LW1488 - Here's a Thought Number 2,500

I hope you won't mind if I take just a few moments to say thank you and to celebrate this, our 2,500th Here's a Thought commentary, over 6 years of daily thoughts about photography and the art life.

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Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com.

and...

"How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

I hope you won't mind if I take just a few moments to say thank you and to celebrate this, our 2,500th Here's a Thought commentary, over 6 years of daily thoughts about photography and the art life.

Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

What percentage of people who bowl aspire to become professional bowlers? What percentage of people who enjoy cooking dinner dream of open a restaurant? Golfers, swimmers, runners, painters, poets, car drivers, pet owners, people who play a musical instrument? Why is it that so many photographers want to sell their work or at least have their work exhibited in a commercial gallery?

This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2400 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.

Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

Like I often do with my morning coffee, this morning I watched a few YouTube videos on processing in Lightroom. I've learned a lot from these people, but not always the ideas they think they are teaching. By coincidence, all five videos I watched today were about making images look natural. Why is this the objective? I know I keep circling back to this point, but is photography a substitute for human vision or is it a medium for artistic expression?

This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.

We've been watching a television series in which one of the main characters is constantly getting herself in trouble by pursuing perfection. She then finds herself in difficulty because the perfect is never attainable. She pushes people to unreasonable extremes, is constantly dissatisfied no matter how successful her actions are, repeatedly makes irrational decisions that cause her best intentions to collapse. Where is the line between pursuing excellence and an unhealthy pursuit of perfection?

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With very few exceptions, my photography is thoroughly dependent on my ability to transport myself from one location to another. The only time I don't use a car to go photographing has been my trips to Japan and China. Even there an important part of my success in photography relies on an effective transportation strategy. I never used to think about this in my youth, but now a transportation strategy has become a huge requirement I dare not ignore or take for granted

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A large part of the production of fine art photographs involves a frustration that we wish our images were better. We'd like them to be more. The implied question is what more could you add to your photographs that would make you happy? More sharpness? More audience? More exotic locations? More print sales? If you could wave a magic wand, what precisely would you bring into your photographic life that would bring you satisfaction?

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I've been thinking a lot lately about the role of media in our generation and the growth of fiction. Most of what we see on television is a fiction, video games are a fiction, so much of YouTube is a fiction, and even social media includes a significant amount of fiction. AI is going to compound this. It's not surprising that so much of photography (a quintessential 20th century medium) has become a fiction. Is it fair to say that our generation, compared to our ancestors, have been thoroughly seduced by the fictions of media? As a means of resistance, is it possible to use photography as a tool to bridge the gap between life and fiction?

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Yesterday I was talking about how we might describe what we photographers actually do. Is the core of our activities that we build something or is it that we observe something? Here are a few additional thoughts about this distinction that might change a great deal about our creative life.

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LW1487 - The Photography I Love

Aesthetic conventions come and go. Culture and popular tastes are constantly changing. Example: There are no radio stations that play big band music anymore even though it once ruled the airwaves. The photographic aesthetic I grew up with and still love to this day is losing audience and slowly sliding into history. All the more reason to spend time with and enjoy the work we love and love doing, while we can.

All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content.

Sign up for instant access!

Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com.

and...

"How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.