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Below are the three most recent Here's a Thought . . . commentaries
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HT2428 - Volumes 1, 2, and 3 |
Large bodies of work are difficult to consume. Think War and Peace versus haiku. Novelists know the advantages of breaking their narrative into smaller parts — chapters, sections, volumes. We can do that, too, as long as we remember that each section is its own entity and doesn't repeat the previous ones. |
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HT2429 - Stuff Not Used |
When I get back from a big trip, one of the decompression things I like to do is review my gear use. Since I put so much time and thought into the kit I'll take with me, doesn't it make sense that I should review and see if my planning was well thought out? |
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HT2430 - The Economics of Sharing |
Making photographs and sharing photographs are two different things. Many of us make photographs because we can't not make them. Sharing, however, is an optional activity. As an optional aspect of our creative life, it's more likely that we'll think carefully about how much we are willing to spend on sharing. |
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HT2431 - Mean Stack Noise Reduction Repurposed |
Back in 2022, I created a video in our LensWork Creative Labs series in which I discussed something called Mean Stack Noise Reduction. That technique is not obsolete in light of Adobe's AI Noise Reduction, but those images have a new and thoroughly unexpected use. |
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HT2432 - Even 2500th Second Can Blur |
During the initial review of images from the trip, I was surprised to see some handheld shots that were not sharp even though they had been shot at 1/2500th of a second and used image stabilization. How does this happen? How can I fix this issue in the future? |
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HT2433 - 1,000 Captures |
When I used medium format film, I got 8 shots per roll of 120. I took 200 rolls of film with me to Japan in 1990, well over half of which came back with me unexposed. I came back from Colorado last week with 1,000 shots just of fall colors. My how times have changed. |
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HT2434 - Anticipating the Ways a Picture Might Fail |
There are many ways a picture can fail. Instead of thinking about what we need to do to make a picture succeed, what if we turn that around and anticipate the ways it might fail? |
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HT2435 - Processing and the Time of Day |
As strange as it might sound, I've noticed that how I process an image depends on when in the day I do it. Finicky details and complex processing steps are best done in the morning when my eyes are fresh and I'm most energetic. Aesthetic decisions and experiments are best done late in the day when I'm just a bit tired and my subconscious has an easier time poking through the barrier of the intellectual mind. |
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HT2436 - The Second and Third Layer of Comprehension |
How much time does it take to fully understand a photograph? Of course, there is no single answer for the simple reason that photographs are so varied and often have different purposes. That said, doesn't it seem obvious that through social media we are all being trained to see photographs at a surface level only, then swipe left and move on under the assumption that we've really seen it? But, have we? What about those deeper levels of comprehension that require effort, time, a certain amount of commitment to an image? |
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HT2437 - What I Hope to Accomplish with These Thoughts |
One of the criticisms I have about a lot of workshop instructors is that their basic premise is to persuade and motivate the participants to do photography the same way the instructor does. "Here's my technique, go Thou and do likewise." That is decidedly not my purpose with Here's a Thought. |
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HT2438 - Fall Fog Season |
I know so many photographers who get excited about the fall season and all those wonderful colored hillsides of orange and yellow keaves. For me, fall is less about leafy colors than it is about fog. (Isn't it odd that we photographers put so much emphasis on the sharpness of our lenses, but love the photographic effect of fog?) Fog and snow — there is no question about it — are my two most favorite atmospheric forms of weather for photography. |
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HT2439 - The Space That Supports Your Work |
Once I had seriously committed myself to photography in the 1970s, I didn't fully realize the implications that would govern my choices of living space over the next five decades. Whenever I found myself needing to move, the first and determining question in any place I considered was where to put the darkroom and the print finishing studio. Over the years, I've slowly come to realize how the space influences what I produce. |
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HT2440 - Bit Rot Might Be Destroying Your Backups |
Have you heard of a thing called bit rot? I hadn't either, but it turns out it can be slowly leading your backups to failure. And speaking of backups, it's that time of year again when it's a good idea to back up all your computerized data, images, and those 1s and 0s that are the measure of your creative life. |
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HT2441 - No One Will Ever See It |
The often insurmountable distance from production to consumption. Rick Beato has a YouTube channel all about contemporary music. It's surprising how many times his topics pertain perfectly to our lives as fine art photographers. Here is an example that is so spot on that I thought he was talking directly to me — art without an audience. |
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HT2442 - Limitations |
Money is limited. Time is limited. Access is limited. Equipment is limited. Techniques are limited. It's a wonder we can get anything done with all these limitations. But that's the thing about the art life, we are surrounded by limitations that conspire to interfere with our productivity. If we let these limitations inhibit our work, it's not the limitations that need to be removed, but rather our willingness to allow those limitations to intimidate us. Artmaking is always about what we can do, not about what we can't. |
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