I may be wrong about this and I'm more than willing to admit that, but I think photography on the wall divides itself into two fundamental types. There are photographs we frame and hang for their value as decor (goes good above the couch) or it is a photograph that is celebrated for its maker (often a collectable master). This is the main reason why I so rarely frame my photographs for display on the wall. My work tends not to be decor because it is too personal and I'm not famous nor collectible. Worse, I'm not interested in chasing fame nor chasing those kinds of images that make great decor.

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Let's say you want to read a book. Do you go to the library or bookstore, get the book and consume the miles of text across the physical pages? Or do you download the e-Publication onto your tablet or e-reader and consume the miles of text across the screen? A live symphony performance or a recording? Physical prints, or a PDF? Such decisions used to be about fidelity of the experience, but I'm not sure that's true anymore. I have countless images in my mental gallery about which I can no longer remember the medium in which I first saw them. It seems as if medium has become a matter of personal preference and choice.

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LW1494 - An Annual Series

In 2007 I conceived a long-term project that I still believe in. I decided I would do an annual project consisting of five images each year whose subject would always be winter trees. (This was before Seeing in Sixes) This started off as an annual folio project but quickly expanded to an accompanying PDF version. For reasons I can't quite pin down. I did an annual five-image project for 7 years in a row and then stopped. I shouldn't have. In fact, I'm thinking of restarting this annual series. The reasons for continuing this project are still valid and have overwhelmed my lethargy.

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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.

We all need new, better, more feature-packed cameras, right? That is what we are being told everyday by the makers of cameras. But do we really? Has it occurred to you that today's cameras can resolve more detail than human vision? Can register more dynamic range than our media of presentation? Think and execute focus and the exposure triangle calculations faster and more reliably than is humanly possible? What more — from a technology point of view — do we need?

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I tend to be pretty serious about my photography and creative life. Sometimes, I'll have to admit, that seriousness becomes an impediment to something important — fun! When we lose the element of fun, we lose one of the best reasons to be involved with photography. Fine art photography can be a serious pursuit, but it becomes a much more enjoyable pursuit if our creative decisions include a sprinkling of fun and simple joy. Instead of working hard for a picture, can we instead play hard for a picture?

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I received an email I had to think about before responding. The writer asked if out of the 180 projects I've published in Kokoro, did I have a favorite? I couldn't help feel this was like asking which of all the breaths I've taken today is my favorite? The answer, of course, is the next breath and, no doubt, the next project. This did have me thinking, however, about what work I choose to exhibit, publish, submit, or produce as a digital publication. As the producer, I may value the most recent work, but our chronology of production may have no impact on how others select their favorite work of ours.

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.

Simply said and factually undeniable, the medium you choose for the production of your images will either support and encourage more work or it will erect barriers that can make your work more difficult, more expensive, more discouraging. It's a matter of balance. We need a medium that challenges us, but not too much. We need a medium that allows us the freedom to create, but is substantial enough to require our sincere effort. We need a medium that allows us to connect with the audience we value.

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"Even those who fall flat on their face are at least moving forward." In the spirit of true confession, yesterday's Here's a Thought was not my best effort. Let me try again from a slightly different point of view, hence "Recognizing Excellence, Second Attempt."

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I attended my first workshop 40 years ago. I did so because I wanted to learn the specific techniques that were being taught by the instructors. Looking back on that experience, I realize the most important thing I experienced was seen hundreds of wonderful prints by the three instructors. The techniques I learned back then have been replaced during the digital revolution. The way I learned how to see and recognize excellence in a photograph is still one of the most valuable lessons of my creative life.

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I'm always hesitant to say that we can't do something because there may be a way to do it that I just don't know about. To date, I have no idea how to fake sharpness. I can process an image to fake dynamic range, exposure, contrast, etc. But once an image is captured with soft focus, it's going to look like soft focus forever. At least it will until the software engineers figure out how to resolve this for us.

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