Here's a thought…

HT1971 - Pinpoint Accuracy

We pursue excellence at all costs. We sweat bullets over the details, the perfect colors, the exquisite tones. It's probably good that we do so because we are the most immediate and important audience for our own work. But how do we know the colors and tones we so fastidiously create will be what others will see?

HT1972 - Something Is Always Better Than Nothing

I have a super-zoom lens that's very good, not outstanding, but very good. I find I am using it more and more these days because it is so darned convenient. It gets me a picture I would likely have missed if I had needed to swap lenses. At first I was hesitant because I knew it wasn't the very best quality lens I owned. Now that I'm working with the images, I'm not sure I can see any practical difference between it and my better lenses, at least not for lots of images.

HT1973 - From a Mess to a Masterpiece

Most projects start without much more than a hint. There may be a fuzzy idea, but mostly we start with a print of perhaps a pile of prints and little else. Our task is to turn a mess into art, possibly even a masterpiece. A large part of that work is bringing order to the chaos.

HT1977 - Our Breathing Planet

A convention of haiku poetry is to always include a reference to the season or the weather. That's a pretty good strategy for landscape photography, too. After all, there never is nor can be a moment where there is no weather.

HT1978 - More Ideas Than Time

Like most of you, I suspect, I have precious little time for doing photography. By comparison, I have lots of time to think about photography. Thinking about photography implies Ideas, plans, questions, fantasies, and possibilities, among other thoughts. A notebook to capture these fleeting thoughts is one of the most important tools we photographers can habitualize.

HT1979 - More Ideas Than Time, Part 2

So you've captured in your notebook 20 possible ideas you would like to explore photographically. How do you choose which ones you will work on with the precious time you have? Said another way, how do you prioritize what you will work on?

HT1980 - Those Colors Are Off

In our images, a blue sky that appears cyan is just not right. An apple that is too orange is a mistake. Color photography can so easily be wrong, whereas a black and white sky or apple is never wrong. What does this say about our premises?

HT1984 - The Obscure Art

I'm pulling a figure off the top of my head, but I would bet that 99.9% of all art that has been created is obscure. In other words, if the audience for your artwork includes more than 10 people, you ought to consider yourself lucky and successful.

HT1985 - Toning B-W Images

Because we are liberated from the limitations of chemistry when we work in the digital darkroom, it's now easily possible for us to do any kind of monochromatic toning we might imagine. Even exotic split-toning and tri-toning are easily accomplished. What does this new grammar of expression mean for us black and white photographers? First, toning sets the mood.

HT1986 - The Three-color Rule in B-W Photography

The three-color rule is a mainstay of fashion and of filmmaking. Interestingly enough, there's also a way this applies to black and white photography. I'm referring, of course, to toning.

HT1987 - Ideas That Do Not Work

Even those who fall flat on their face are at least moving forward. Ideas that don't work are not failures but rather necessary opportunities to progress along the path of success. The only failure in art is doing nothing.

HT1988 - The Obscure That Grabs Your Heart

We all carry a mental gallery of our favorite images, many of which are famous and universally admired. What is especially important for each of us are those images we love that are obscure. What does our love of these images say about us? Can these obscure ones guide us in our work?

HT1991 - Praise for Your Craft

Be careful in thinking there is merit in your accomplishment because it was difficult to achieve. The history of technology has proven beyond a doubt that whatever is difficult today will be easy tomorrow. When praise for your craft disappears, what will remain is the content of your vision.

HT1992 - Swap RAW Files

Years ago, we featured an experiment in LensWork Extended that is worth thinking about again. We posted a group of RAW files and invited people to download them and process them in any their imagination lead them. The variety of results was fascinating. Why not do something similar with your photo group or peers?

HT1993 - Purposely Changing the Game

There are certain subjects that just lend themselves to black-and-white. Other subjects seem axiomatically to be ideal for color photography. It's amazing, however, how many times purposely changing the game can create interesting images that go against the stereotype.

HT1994 - Photographic Doodling

Have you ever just whiled away the time losing yourself in a doodle? I've always thought there is a connection between doodling and creative photography. In both processes, there is an abandonment to the activity to see where it leads. Creating a preconceived image seem like work. Photographic doodling feels more like play.

HT1998 - The Date It Was Printed

It is very common to see the date (or at least the year) of capture in the title of a photograph. From a collector's point of view, the more important date is when the print was produced. The date of capture may tell us something about the subject, but the date of the print tells us more about the artwork. Why not include both?

HT1999 - Handwork On a Photograph

There is a sizable number of photographers who are rejecting the digital workflow in favor of more handwork using so-called alternative processes. Are they missing an obvious hybrid that would involve handwork after digitally printing their images? Anyone remember Marshall Oils?

HT2000 - Standard Sizes

For the longest time, there were three standard sizes in fine art photography: 8x10, 11x14, and 16x20. These dimensions, of course, we're not the size of the image, but rather the size of the paper we used for printing. Does it clarify or complicate things if we redefine these sizes based on how an image will be consumed?

HT2001 - A Photograph to Die For

The other day, there was another report in the news about someone who had died falling off a cliff while taking a selfie. I know we are all supposed to suffer for our art, but no photograph is worth dying for. I don't think photography was ever intended to be an extreme sport.