HT2620 - The Problem with Handheld Photography

After using a view camera for decades, my later conversion to handheld photography has been quite liberating. I enjoy being free from the tripod. That said, I have discovered that my compositions have gotten sloppy over the last decade and I do occasionally miss the exactitude that comes with more precise composition and care before clicking the shutter.

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LW1505 - From One to Many

I'm often asked how I develop a multiple-image project. There are probably dozens of ways this could be done, but the most common way a project is born in my creative process is from a single image that spawns the rest. It starts by wandering through my Lightroom catalog in a receptive state of mind not dissimilar from the way I wander through the world looking for subjects that peak my curiosity. In the field I'll find a scene; in Lightroom I'll find an image that talks my imagination.

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You might also be interested in. . .

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

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HT2619 - A Recitation of Locations

Last fall I attended a lecture where a photographer, by projecting on a screen, shared a parade of hundred images or so with the audience. It was so curious to listen to their verbal accompaniment. The first few images had context, story, even plot line as they described what they had photographed and how. But that only lasted a few minutes. Less than a dozen images into their presentation and their verbal accompaniment deteriorated to a recitation of locations. I wonder why it is that photographers so often think that where they photographed is more important than what or why?

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HT2618 - Print as Affirmation

As we wander through life, we see something that prompts us to make a photograph. Why? That mystery requires confirmation. Did we see what we thought we saw? Did we understand what we thought became clear? Do we make a print in order to confirm our experience? Do we share that print with others so that they can confirm our experience? Photography fundamentally is the process of saying, "Look at this." We do so because we think it's important. How necessary is it that others affirm our observation, even if that affirmation comes from ourselves?

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HT2617 - Battling with the Real World

The problem with photography from a creative medium point of view is that it too successfully allows us to make pictures that show what the world looks like. I'm not sure this is helpful for those of us who want to use photography as a personally expressive medium. The more our photographs are truthful to an objective point of view, the less they reflect our own interpretive response to the world. Do we create photographs that copy the world or do we push further toward a more personal expression?

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HT2616 - My Serious Camera

A troubling mindset that I have difficulty discarding is that I think of my gear as either serious or, well, not. With my serious camera, I work more intensely, with a deeper concentration. I also have a more portable, but fully capable camera that goes with me everywhere. For some reason, I can't seem to use that camera with the same intensity as my serious gear. I must let go of this prejudice.

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HT2615 - Beyond Place or Moment

You may recall my Editor's Comments in LensWork #173, Projects as Wall Art. I have another observation about this that I missed until recently. An image on the wall says something about a place or a moment. A project of a dozen images or so says something That is neither about a place nor a moment. My current project on the wall consists of 13 images of snow scenes that says something about snow and winter that I'm not sure I could accomplish with just one image all by itself.

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HT2614 - What You Should Do

Perhaps there is no deadlier advice from a workshop instructor, mentor, or master photographer, than their statement about what you should do with your photography. I've learned countless things from photographers who have told me what they do and leave it for me to pick and choose what parts of their creativity might be applicable to mine. On the other hand, I've learned essentially nothing from instructors who tell me how I ought to make my pictures.

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