The Perceptive Photographer

In the podcast this week, I dive into the importance of an image having multiple meanings, not just at the time of creating or processing but over time as well. As you change in life, the meaning of your work will change as well. This change is a wonderful way to see how you have grown and how powerful your photography can be when it supports you no matter what stage of life you are in or when you...

This week’s podcast is quick discussion about the impacts of nature verse nurture in our photography. Specifically, we jump into the importance of nurturing the best of what we do and not reinforcing the self-doubt and negative speak we all have bouncing inside our heads. Also, don’t forget that April 17-20 is the Photoshop Creativity Virtual Summit. A free week of classes on creativit...

Dennis, a good friend of mine, has been working on making more meaningful work in his photography. He sent in an interesting question for me to think about. He wanted to know how you know if you are on the path to making more meaningful work. How do you mark your progress? In this week’s podcast, I offer up my opinion on a couple of the most important ways we consider and think about the pat...

In the podcast this week, we are diving into some listener questions that have come in over the past few months. I grabbed five of the most common or more interesting questions that have come in and share my two cents on them. Do I have a favorite paper to print with? Do I have any tips on staying motivated? What is the difference between reading a photograph and looking at a photograph? How do I...

As I was organizing the bookshelf, I came across one of my favorite books on understand photographs, Stephen Shores The Nature of Photographs . If you haven’t had a chance to check out this book, it is well worth it. It is a simple read and very approachable. In the book, Stephen talks about how to read and view photographs. He breaks this process down into the physical level (the print), th...

In the podcast this week, we take a look at five cliches that can make a difference in your photography. Any while cliches can be bad, these five are some great ways to shift your thinking and approach to photography at all the stages of working with images from creating to editing to viewing. I am sure there are many more that can apply as well, but for this week here are the five that made the c...

In this week’s podcast, I talk about how sometimes the simplest of acts can make a huge difference in the quality and meaning of our photography. Simple acts like micro-mediation breathing exercises, working with images that are upside down and backwards, or even focusing on how focus and clarity are different. No matter what small steps you try in your photography, sometimes it is the small...

I was recently asked why I do landscape photography. I thought it was an interesting question. A simple question really. But, as I started to answer, I realized that my answer went much deeper into the reason I create me work. In this week’s podcast, I talk about the importance of why we photograph what we photograph and how I answer the question of why I am a landscape photographer. Hopeful...

Several months ago, I started to really think more and more about artificial intelligence and machine learning in photography. I did a podcast on it. Since that time, I have continued to think more an more about that form of art and how it is both good and different from light captured photography. In this week’s podcast, I continue to talk about the impacts on AI on photography and how it s...

In this week’s podcast, we spend some time talking about how various aspects of our work and approach to photography as impacted by 10%. From an article years ago where Brooks Jensen talked about how we see a decrease of 10% in our selection of great images from 1000 to 100 to 10 to 1, I expand that idea to talk about how our approaches to seeing, thinking, and approaching our photography ca...

In this week’s podcast, I dive a little into a method for evaluating photographs. In working with others, I have found that all of us can be overly critical of our work with no real rhyme or reason. So today, we focus on a few simple steps to evaluate images and how to be more effective at judging our work. Questions like What did I do in the image, what would I do differently and how will I...

My good friend Ken Carlson was a lacrosse coach. In several of our conversations over the years, he has said that in his view the purpose of playing the game was to evaluate how well you practiced. The practice was the most important part of the process. Not the winning of a game, but rather how well did you prepare. In this week’s podcast, I dive a little into this topic and how it can be a...

In this week’s podcast, I talk about how projects ideas develop and what is the best method for working with and dealing with projects in your photography. Also in the podcast this week, if you purchase a gallery print of mine from either the Alex Ferrone Gallery for the SAM Gallery, I’ll give you 10% off any workshop. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipme...

In this week’s podcast, quantity is the name of the game. One of the best things you can do to improve your photography is to increase the amount of work you are creating. That increase in volume will give you more data points to understand some of the key elements of your work like voice, vision, signature and style. Also in the podcast this week, if you purchase a gallery print of mine fro...

After my traveling recording issues last week, I am back in the studio and have cut together a new intro and tacked on last weeks podcast to start the new year. So this should get us all caught back up on the schedule. In this week’s podcast, I talk about how setting goals can help you keep focused and move your photography forward. In an effort to help you get some goal setting started, I d...

This past week we have been traveling to see family. The big storm that came in caused our flight to be cancelled, and as a result, we are spending several more days with family in Las Vegas. In an effort to be a good users of energy, I shut down the studio when we left and didn’t feel like having the pet sitter take on the responsibility of powering the place back up. So I spent the day trying to...

This week’s podcast is focused on titling your photographs and why and how that can impact our perception of the image, intention and experience of the work. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a variety of equipment in the years that I have been recording, but here is the current list of equipment that I am using....

Two topics for this week’s podcast. The first is the difference between explaining your work and justifying your work. For many photographers, they end up making justifications for there images when they think they are explaining what the work is about. I also talk about the importance of storage boxes for your prints that you’re keeping and using in your practice. One of the questions...

As 2022 starts to draw to a close, it is a time to look back and reflect on the prior year. As photographers that means we should look back at the impact of our photography in our creative and non-creative aspects of life. In this week’s podcast, I toss out three areas to think about cleaning up before the start of the new year so that you can put your best foot forward for 2023. One of the...

Speaking about your work can be a challenge. Sometimes we are insecure about our work. Maybe we are nervous about talking in public about our work. No matter what the reason is that you might feel challenged about speaking about your images, learning to talk about your photographs can not only help other understand your work better, but the process can make you a better photographer as well. The m...

It can take a lot of work to find and maintain an audience as a photographer. There are so many other photographers working and sharing work. So, how does one go about finding and using an audience? In this week’s podcast, I share some thoughts on how to use and work with your audience so that you can share your work and find more people who are engaged with your message. One of the question...

This week’s podcast looks at the role of recognition in our photography. We often seek feedback and validation for our work and might seek this out from various places. We might post to social media for instant validation or maybe do a critique session to gain deeper insights. Along with those insights, I feel there is a desire to get recognition for our work and efforts. So join me this wee...

Today’s release is the 400th episode of the Perceptive Photographer. I started this little podcast 400 weeks ago and never thought I would be here today celebrating this milestone. As I looked back, I am most thankful for the community of listeners who tune in each week and listen to me ramble on about something that has caught my ear or attention. I never in a million years thought that thi...

One of the significant challenges that many of us are brainwashed into thinking when photographing is that photography is about making a simple, clear, and concise photograph that checks all the boxes. One that meets the photographer’s intention is accepted by the viewer and meets all the criteria for what compositionally and processing-wise makes for a good image. We spin up all sorts of la...

Many times in our creative practice we might find ourselves at a road block of sorts. A spot where we are struggling to move forward with some aspect of our process. It can be easy to ignore those feelings and push away from that resistance or wall we are hitting. In this week’s podcast, I talk about how important it is to face the resistance and see if we can sort out the root cause of why...