in photography, I've come to doubt the premise that finding a photogenic location is the crucial first step in landscape photography. I've become more suspicious that one could stop the car almost at random and, given a little time and some sensitivity, find interesting photographs at every stop.

HT1156 - Symbols in Art

One of the important differences between photography as snapshot and photography as art is the use of symbols. Photography can either point to a subject or point through the subject when the subject is used as a symbol.

HT1157 - Greatest Hits Images

My observation is that many photographers work in pursuit of a "greatest hit" image. It's all about getting that hero capture. But my observation is also that greatest hits images from history always emerge from a project and, through the passage of time and third-party actions, individual images are plucked from the project and elevated to a greatest hit status. In other words, being a greatest hits image is not the result of any action by the photographer, other than working with diligence and sincerity on a project.

HT1158 - Stabilization In High Megapixel Cameras

I heard in a YouTube video of photographer make the claim that higher megapixel cameras need a much more stable tripod because of their extraordinary ability to capture detail. If that's true, what are the implications for handheld stabilization methods as the megapixels increase in the camera's sensor?

HT1159 - Chasing the Thrill

What is your strongest connection to photography? Is your largest thrill found in the gear? The process and technology? The art? The audience? These four seem to be the most common. Interesting how they lead to different activities and choices.

HT1160 - Ugliness Is Only Skin Deep

My first ever paid job as a youngster was working behind the camera counter of a local retailer. My boss was a vulgar, dirty, unattractive, abrasive, and mean man. His primary job, however, was not managing the camera department but playing violin for the Portland Philharmonic Orchestra. He could make the most amazing and beautiful music.

HT1161 - Understanding a Photograph

To really understand a photograph means to understand the context of the content. Consider Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange. We understand that photograph in the context of the dust bowl migrations and economic privations of the times. This is one reason why abstracts are so difficult to understand; they lack context.

HT1162 - Sketches

My approach to photography has been majorly influenced by the book Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens. A "sketch" to me means a careful and detail examination of some moment, some person, or some event. It's looking with more than a glance, relating more than an instant. I much prefer the term "sketches" to cumbersome alternatives like "project-oriented photography." More from my audio book, Those Who Inspire Me (and Why).

HT1163 - The Intersection

Photography happens at the intersection between three things: time, space, and access. By "access" I mean YOU. If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to photograph it, the tree still falls nonetheless. Those who spend the most time out photographing and have the greater access to events in time and space are likely to be the ones who make the best photographs.

HT1164 - The Rhythm of Sequencing

The even tap-tap-tap of staccato quickly becomes boring. The same can be said of a sequence of photographs that consists of unrelenting excellence. This is especially true for a book of photographs. Our temptation is to fill the book with our greatest hits images. But if every image is outstanding, the staccato can become numbing.

HT1165 - My Baseline Camera Settings

When you turn on your digital camera, it defaults to the same settings. These baseline settings are ones you can control. Makes sense to me to configure these baseline settings for your most common shooting scenario. Here are my baseline settings and why.

HT1166 - Nightly Reviews

When I'm out on an extended photography trip, I have a habit of reviewing the day's captures each night after I load them up into Lightroom. There are always a few shots from the day I'm really excited about. Curiously enough, the ones that end up making the best images are ones I don't realize have such potential. Long after I get back, I re-discover them after having almost ignored them in the field.

HT1167 - Stuff Breaks, Hard Drives Fail

Here on the road, I'm doing everything on a laptop using external hard drives. For the first time in over 25 years, I don't have the security of a RAID system to protect any digital files against hard drive failure. Instead, I'm doing regular backups to multiple external 5TB Western Digital Passport drives.

HT1168 - Contact Prints

I remember seeing a 35mm contact print on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was displayed in a 16x20" mat board. It sucked me in, literally. I had to get closer and closer to it until I was viewing it at the limits of my eyeballs to focus. I was psychologically engulfed. I've been a fan and advocate of small prints ever since.

HT1169 - One Project, Six Cameras

I happened to notice that a recent project I published in Kokoro included pictures shot from six different cameras over 8 years. What struck me as curious was that I could not tell that by looking at the images!

HT1170 - The Formulaic

When art becomes predictable, it ceases to interest us. In fact, the more predictable art becomes, the more it pushes us away. In perceptual psychology, this is known as a "scotoma." Because our consciousness is geared to perceive changes and threats, those things that are predictably consistent are ok to ignore because they are not a threat nor a reward.

HT1171 - Brand Familiarity

I'm often asked why I shoot with Panasonic cameras when they are such a tiny percentage of the camera marketplace. It's not "brand loyalty" but rather brand familiarity. I want to use a camera without having to think about it. That way, my total attention is on the subject and the content I'm trying to capture.

HT1172 - Pushing Which Limits

Artmaking is largely a matter of pushing the limits. But, which limits? The limits of gear? The limits of processing? The limits of our endurance? What about pushing the limits of our abilities to feel and to communicate?

HT1173 - Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations

This is the title of Minor White's terrific 1982 monograph. It's also a way to think about our own photographs. Some of our photographs are mirrors, some messages, some manifestations. Each type of image has something to teach us.

HT1174 - Every Day Is Unique

One of the hardest things to do is to let go of our previous successes. The antidote from repeating ourselves is to realize that every day is unique and will never be repeated. Our challenge is to go with the flow and be aware of today's moments.

HT1175 - Indra's Net

In Hindu and Buddhist literature there is a concept known as Indra's Net or Indra's Web. It is use to illustrated in interconnectedness of all things. I find this a useful idea when looking at my images in Lightroom; there is an interconnectedness of all images which may be difficult to see, but it's there nonetheless.

HT1176 - The Numbers

One of the problems I see in social media and our artwork is the seduction of the numbers. How many likes are enough? How many likes define success? How do your numbers compare to others? To your numbers from last year? Do the numbers give you any information about the quality of your work? About your progress as a maturing artist?

HT1177 - Allocating Our Creative Thought

A friend of mine just recently returned from a workshop in which he was the only photographer using a digital camera. All the other participants were using 4x5 film. He confessed this was the first time he'd spent so much time with film photographers. One observation he came away with was how much effort and thought went into how to expose and develop the film compared to the relative ease with which he could accomplish the same thing with his digital tools.

HT1178 - Cultivating Sensitivity

Last week I talked about which limits we choose to push in our pursuit of art making. I suggested that pushing the limits of our sensitivity might be more productive than pushing the limits of our equipment or our techniques. But how does one push the limits of our sensitivity? Here's a few ideas.

HT1179 - Metronomic Deadlines

The backstory of my "Finding the Picture" series at LensWork Online and what it might offer as an inspirational strategy.

HT1180 - Exploring the Not-Obvious

This week the next LensWork Monograph is being printed. It features the Death Valley work of David Kingham and Jennifer Renwick. While I was working on the layouts for their book, I had an observation that explained why I was so interested in their photography and in publishing this book. They concentrate on photographing the not-obvious.

HT1181 - Tutors and Mentors

We are so fortunate today that we have so many different ways to learn. Every media has lots to teach us about photography and the creative life. That said, in thinking about my 50 years of learning, there is no question that the most effective media I've experienced is people — which is why I am such an advocate of tutors and mentors, the closest thing we have today to apprenticeships.

HT1182 - Black, Where Art Thou

One of the most consistent problems I see in files that are sent as submissions to LensWork is the lack of solid blacks. You can easily see this by examining the histogram. When there are no blacks, a printed image will look weak. I suspect the reason so many photographers don't have blacks in their photographs is because of monitor calibration issues.

HT1183 - Elon and Hydroquinone

In my dark room days, where when mixing my own developer chemistry one of the most important strategies was always the balance between the developing agent Elon and its partner hydroquinone. The deepness of the blacks were controlled with hydroquinone, the subtlety of the midtones came from the Elon. Strangely enough, this strategy still applies in my digital work.