Here's a thought…

HT1549 - Dumb Mistakes

Photography is hard enough without making dumb mistakes. Nonetheless, we all make them. Here are a few of mine, including a whopper just yesterday. We live, we learn.

HT1550 - A Modified ETTR

Michael Reichmann used to preach ETTR, exposed to the right. In principle, I still think this is a pretty good strategy, but I've also learned not to overdo it. I've lost a number of images because I pushed to the right too hard and can't recover enough highlight detail to create the image I'd like. Ever since, I've used a modified ETTR that seems to work pretty well for me.

HT1551 - Photographing Surfaces

I remember once talking with Oliver Gagliani when he brought up a very interesting observation I never heard before. He said the certain surfaces just don't photograph very well because of their texture, in particular, he proposed, cement. Shiny surfaces are more compatible with photographic technology. I still find that true, and found it true this week as I've been photographing a kind of granite known as Sherman granite.

HT1555 - Being Out Here

Even if I don't get out the camera, one of the great reasons to be a photographer is that it gets us out into nature, into the elements, into contact with the life on this great planet of ours.

HT1556 - Another Use for Burst Mode

Most of the time we use burst mode with our camera so we can be assured of catching that perfect frame in a sequence of action. I've found another use for burst mode that never occurred to me until recently.

HT1557 - Hazy Forest Fire Air

As I record this, the Northeast of the United States is experiencing some very hazy, very polluted air due to the forest fires in Canada. We had that on the west coast in the last couple of years, too. Strangely enough, I found that hazy, filtered sunlight to be magical when photographing the landscape. It's like photographing in the fog, put more intensely.

HT1558 - Dappled Sunlight

Gray skies can be bland. Cloudless sun can be harsh. But dappled sunlight seems to be magic on the landscape. Why? Is it because it introduces a sense of moment that we know is fleeting and therefore brings the landscape to life?

HT1562 - A Useful Delay

Photography may be an instantaneous art medium, but fully understanding what we have photographed and how we might present it is not an instantaneous process. Sometimes the delay between photographing and finishing is useful. In fact, most often it is.

HT1563 - Our Mental Gallery

We all carry around with us a mental gallery of images that have made an impact on us and that we can bring to mind at will. Why do these images stick with us when so many others don't? What characteristic do those memorable images share? Is it their technical quality, or is it there content that makes them so memorable?

HT1564 - Our Mental Gallery, Part 2

Here is an exercise I will suggest that can teach us an important lesson about this mental gallery we carry around with us in our heads.

HT1565 - The Lost 12,000

At one time, strictly for reasons of curiosity, I counted the negatives I had in my archives. Roughly 12,000. All of which are essentially lost to me now that I'm on the road, don't have a dark room, and they're all in storage waiting for something to happen with them. For me, now, it's functionally the same as if I had never made them.

HT1569 - It's Supposed to Be Difficult

I always get suspicious when I find it making a photograph is too easy. It's probably too easy because I've done it before, I know how to do it, it's not challenging me in the least. Repetition has its place in the art world, but it also is a trap that ultimately leads to the stale.

HT1570 - When It Looks Like It's Processed

One of the first lessons I learned in my earliest darkroom days was that if you can tell an area was dodged or burned in, then you did it too much. Subtlety rules the day. I wish this was still being taught by all the Photoshop gurus.

HT1571 - You Can't Avoid the Rule of Thirds

The primary alternative to the Rule of Thirds is bullseye composition where the subject is placed in the center of the frame. The minute you move that subject out of the center, you're probably going to end up on a third, somewhere. Maybe it would make us feel more comfortable if we referred to this as the "Rule of Off-centered Balance."

HT1572 - A Will of Their Own

I've always thought that wildlife and bird photography are the most challenging of all the genres of photography that fall under the banner of "fine art photography." What other photographic subject has a will of its own that fights our best efforts to photograph it?

HT1576 - Future Proofing Your RAW Files

RAW files are, of course, proprietary file formats. I always get nervous with proprietary formats because there's no guarantee that they will be accessible forever. I convert all my RAW files to DNG for that reason, but I also keep the RAW files just in case some future improvement will allow me to reconvert my RAW files into a better, newer format of DNG.

HT1577 - Scheduling Your Hobby

For most of us, our photographic pursuits are not commercially based. That is to say, we aren't driven to do photography for the income, but rather for the fun. Photography is our hobby. The disadvantage of it being a hobby is that it's not urgent, and can easily be postponed, sometimes indefinitely, and that is deadly to our creative habits. One possible strategy is to schedule photographic activities so that you maintain some momentum.

HT1578 - Your Photographic Hero

In the wide world of fine art photography, who is your hero? Of all the possibilities, who's work do you admire the most, find the most inspirational, wish you could emulate more successfully? What is it about their work that connects with you so deeply?