Why is it that certain groups of words just seem like a perfect title? Titling our work is one of the great challenges for people who are visual folks and who often struggle with the challenges of writing. So rather than write, why not listen for the titles that occur in everyday conversation?

Let's talk turkey and be honest. That famous 1907 Stieglitz image The Steerage isn't a very good photograph. It's slightly out of focus, there's no detail in the shadows, people on the edges of the frame are cut off, the verticals and horizontals are not rectified, and there's not really much going on. But it's one of the most famous photographs in all of photographic history. Why?

Here's the story about a friend of mine who was one of the world's best photographic printers. That is, right up until the rest of the world caught up with him and his prints were no longer anything special.

HDR is not the most abused digital photographic technique. That honor goes, I believe, to the vibrance and saturation controls. Shouting the vibrance and color do not make a more meaningful photograph, but they might make a louder one. And I don't know anybody who likes to be yelled at.

The other day when I was out photographing, I specifically tried to avoid the obvious compositions. I found I simply couldn't! I could try to ignore them, but they were too seductive. The only way to avoid the obvious compositions was to photograph them so that I could let go of them.

I've unexpectedly uncovered a strategy that is proving to be incredibly helpful in several aspects of my creative life.

I apologize. One last comment about large prints.

I promise, last comments about print size. Because large prints present so many technical challenges in order to succeed, doesn't it make sense that our attention is concentrated on those technical challenges? If, however, the true success of a photograph is based on its content, shouldn't that be where our focus of attention is concentrated? Wouldn't it make sense to spend our creative efforts developing deeper content for smaller prints rather than expending our energies on overcoming technical challenges?

Since childhood, we've all been trained that success is a function of effort. Try and try again. Try harder. But artmaking is all about being sensitive to the world and to your own reactions to the world. Sensitivity is not a function of muscles, but rather a function of nerves. Learning how to use our nerves rather than our muscles is one of the most important lessons in the art life.

Some of you are likely to think that I'm obsessing about this print size business with my third day in a row, but here's one additional thought about giant prints. The bigger the print, the more that can go wrong, the more exacting and laborious it's production becomes, and the more care one has to employ in its production. Does all of this additional labor and work serve a function? Or does it simply make it feel like we deserve more praise and reward for the extraordinary work that was required? Are small prints just too easy?