Photography Clips

I've had nights when I've sat in front of a screen full of photographs I should have been happy with and felt almost nothing.

Nothing was obviously wrong with them. The exposures were good. The compositions worked. The light was there. I could move from one image to the next and find something technically successful in almost every frame.

And sometimes I just shut down the computer and go to bed.

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/when-everything-is-good-nothing-stands-out/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Every once in a while, it's interesting to give yourself a question with an unreasonable rule attached to it. This one asks me to choose one photographic subject.

Here's one: If I could photograph only one kind of subject for the rest of my life, what would I choose?

At first, that sounds easy enough. I've photographed long enough to know what I enjoy and what usually catches my attention. But the more I think about actually giving everything else up, the harder the choice becomes...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/if-i-could-photograph-only-one-thing/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Every once in a while, Lightroom accuses me of taking a photograph I'm sure I've never seen before. A forgotten photograph can look as though it belongs to someone else.

There it is in the catalog. My camera made it, the date proves I was there, and the files surrounding it belong to me, too. There really isn't much room for an argument. Still, I look at the photograph and think, When did I take this?

Usually a photograph brings at least something back with it. I remember the place, the weather, what I was trying to photograph, or perhaps what happened just before or afterward. Sometimes I can even remember standing in a particular spot and deciding exactly where I wanted the edge of the frame. Then there are these other photographs where I remember nothing at all. It's almost as if somebody slipped one of their pictures into my files...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/when-my-own-photograph-feels-like-someone-elses/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Not long ago, someone told me that the music I was creating was basically a waste of time. It made me think about photography and music, and what makes either one worth creating.

I've been working on a little project I call Music From the Doctor's Office. It started simply enough. I spend more time than I would like sitting in doctors' offices, waiting rooms, and medical appointments, and sometimes musical ideas come to me while I'm there. Instead of letting those ideas disappear, I started turning some of them into finished pieces.

I never expected them to become hit songs. I wasn't trying to build a new career around them. I wasn't sitting there thinking about how many people might listen or whether there was a market for what I was creating.

I was making music because I enjoyed making music...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/photography-and-music-creative-value/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

I was getting ready to leave and head back home when I decided I wanted a picture with my dad.

Neither of us was feeling particularly well at the time. We were both having health issues, we hadn't fixed our hair, and neither one of us was exactly ready for a photograph. None of that seemed important enough to stop me.

I just said something like, "Hey, let's smile and take a selfie."

So we did...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/i-didnt-know-that-was-the-last-photograph/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Every so often, I come across a photograph that I know I wouldn't have cared much about years ago.

Nothing dramatic is happening. The light may not be spectacular. There may not even be an obvious subject, as I once expected a photograph to have one. And yet I keep looking at it.

That has been happening to me more often lately...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/when-my-taste-changes-before-my-photography-does/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Twenty minutes doesn't sound like enough time to do much with a camera.

At least, that's usually how I've thought about it. When I imagine going out to photograph, I tend to think in larger blocks of time. A morning somewhere. An afternoon drive. A few hours when I can wander around, wait for the light, change direction, and see what turns up.

But recently I started wondering how many twenty-minute stretches I've let slip by simply because they didn't seem long enough to count...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/what-could-i-photograph-in-twenty-minutes/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Every so often, someone mentions one of my photographs and catches me completely off guard.

Not because I don't remember the photograph, but because I didn't know they had seen it.

That happened recently. Someone told me they had enjoyed a photograph I used with an article. I thanked them, and then it hit me that I had no idea they followed my work at all. There had been no comment, no email, no message, nothing that told me they were reading or looking.

As far as I knew, they weren't there.

But they were...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/photography-audience/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Suppose someone found one photograph of mine and knew nothing else about me.

What would that single image tell them?

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/one-photograph-cant-tell-the-whole-story/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

This was my perspective earlier this week. I found myself on the crow's nest floor with my feet up, trying to figure out what to do next.

To explain how I ended up there, I have to go back several months...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/crohns-disease-prednisone-loophole/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com