The digital divide has created a dichotomy I've never heard discussed. That dichotomy is a generational one, I think. Those of us from the previous generation found photography mostly in books, and occasionally in original prints. Today, most of us see images digitally and even more rarely in original prints. (Fewer galleries, etc.) I wonder how much of this is the result of phenomenal image fidelity in books and digital displays?

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The Internet — indeed, the WORLD — is filled with creative types who all want to show you how they do it, whatever "it" is. Me included, I confess. The problem persists, however, that your path is your path and can only be revealed by you. Techniques can be taught, but creativity must be discovered, nurtured, searched for, allowed by you, for you.

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We are supposedly taking trillions of pictures now according to experts who calculate such things. If we eliminate selfies from that count, I suspect the remaining images would total about six. I exaggerate to make a humorous point. Seriously, there'd be about eight. This tsunami of selfies exhibits a cultural narcissism that is breathtaking. I'm slightly frightened by the long-term implications of all these selfies. It seems to me the photography's greatest gift to humanity is its ability to concentrate our attention on others and the fascinating world we inhabit.

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I've made no secret that there are half a dozen master photographers whose work simply doesn't connect with me. Bill Brandt, Garry Winogrand, and Joel-Peter Witkin come to mind. Rather than ignore them, I found it very useful to spend time with their work exploring my disconnect. It's one thing to reflexively like work, but studying the work we don't like has an uncanny ability to clarify why we like what we do.

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LW1464 - When Images Have a Mind of Their Own

Every time you click the shutter you have some idea of what you hope the finished image might be. Even if you are just "gathering assets," you have some idea what the image might look like when finished. More than that, can we agree that every time we click the shutter, we do so because we think we have a winner? Why else would you click the shutter? But then something happens to dampen our enthusiasm once when we start to work with the image. If 100% of the shutter clicks are motivated by a winner, why are not all of your images eventually winners? Seriously, what happens to diminish our enthusiasm for an image?

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

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I'm not fond of using a tripod. For 35 years, every picture I made had to involve a tripod because I was using view cameras. I've thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of handheld photography here in the age of image stabilization and ISO flexibility. That said, I can't deny that a goodly number of my images are better having used a tripod than they would have been had I tried to hand hold the exposure. More and more I find the first decision with every image it should I use the tripod or not.

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I've spent 50 years in photography developing my sense of aesthetics. Simultaneously, I've spent 50 years developing my craft in the hopes that I can eliminate the barriers between vision and capabilities. What happens when our capabilities equal (or exceed!) our vision?

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Give me a morning of fresh snowfall and I'm in photographic heaven. Give me a morning of drizzly rain and I want to go back to bed. What is it about rain that discourages photography? In nature and landscape, rain tends to saturate colors and creates lovely shiny leaves. What's not to like from a photographic perspective?

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Cleaning out the attic the other day, I ran across my old Polaroid SX-70 camera, otherwise currently known as a boat anchor. A friend of mine fears a crisis in his photography if Epson stopped making ink for his printer. And of course every digital camera uses a custom battery without which our cameras are best used as paperweights.

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I don't see how anyone could disagree with the notion that we are seeing more small images than ever before. Statistically speaking, I'll bet most images you see these days are smaller than 8x10" because most of them you've seen on your phone, your tablet, or your laptop. And this is in the age of ever increasing megapixel cameras. My new camera, for example, has a 200 megapixel sensor ,um, in my phone! Really?

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