LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

HT2662 - One Grain of Sand It's difficult to admire one grain of sand while we are standing on the beach. I offer this as a metaphor for photography today. You and I sweat bullets to make a photograph we can be proud of, but if we look about a bit, we see trillions of photographs being made every year here in the digital age. Even if our masterpiece is spectacular, it is difficult to get it noticed in the tsunami of images being produced every day. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2660 - The Drama of Good vs Evil Can you think of an artistic expression that doesn't involve, in some way, the drama of good versus evil, innocence versus the diabolical, the weak vs the strong, dark versus light? (You don't suppose I slipped that last one in for a reason?) If the central themes of art are rooted in drama, why would art photography not also be rooted in drama? If so, that leads us to the question How do we build drama into a photographic image? Perhaps even more informative is the question How do we build drama into a photographic project? This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2600 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2658 - Seducing The Eye of the Beholder Said another way, a way that can bypass the numb response to a cliché, art appreciation is an act of free will. Extending that thought even further, people look at your artwork because they've made a decision to do so in anticipation of some rewarding or beneficial experience. Where does that anticipation come from? What is our responsibility as art makers to build that anticipation so they are motivated to spend the time to see what we've produced? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!

HT2656 - Big Things Are Made from Little Things One of the great lessons from my dad who was also my coach, is an approach to making progress. He used to say that "inch by inch is a cinch, yard by yard is hard." Doesn't this equally well apply to art making? If you want to create a big thing like a book, an exhibition, a digital publication, a lifetime of creative output, the path to do so is one capture at a time, one processed image at a time, step by step, accumulating little successes one at a time. Aim for the Big; work the Small. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!