LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

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  HT2763 - Visual Syncopation 03.10.2026 2Min.

  Structure in a presentation of images can be both good and bad. Structure can provide form and consistency to a presentation. It can also become predictable, repetitious, and boring. This where visual syncopation can come to the rescue.
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  HT2762 - Understanding Fatigue and Exhaustion 02.10.2026 2Min.

  There are times when I try to go photographing in spite of feeling exhausted. It never works. This week is one of those times. I just can't bring myself to get excited about grabbing my camera and getting out there. Worse, I feel guilty about it. As I've thought about this in the torpor of my fatigue, I think I've had a flash of insight about this.
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  HT2761 - The Immersive Challenge 01.10.2026 2Min.

  We all have art we love and art that leaves us cold. In thinking about my own responses to artwork, I've come to the conclusion that the artwork I like the most are those pieces that create in me the largest immersive response by pulling me into the world that the artwork makes for us. This is, for example, where the novelist has so much to teach us visual artists. What if I were to propose that Tolkien and Ansel Adams are essentially facing the same creative challenge in different media?
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  HT2760 - The Cynic in Me 30.09.2026 2Min.

  This is the best time in the history of photography to be a photographer. That said, the cynic in me can't help but worry about the future of photography as an art medium. Because it has become so easy to make a technical stunning photograph, I wonder if the mystery in the craft has disappeared? If it's easy and everyone can do it well, is it still an admirable medium for making art?
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  HT2759 - Not ETTR, but ZJSOTR 29.09.2026 2Min.

  I'm sure you have all heard the advice, "Expose to the Right." In theory, that's well-founded reasoning and advice. In practice, I've found ETTR a bit impractical and prefer a more pragmatic strategy ZJSOTR — Zebras Just Short of the Right. This is even more true here in the age of AI Noise Reduction of our RAW files.
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  LW1524 - Photography as an Art Medium 28.09.2026

  If you want to insult a photographer, accuse them of "spray and pray." It's a not so subtle way of saying they are relying on luck rather than talent. There are, however, two instances where I think spray and pray not only makes sense but is a pretty intelligent strategy: capturing a fleeting expression in a portrait, and using a long exposure time in a handheld composition. Besides, when your photograph succeeds, will anyone care how you arrived at that success?
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  HT2758 - Forgotten Masters 28.09.2026 2Min.

  With the passage of time, it's natural that some artists become more valued and others fade from popularity. If this happened to Bach, why would it not also occur in photography? These days, I almost never hear anyone mention Diane Arbus, Aaron Siskind, Barbara Crane, William Garnett, Linda Connor, August Sander, Art Sinsabaugh, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Laura Gilpin, Elliott Porter, Ruth Bernhardt, Clarence John Laughlin, Don Worth, or Fay Godwin. This could be a lengthy list indeed. If the public doesn't remember them, at least we who have inherited their photographic legacy can and should.
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  HT2757 - Entering the Creative Bubble 27.09.2026 2Min.

  The world of athletics can be divided into two different sets of action. There is the preliminary part of preparation. Then there is the performative part of the competition. I think this provides a useful metaphor for photography and points out an interesting idea about preparation. When I'm out with my camera, my goal is to enter the creative bubble and starting the work of being a photographer. Like the athlete that stretches and warms up before the competition, what should I be doing as a photographer to prepare myself before entering the creative bubble? What is the creative equivalent to stretching and warming up?
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  HT2756 - Too Much Salt Spoils the Food 26.09.2026 2Min.

  Not long ago we tried a new Italian restaurant, just for fun. I ordered eggplant parmesan. Is there anything worse than bland, tasteless Italian food? Of course, I couldn't help but compare this to photography. What do we want in food — or a photograph? Intensity, a sensual thrill, a memorable experience, a good time, a sense of lingering satisfaction. We don't want bland, yet too much salt spoils the food. Similarly, too much "volume" in a photograph overwhelms the senses
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  HT2755 - The Subjectivity Scale 25.09.2026 2Min.

  Imagine, if you will, a linear scale with Objectivity on the far left point and Subjectivity on the far right point. Every photograph you produce (or have ever produced) can be located on this scale. Is the image factual and optically faithful to normal human vision, or is it imaginative and a personally expressive, fanciful, or an emotional interpretation by its creator? Is it documentary, or an expressive fiction?
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  HT2754 - The Exposure Triangle Reconsidered 24.09.2026 2Min.

  There are certain unavoidable truths in photography that are based on the laws of physics. At least, that's the way I think about it. The Exposure Triangle is one of these. The ISO is fixed, the shutter speed selected for sharpness, and that leaves the aperture as our primary tool for controlling exposure. This was a foundational truth for the first 35 years of my photographic life. And then it all changed.
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  HT2753 - Blue Light Blues 23.09.2026 2Min.

  We spend hours and hours, sweat numberless bullets, and endure creative torture so that our precious and precisely crafted art preserves our creative intent. After all that, it can be altered beyond our control by the Blue Light Filter of our viewers' phones or tablets. And then there's the problem of uncalibrated computer monitors. Should we abandon the archaic concept of photographic excellence in the hands of the master artist? Should we give up the myth of control?
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  HT2752 - We Are Media Producers 22.09.2026 2Min.

  Media, plural. In my youth, I produced one thing — black and white prints matted and occasionally framed. How quaint. How anachronistic. How 20th century. More recently, I count a dozen media I regularly use to produce my artwork. What makes this a particularly important aspect of photography today is that each of the various media all have their dedicated audience, many of whom are exclusive in their consumption of artwork. If we don't produce in their preferred medium, they might never see our work.
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  LW1523 - The Next Big Adventure 21.09.2026

  We're off in the RV travel trailer for another extended trip! Our route will take us across the southern US during 8 to 10 months, photographing along the way, and, hopefully, without skipping a beat in these podcasts nor the Here's a Thought commentaries. We're starting this week in Nantucket. I've never been here. I don't know what I'll find. How does one photograph a new location? Here's four key ideas that illustrated my approach.
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  HT2751 - Chasing Dollars 21.09.2026 2Min.

  I prefer not to think too much about the amount of money I've spent in my life to support my photography. Whenever I do, I find I can't help but sympathize with those who pursue print sales and publishing contracts. As a hobby, photography is almost as expensive as boating or golf. I can't recall, however, knowing anyone who thought their hobby of boating or golf might produce an income that would cover their expenses. I believe it was Robert Henri who said, "The Art Life is a privilege for which you need to be willing to pay."
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  HT2750 - The Toys with the Least Interference 20.09.2026 2Min.

  Yesterday, I suggested that any camera could be used to create art. If that's true, then how do we select which gear to buy or use? My answer to this thorny question is based on ergonomics and our state of mind. The ideal gear is that which is most comfortable and most invisible as we handle it. Reserve our limited brain power for content, not knob control.