Here's a thought…

HT2398 - Food Clothing, and Shelter

In my twenties I work for the 9th largest retailer in the United States, a company called Fred Meyer, located in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Meyer had a fascinating philosophy. He observed that everybody needs three things: food, clothing, and shelter. Everything else is a luxury. I suppose that includes photography. It's an uncomfortable reality for us photographers but no one needs what we produce. At the same time, making art is one of the most important activities we can pursue.

HT2399 - My Theory on Locations

I continue to believe that location is an overrated commodity in photography. Perhaps this doesn't prove my idea, but in the last month on the road I've captured images for 15 small projects from 13 different locations I never anticipated or never knew existed.

HT2400 - The Importance of Being Thick-skinned

Photography at times can be so cruel. Our best plans can evaporate in technical failure. Our precious artwork can be rejected by a monstrous editor. Ahem. The work we love like children can leave others cold. No one said the life of an artmaker would be lollipops and rainbows every day. To quote one of my favorite lines from The Princess Bride, "Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

HT2404 - From the Overlook

I was recently at a scenic overlook where there were quite a number of others using what appear to be fairly modern digital cameras and long lenses. It occurred to me that probably all of them, or at least almost all of them, would end up with a very lovely photograph. The light was beautiful, the view from overlook was breathtaking, and their cameras quite capable. A lot has changed in the last 50 years of photography.

HT2405 - I Am Not a Landscape Photographer

Don't get me wrong, I do photograph the landscape. But the purpose of my landscape photography is not to make a statement about the landscape but rather to use the landscape as it means to explore other ideas. For example, I have a project that is solitary trees in a vast landscape. The project is not about the solitary trees, but about how I was feeling after my wife passed away. Photography as metaphor, as Minor White advised us to photograph what else it is.

HT2406 - GPS EXIF Data

I can connect my cameras to my cell phone in such a way that each image I photograph records the GPS information from my cell phone into the ex of data of the image file. For some time now, I thought that was a pretty neat trick. But I've come to realize I never used that data, not even once, and the extra drain on my camera batteries is inconvenient. So, I've stopped capturing GPS data and haven't missed it a bit. I'm sure for some of you it's incredibly valuable, but for me it's turned out to be superfluous and completely unnecessary.

HT2407 - Paul Strand

Paul Strand has been a favorite of mine for over 50 years. Three of his books are in my top 10 all-time favorites list. Time in New England (1950), Un Paese (1955), and Tir a'Mhurain / Outer Hebrides (1962). One of the aspects of his work that I love is the mixture of portraits, architecture, life style, landscape, and nature — all in the same project.

HT2411 - Fleeting Ideas

It's said that Charles Dickens during his long meandering walks through London, would always carry with him a notebook. He would jot down descriptions of interesting places he saw. He would capture interesting phrases people used or their accents and ways of speaking. He would then refer to these notes while he was writing his novels, using the little snippets of conversation he had overheard. Not a bad idea for us photographers, too.

HT2412 - The Crucial Missing Element from So Much of Fine Art Photography

One of the most common reactions I have when I see great artwork is that I cannot comprehend how it was done. There is some magic in the fact that it exists which leads to wonderment about how the artist accomplished it. People used to feel that way about photography, too, but now the magic in photography is so easily dismissed with "It's been Photoshopped" whether that's true or not.

HT2413 - Waiting for the Light

Yesterday, I was at a terrific location for high altitude mountain photography. The scene was lovely, the rocks majestic, and the snow a perfect accent to add texture to the rock face. The only thing that was missing was a splash of winter sun. I decided to wait. Five hours later, I got the break in the clouds I was waiting for.

HT2414 - Going Back

I've had two instances of going back to photograph again something I'd already done once before. It's often said that we can't go back. I think there is every reason in the world to go back, not the least of which is that things constantly change

HT2418 - Returning with a Zoom Lens

In the 1980s, I made a photograph of the hills near my grandmother's home in Tensleep, Wyoming. I was never thrilled with that image and finally had the opportunity to revisit the area last week. I found the hill I had photographed and realized instantly why I was not happy with the previous effort.

HT2419 - Bad Light

Yesterday I was photographing in the South Dakota badlands and had a moment when I thought, "This is really bad light." It took me a minute to remember my own advice that there is no such thing as good light or bad light. There is, however, light that doesn't serve our preconceived ideas. "Bad light" really means that we are imposing our will on what the landscape is giving us. In other words, there is no bad light, there are only bad expectations.

HT2420 - Things or Moments

Ask a photographer what it is they make pictures of and the chances are they will answer THINGS or perhaps PEOPLE. Perhaps, but more likely than not what they capture a moment, at least in their better photographs. I always try my best to remember this when I'm out photographing, like when I was at Shiprock last week.

HT2421 - The Difficulty with Gray

I've started to work on some of the images from my trip and in particular those from the Badlands of South Dakota. These are tricky images to process just right because of an unexpected issue. Light gray can look either alive or depressed depending on the surrounding mat board or digital background.

HT2425 - Not Just the Most Recent

Now that I'm back from two months on the road, it's time to see what I have. For me, that process most often starts with building some collections based on potential projects. I add images from the recent trip into collections and then start scouring my previous images from the last couple of decades and add any of them to the appropriate collections. This forces me to think outside the recent captures and to be sensitive to larger trends I may not be conscious I've been working towards unknowingly.

HT2426 - Sensor Clean X2

I cringe every time I see those fuzzy blue circles in the sky that indicate I have dust on the sensor of the camera. I was given a suggestion by a reader about one way to deal with this and used it religiously these last two months as I was out in the dusty West photographing. I'm delighted to report that I had not a single indication of any dust on any shot.

HT2427 - Ruthless Editing to the Narrative

I believe we have the opposite problem from the one our photographic forefathers had. Their challenge was to make a great photograph with primitive materials. Today, we can make hundreds or thousands of flawless images with ease. How do we choose which ones to show? We edit to the narrative, but first we need to determine what the narrative is.