One way I find useful when evaluating a new image (mine or someone else's) is to think about whether or not I will want to view it again. Is it likely to wear well over time? Compare this to music. There are songs I've listened to a thousand times. Others, one time is enough.

I know it's shocking, shocking I tell you, that you're current camera has limits. Your last camera had limits. Your next camera will have limits. The question is not whether your camera does or does not have limits, but rather can you find a way around the limits, or even simpler, except the limits and just do the best work you can with what you have.

LW1423 - Dialog with a Photograph

Looking at a photograph does not need to be a one-way transfer of ideas. It can be a proactive, two-way communication. Instead of just receiving a view of the contents of the photograph, we can foster a deeper and more meaningful engagement with an image if we ask questions and avoid snap judgments and the quick glance.

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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.

Do remember the film photographer's devil-incarnate known as changing bags? There's not much difference between a changing bag and a vacuum cleaner bag when it comes to dust. Even here in the digital age, dust is still an enemy for all of us.

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Depending on your workflow, if you are like me you have lots of virtual copies in your Lightroom database. Why do these copies exist? Do we need to keep them? What was the purpose for which they were created? Copy Name and Smart Collections to the rescue!

HT2042 - The Importance of Being Decisive

Artmaking is a series of trials, of assessments, of decisions. I think this is the source of great difficulty for some who struggle in their creative life. I've often referred to the great challenge of artmaking as the "C" word: COMMITMENT.

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Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com that looks at failures as a way to learn.

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.

In terms of the medium itself, most fine art photographers limit themselves to a single form of expression, the matted and framed print on the wall. It's interesting to compare that to writers or composers who typically explore various kinds of forms during their creative years.

I suppose I'm no different than all of you in that I don't like thinking about my own mortality. Like it or not, our days are numbered. With this in mind, how do we prioritize the possibilities of our remaining creative life?

Do you remember the cone of silence from the old TV show Get Smart? I often recall this when I think about looking at artwork, particularly my own photographs. How can I perceive my own responses to the art (or the world) when they are diluted and overpowered by the din around me? I want to immerse myself in The Cone of Silence as I immerse myself in the artwork.

Admittedly, I'm older and less mobile than I was in my youth. This has led to a different strategy in my photography that I find strangely much more productive than I would have guessed. I sit. I look. I think. I look some more. This inevitably leads to interesting images I would have missed in the click-and-run activities of my youth.