LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Here's a Thought… #2763 with Brooks Jensen Visual Syncopation Structure in a presentation of images can be both good and bad. Structure can provide form and consistency to a presentation. It can also become predictable, repetitious, and boring. This where visual syncopation can come to the rescue. Become a member of LensWork Online and have access to all 2700+ Here's a Thought… commentaries.

Here's a Thought… #2762 with Brooks Jensen Understanding Fatigue and Exhaustion There are times when I try to go photographing in spite of feeling exhausted. It never works. This week is one of those times. I just can't bring myself to get excited about grabbing my camera and getting out there. Worse, I feel guilty about it. As I've thought about this in the torpor of my fatigue, I think I've had...

Here's a Thought… #2761 with Brooks Jensen The Immersive Challenge We all have art we love and art that leaves us cold. In thinking about my own responses to artwork, I've come to the conclusion that the artwork I like the most are those pieces that create in me the largest immersive response by pulling me into the world that the artwork makes for us. This is, for example, where the novelist has s...

Here's a Thought… #2760 with Brooks Jensen The Cynic in Me This is the best time in the history of photography to be a photographer. That said, the cynic in me can't help but worry about the future of photography as an art medium. Because it has become so easy to make a technical stunning photograph, I wonder if the mystery in the craft has disappeared? If it's easy and everyone can do it well, is...

Here's a Thought… #2759 with Brooks Jensen Not ETTR, but ZJSOTR I'm sure you have all heard the advice, "Expose to the Right." In theory, that's well-founded reasoning and advice. In practice, I've found ETTR a bit impractical and prefer a more pragmatic strategy ZJSOTR — Zebras Just Short of the Right. This is even more true here in the age of AI Noise Reduction of our RAW files. Become a member...

Here's a Thought… #2758 with Brooks Jensen Forgotten Masters With the passage of time, it's natural that some artists become more valued and others fade from popularity. If this happened to Bach, why would it not also occur in photography? These days, I almost never hear anyone mention Diane Arbus, Aaron Siskind, Barbara Crane, William Garnett, Linda Connor, August Sander, Art Sinsabaugh, Ralph Eu...

Episode #1524 from our long-running, weekly podcast On Photography and the Creative Process Photography as an Art Medium Of late, I've experienced a number of well-meaning friends who insist on showing me what and where I should photograph. I know their heart is in the right place, but I also know that they do not understand the creative process. That's too harsh. They do not understand my creativ...

Here's a Thought… #2757 with Brooks Jensen Entering the Creative Bubble The world of athletics can be divided into two different sets of action. There is the preliminary part of preparation. Then there is the performative part of the competition. I think this provides a useful metaphor for photography and points out an interesting idea about preparation. When I'm out with my camera, my goal is to...

Here's a Thought… #2756 with Brooks Jensen Too Much Salt Spoils the Food Not long ago we tried a new Italian restaurant, just for fun. I ordered eggplant parmesan. Is there anything worse than bland, tasteless Italian food? Of course, I couldn't help but compare this to photography. What do we want in food — or a photograph? Intensity, a sensual thrill, a memorable experience, a good time, a sense...

Here's a Thought… #2755 with Brooks Jensen The Subjectivity Scale Imagine, if you will, a linear scale with Objectivity on the far left point and Subjectivity on the far right point. Every photograph you produce (or have ever produced) can be located on this scale. Is the image factual and optically faithful to normal human vision, or is it imaginative and a personally expressive, fanciful, or an...

Here's a Thought… #2754 with Brooks Jensen The Exposure Triangle Reconsidered There are certain unavoidable truths in photography that are based on the laws of physics. At least, that's the way I think about it. The Exposure Triangle is one of these. The ISO is fixed, the shutter speed selected for sharpness, and that leaves the aperture as our primary tool for controlling exposure. This was a fou...

Here's a Thought… #2753 with Brooks Jensen Blue Light Blues We spend hours and hours, sweat numberless bullets, and endure creative torture so that our precious and precisely crafted art preserves our creative intent. After all that, it can be altered beyond our control by the Blue Light Filter of our viewers' phones or tablets. And then there's the problem of uncalibrated computer monitors. Shoul...

Here's a Thought… #2752 with Brooks Jensen We Are Media Producers Media, plural. In my youth, I produced one thing — black and white prints matted and occasionally framed. How quaint. How anachronistic. How 20th century. More recently, I count a dozen media I regularly use to produce my artwork. What makes this a particularly important aspect of photography today is that each of the various media...

Here's a Thought… #2751 with Brooks Jensen Chasing Dollars I prefer not to think too much about the amount of money I've spent in my life to support my photography. Whenever I do, I find I can't help but sympathize with those who pursue print sales and publishing contracts. As a hobby, photography is almost as expensive as boating or golf. I can't recall, however, knowing anyone who thought their...

LW1523 - The Next Big Adventure We're off in the RV travel trailer for another extended trip! Our route will take us across the southern US during 8 to 10 months, photographing along the way, and, hopefully, without skipping a beat in these podcasts nor the Here's a Thought commentaries. We're starting this week in Nantucket. I've never been here. I don't know what I'll find. How does one photogra...

Here's a Thought… #2750 with Brooks Jensen The Toys with the Least Interference Yesterday, I suggested that any camera could be used to create art. If that's true, then how do we select which gear to buy or use? My answer to this thorny question is based on ergonomics and our state of mind. The ideal gear is that which is most comfortable and most invisible as we handle it. Reserve our limited bra...

Here's a Thought… #2749 with Brooks Jensen With What You Already Own None of us own the ideal equipment for our artmaking desires. The trick is not letting that suspend our pursuits. The first time I ever clicked a shutter was when I was 10 years old on vacation to visit my grandmother. I used my parents' Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. If that was still the camera I was using today, I'll bet I could still...

Here's a Thought… #2748 with Brooks Jensen Photography and Beauty Writing itself is not a visually aesthetic activity until we decide to make the letters beautiful with calligraphy. Can we say that photography is not an aesthetic activity until we make the image beautiful with — with what? Composition? Tones and colors? Beautiful subjects? What is it that turns a replicative medium like photograph...

HT2677 - Obviously, This Is Not Good Has this ever happened to you? I was watching a YouTube tutorial on a software feature when the speaker showed a "before" and "after" version of an image they were using for demonstration. They showed the before image and said, "Obviously, this is not good." To my eye, it was great! In fact, the before image was much better than the supposedly improved after im...

HT2676 - Within the First Half Dozen I watched a fascinating interview of Sting by Rick Beato on YouTube. Sting said that he loses interest in a song if there isn't a surprise in the first eight bars. I think I can say the same about photography. If I look at a photographic project and don't see something new, unexpected, a mystery or a question, something surprising, or that grabs me in the first...

HT2675 - Photograph as Memory Trigger A friend recently lamented that she was going through her lifetime of pictures and questioning why she ought to keep all the vacation images of landscapes and trees. She raises a good point. Why should/would any of us be interested in these personal mementos? Her question demonstrates the defining line of demarcation between photography as a memory trigger and...

HT2674 - Is It Enough to Be Technically Good? I remember a time when producing a technically accomplished photograph was enough to earn applause. I have many. I would now be embarrassed to show them. I now know they are empty of art but undeniably sharp with beautiful tones. Here in the digital age it has become increasingly obvious that technical prowess is a given, still important, but not much...

LW1512 - The Box of One Hundred I wish I'd heard of this idea years ago. Each of us has an idea of the best 100 images of our art career. Make a box of prints with those 100 images and store it away someplace safe. If you prefer, make a folder or Lightroom Collection with these 100 images. Make it exactly 100 images. Then periodically review the collection. Once a year, once a quarter, once a mont...

HT2673 - The Invisible That Is Right In Front of Us Why is it so difficult to make a personally expressive image in Yosemite? Why do we keep photographing sunsets ad nauseam? Why can't we see the yogurt from the fridge when it's on the counter next to us? Believe it or not, the answer to all these questions is the same. This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episod...

HT2672 - Decor Photography and Art Photography The other day I completed a beautiful photograph. Seriously, simply gorgeous. A stunning landscape, magical light, vibrant colors, engaging composition — so wonderful that it took my breath away. I like it; I'm proud of it; I immediately framed it and hung it in a prestigious location here at home. I struggle, however to call it Art. Show your appreci...