Here's a thought…

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June 2022

July 2022

August 2022

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

HT1214 - Easier and Easier

As the technology progresses (I'm recording this after a pretty significant update in Lightroom in June 2022), photography might seem like it is getting easier and easier. Perhaps the technical aspects of photography are, but I think the aesthetic aspects are getting harder and harder.

HT1215 - A Few Days Break

Over the Independence holiday weekend, I'm taking a break from photography. It's been an intense 14 months on the road and I need a few days to review my new images and think about the next Kokoro. Besides, the roads and beaches will be packed with holiday tourists which is a good time for me to lay low.

HT1216 - Pre-emotionalization

Elsewhere I've mentioned that I don't use previsualization in the sense that Ansel Adams advocated. That doesn't mean, however, that I shoot without a plan. I may not know how I want the image to look like, but I often know the mood or emotion I hope to portray.

HT1217 - My First Camera

In so many interviews I read or watch with photographers, the photographer begins by talking about their first camera. This is then followed by a long history of their evolution through technology. Why am I supposed to care about this?

HT1218 - I'm in Photographic Hell

After all the traveling I've done in my life and all the hotel rooms I've stayed in over the decades, I think I have discovered photographic hell in my current motel.

HT1219 - Size and Contrast

Experienced photographers know that making a larger print is not just a matter of scaling it up. Larger prints look different to our eyes. A common change that is needed with larger print is an increase in contrast. This is another reason why each intended output in Lightroom or Photoshop needs its own processing variation.

HT1220 - Picture Frames in 2022

In my experience, I regret to admit that putting a print in a picture frame and hanging it on the wall is tantamount to a long-form death. I've been known to leave the framed print on my wall for years. Certainly this is out of step with the fast-paced world in which we now live.

HT1221 - Hyperfocal Distance in 2022

Certain kinds of photography, for example street photography, have relied on hyperfocal distance strategies for decades. But here in 2022, our definitions of what constitutes sharpness have been altered because of the advancing technology. Yesterday's hyperfocal distance now seems a bit soft and yesterday's acceptable circle of confusion calculations are no longer adequate for today's standards.

HT1222 - Tricky Processing Techniques

A tricky, gimmicky, or bizarre processing technique can lead to some interesting effects. More often, if we're honest with ourselves, it just leads to a visual mess. Gimmicks are not virtuous because they are gimmicks. If they are virtuous at all, it's because they make the content of the artwork stronger and more meaningful.

HT1223 - What You Want to Explore

I've been an advocate for the idea that artwork needs to have meaning, that it needs to express something you want to say. In my practical art life, however, I found it must much more useful to approach my work from a different point of view. Instead of thinking what I want to say, I think about what I want to explore.

HT1224 - Pushing Yourself

One of my favorite points of conversation with photographers is to ask them how they are pushing themselves artistically. Almost without exception, they answer with some sort of technical aspect of photography they have not previously tried. They will cite a new lens, or a new technique, or a new method of presentation. But is that the best way to push ourselves creatively?

HT1225 - The Disappearing Periphery

How do you define a really captivating photograph? One way I know I've experienced a captivating photograph is when the periphery of my vision simply disappears. It's a physical sensation when I get pulled into a photograph so strongly that everything in the background literally disappears.

HT1226 - Warm-toned Processing

From time to time I'm asked why I choose to print black and white images in LensWork in a warm duotone. It has to do with how we perceive warm-tone images compared to neutral grayscale images.

HT1227 - Raising the Camera

One of the most useful strategies in landscape photography is to raise the camera as high as possible. That changes the angle of view and adds more foreground to the composition. One of the handiest tools I've discovered for helping raise the camera is to simply stand on the tailgate of my truck.

HT1228 - A Simple Keywording Strategy

One of my favorite pastimes is to simply spend time in my Lightroom catalog looking for images and processing them with various experimentations. One trick I've learned is the habit of never leaving a processed image without first applying some keywords in its metadata. How often find myself later finding a use for an image I've spent time with but first need to locate it. Those post-processing keywords make it much easier to find those images I've worked on.

HT1229 - 8X Heat Waves

As we creep into the hot months of the year, it's worth remembering that one of the complications of summer heat is that it can drastically affect long telephoto shots. Particularly troublesome at the far end of a telephotos reach, at the 6x to 8x range of magnification. But strangely enough, those same heat waves can be an advantage that can create an ethereal look that might be perfect for your intentions.

HT1230 - A New Master

I'm sure that every one of us could name off the top of our heads a half a dozen or a dozen master photographers whose work we admire and who have been influential in our lives. But when was the last time you discovered a new master photographer to add to that list? Each time we discover a new influence, we discover a new fountain of knowledge and wisdom from which we can learn and improve our own work.

HT1231 - With Complexity Comes Forgetfulness

The more complicated our cameras become, the more capable they are of providing specialty solutions, the easier it is for us to forget how to run the camera in between photographic sessions. If you use your camera every day, this may not be such an issue. If, on the other hand, there are sometimes weeks that go by without using the camera, it will become more important to have access to your instruction manual.

HT1232 - Working Out of a Slump

Baseball players will sometimes find themselves in a slump and success seems elusively out of reach. I've noticed that when a hitter is in a slump they try small adjustments, not radical ones. As photographers, if we find ourselves in a creative slump maybe we, too, should try small adjustments rather than radical ones.

HT1233 - Working Out of a Slump, Part 2

Yesterday my advice was to work your way out of a slump by making a small adjustment. Sometimes, just the opposite advice is ever better. A radical change in cameras, processing, or presentation might be the action that pulls you out of a creative slump. Knowing which strategy to use is a challenge. It's also part of the art life. Change is a constant in creativity.

HT1234 - In-Camera File Names

I know that in-camera file names have some sort of meaning. I guess I'm supposed to understand the code, but I'm not sure how that is helpful. Instead, the first thing I do after ingesting new raw files into Lightroom is that I rename them with something a human can understand.

HT1235 - The Tools We Have

Every great photograph that has ever been made has been made with the tools the photographer had available at the time. There are no great photographs that are made with the tools of our dreams, so in some regards lusting after that new piece of equipment is a way of postponing the work you could be doing today.

HT1236 - Where You Can't Go

There's a trend in current landscape photography that is discouraging. I see lots and lots of landscape photographers, particularly YouTube folks, who travel to exotic locations, hike to extraordinary viewpoints, camp out in primitive and rugged conditions, and endure threatening weather in order to capture a photograph that you can't. Is access and endurance the key to a successful photograph?

HT1237 - Volumetric Learning

In looking back at my photographic life of five decades, there is no question that I experienced a phenomenal productivity increase when I started shooting digitally. I don't believe this has anything to do with digital processing capabilities, but rather is a reflection of the extraordinary volumetric increase in images captured and, more importantly, processed.

HT1238 - Monochrome Viewfinder

A few years ago I started using monochrome in my viewfinder and LCD screen. My thinking was that it would allow me to see more successfully the transition between the colorful world we live in and the black and white photograph I might make. But curiously enough, using a monochrome viewfinder has had an important impact in my ability to preview a composition because it focuses my attention on line and form rather than on color.

HT1239 - The Seven Plots

There is a theory in writing that there are only seven basic plots throughout all of history and every new novel or movie is simply a variation on one of the seven basic plots. Curiously enough, if this is the basis for storytelling, what if none of these appear in photography? Could that be one reason why photography has never risen to the same level of popularity as other media?

HT1240 - Instantaneous Feedback

Perhaps the most significant milestone in my progress as a photographer was made when I started employing a custom made Polaroid back for my view camera. I know of no better technique that will change your photography for the better than the instantaneous feedback in the field that allows you to make in-the-field corrections.

HT1241 - Choosing a Subject

Why do you choose to photograph one tree, for example, and bypass all the other trees? Is it that the chosen tree fits your preconceived ideas about what a tree is supposed to look like? Wouldn't it be more of a photographic challenge to photograph a tree that doesn't fit the stereotypical photogenic tree?

HT1242 - Dangers with the Hunt

There's an interesting aspect of human psychology that can be important for artists to thoroughly understand. When you go out to photograph, do you go on a hunt looking for specific things, or do you try to become as receptive as possible to the gifts that present themselves? Our brain works completely differently in these two scenarios.

HT1243 - The Unique Print

Ansel Adams made several printing versions of his print Horizontal Aspens, and I've seen 20 variations of Moonrise Over Hernandez. In fact, each print from the analog darkroom is likely to be just a bit different due to the difficulties of perfectly replicating the processing steps. Each print is, therefore, unique. Not so with digital prints. It's much more possible to print an edition run of indistinguishable prints.

HT1244 - Buried in the Gallery Flat File

Is there a functional difference between a print tucked away, unseen in the recesses of your flat file, and that JPG buried deep on your hard drive? In both cases it's hard to say the art is living when no one sees it.