I observed an important lesson very early once I started working in projects rather than in trophy images. My favorite image in a project was not the universal favorite. Never. In fact, the feedback I received from people who saw the project evenly divided their  "favorite image," much to my surprise. If there were 10 images in the project, each one of them were "the favorite" to about 10% of the audience.

HT1137 - Your Favorite

Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience. 
Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life.
Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).

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The real work of the artist all takes place outside of the spotlight. If a pianist doesn't enjoy practice, they will never be an accomplished performer. If a photographer doesn't love the darkroom or studio work, that will be obvious in their prints. Toiling away on one's own is the heart of the art life.

HT1886 - Private Work

Ansel Adams used to preach that the most important tool in his dark room was the garbage can. I believe the corollary in the digital workflow is the virtual copy. I've often thought that the terms "making art" and "editing" are synonyms for the same activity. If you don't progress through at least a half a dozen drafts, I think you are fooling yourself.

HT1885 - The Most Important Tool in the Darkroom

Earlier this week I was discussing the importance of note taking in our creative life. We need to capture those fleeting ideas before we lose them. A listener asked what kinds of notes are the useful ones to capture. Here are some samples from my own notebooks.

HT1884 - Sample Notes

I suspect we would all agree that the advancement in camera technology over the last 25 years has been amazing. Curiously enough, when I look at my digital images in my Lightroom catalog, the advances in camera technology pale in comparison to the advances in software processing. I'm not sure my newest and latest camera has allowed me to do anything that I couldn't do with my first digital camera 20 years ago. The latest camera technologies have made my life easier, but I'm not sure it's made my artwork any better.

HT1883 - Cameras or Software

Often, while I'm working on a project, I'll try something that doesn't work at all for the project I'm developing. It ca be tempting to just delete the failure and move on. Instead, I've come to realize that perhaps the failed idea is a seed for a new project. I guess what they say is true, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

HT1137 - Your Favorite

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