Latest Black and white Podcast Episodes
HT1903 - Tilting at Photographic Windmills
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 20, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1903 - Tilting at Photographic Windmills To some degree, the purpose of photography is to replicate the human experience. Isn't this an impossible pursuit? If the purpose of a photograph is not to give us the experience of standing there and seeing the world with our own eyes, then what is t...
LW1402 - Photography in a Post-Mistake World
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 20, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1402 - Photography in a Post-Mistake World The history of photography shows that it has become easier and easier to make technically impressive photographs with every passing decade, certainly with every passing generation. Easier, perhaps, but never easy. There has always been a battle betw...
HT1902 - Single-minded Attention
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 19, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1902 - Single-minded Attention One of the reasons I love the creative aspects of photography is that doing photography seduces me into a single-minded and thoroughly focused attention. In fact, without that level of immersion, I find my photographs are remote, emotionless, empty. All previo...
HT1901 - Used Frames
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 18, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1901 - Used Frames I mentioned a while back that I stayed with some friends who had a couple of hundred framed pieces of art on their walls. It occurred to me that they had an incredibly wide variety of styles of frames. I asked them about this. They explained that the cost of framing is so ...
HT1900 - Internet Numbers
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 17, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1900 - Internet Numbers Call me a cynic, call me a disbeliever, call me an irascible conspiracy theorist, but I simply don't believe the numbers reported by websites like YouTube. When I see that some new and unknown YouTube influencer is reported to have a half a million views of their vide...
HT1899 - The Difference Between Snapshots and Art
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 16, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1899 - The Difference Between Snapshots and Art I guess I've always been a bit snootish in my attitude towards snapshots versus fine art photography. But the more I think about it, the more I've begun to question my assumptions. Snapshots are form of memory, but don't we experience that with...
HT1898 - Collectors vs Consumers
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 15, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1898 - Collectors vs Consumers When asked, I think most fine art photographers would have to confess that they would love to see their work become "collectible." I understand the motivations for validation that come with collectability and museum exhibition. It's curious, however, how differ...
HT1897 - Dinner in an Art House
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 14, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1897 - Dinner in an Art House I had dinner this week at a friend's whom I'd recently met. The minute I walked in his modest house, I felt a vibe that I would characterize as "an art house." His house was filled with art, his tables with pottery and art books, and every wall had a display of ...
LW1401 - Advantages of Small Projects
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 13, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1401 - Advantages of Small Projects I suppose it's no surprise that as the publisher of Image Suites, Seeing in SIXES and Trilogies that I'm a advocate for small projects — projects from just a few to perhaps a dozen or so images. I was therefore startled when I received an email from a Lens...
HT1896 - A Book Group for Photography
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 13, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1896 - A Book Group for Photography I suspect many of you are a member of a book group of one kind or another. Have you ever heard of a photography book group? I never have. In fact, I think this could be a wonderful idea. I'm often grateful to hear how others think about a photograph or a g...
HT1895 - The Fun Components
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 12, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1888 - Photography's Fascination with the Rare Photography can be hard work. For most of us, the work of artmaking also includes lots of fun and pleasant entertainment. Which parts of photography do you find the most fun? As a hobby, wouldn't it make sense to increase those components and to...
HT1894 - Postponing Your Art Life
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 11, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1894 - Postponing Your Art Life No one begins their photographic journey by immediately leaping into 40-inch prints. We all start small, 5x7, or 8x10. Then somehow we get gripped with the idea that bigger is better. Rather than turn our attention to making more personal, more meaningful, or ...
HT1893 - Dry Spells and Damp Spells
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 10, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1893 - Dry Spells and Damp Spells Wouldn't we all love to be creatively on fire every day, every moment. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. Instead, we have times when we are productive and times we are not. We think of those fallow times as "dry spells" which can be accompanied by guilt. B...
HT1892 - The Time to Make a Picture
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 09, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1892 - The Time to Make a Picture Let's take just a moment to think what a miracle is photography. Before photography, think how long was required to make a picture. Drawing one l line at a time, adding one brushstroke at a time. Pictures were relatively rare and treasured. That way of relat...
HT1891 - Grabbed by Artwork
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 08, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1891 - Grabbed by Artwork I suppose all of us have, from time to time, been mesmerized by a piece of artwork. It grabs us, it seduces our attention, it fills our consciousness. Why? What is it about a piece of artwork that gives it this power to influence us so deeply? Maybe not 100% of the ...
HT1890 - Experiences or Things
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 07, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1890 - Experiences or Things A friend of mine is downsizing in preparation for moving to a retirement community. She can't find anyone who wants her extensive collection of sheet music. Another friend is finding it difficult to find a home for her collection of dinnerware and silver. No one ...
HT1889 - A Self-assessment
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 06, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1889 - A Self-assessment On a whim, I decided to look back at the entire collection of my work that has been published in Kokoro. So far, that consists of 172 projects containing 2,432 images. I was happy and proud to publish every one of them - - at the time. Needless to say, some have not ...
HT1888 - Photography's Fascination with the Rare
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - May 05, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1888 - Photography's Fascination with the Rare Ask most people what makes a fabulous landscape photograph and they will unhesitatingly say a fabulous landscape. That is, the magic is out there. This implies that the photographer is simply a faithful recorder of the scene. Ask most photograph...
LW1400 - A Book vs a Collection of Images
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 29, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1400 - A Book vs a Collection of Images To us photographers, a book is most frequently a collection of great images. To the rest of the world, a book is a collection of great ideas or stories. Perhaps this is the reason why the market for photography books is primarily other photographers. F...
HT1873 - Maximum Black Is Not Magic
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 20, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1873 - Maximum Black Is Not Magic In my youth, I thought the magic was to achieve a maximum black. It took me several years to learn that the magic is not in maximum black but rather in beautiful gray tones and chords of tones that please the eye. Increasing contrast and overprinting the bla...
HT1872 - Print Size and the Wall
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 19, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1872 - Print Size and the Wall Once Stieglitz decided that photography was best consumed as art on the wall, like painting, he set in motion the pursuit of large prints. If it weren't for our predisposition to exhibit photographs on the wall, I wonder if there would ever have been a push for...
HT1871 - The Competition for Eyeballs
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 18, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1871 - The Competition for Eyeballs All media include an element of narcissism. With every photograph we make, we are essentially competing for attention. Each photograph screams, "Look at me!" This intense competition for eyeballs leads to a secondary phenomenon I think of as "the advertisi...
HT1870 - Stages of Creative Thought
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 17, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1870 - Stages of Creative Thought I've talked before about the solutions to problems that pop up from seemingly nowhere. I've recently been reading The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. I found there a fascination quote that discusses this proce...
HT1869 - Artwork Left Behind
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 16, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1869 - Artwork Left Behind I remember years ago hearing of a photographer who would leave small prints wherever he happened to find himself. He would leave his artwork on a bus bench, a restaurant table, a seat in the library, literally anywhere the spirit so moved him. I was so fascinated w...
LW1397 - Looking for Photographs
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 15, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1397 - Looking for Photographs When you want to make a photograph, what do you do? Probably you set out into the world somewhere and start looking for things you might photograph. You are on the hunt for potential. What if you were to point yourself to your Lightroom catalog rather than the ...
HT1868 - The Absolutely Necessary
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 15, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1868 - The Absolutely Necessary The ideal kit includes everything I might need. The opposite of how much gear can I take is how little gear can I get by with. Perhaps it's a function of my aging knees and back, but I find myself brainstorming about the least amount of gear I can take with me...
HT1867 - Feedback and the Pressure to Conform
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 14, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1867 - Feedback and the Pressure to Conform Yesterday I was talking about feedback and the way the digital workflow makes getting feedback about our work so much easier. Not unexpectedly, there is a downside to such easy feedback; the pressure to conform. All previous episodes of Here's a T...
HT1856 - Every Wish Has Been Granted
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 03, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1856 - Every Wish Has Been Granted There is that old bumper sticker wisdom that advises us to be careful what we wish for: we might just get it! For most of my photographic life I wanted faster, smoother, sharper, better. Now that I have all of that in today's amazing photographic tools, I s...
HT1855 - Adapting to What We Can Do
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 02, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1855 - Adapting to What We Can Do Do you have a photographic fantasy of something you would love to do? I suspect we all have such thoughts. Then reality sets in and we realize that those fondest desires may simply not be practical. Do we give up based on the fact that we can't achieve our f...
LW1395 - The Pace of Creativity
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 01, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1395 - The Pace of Creativity I've noticed that I've developed a really bad habit in my photography. Sometimes, with some locations, I get so excited about all that I am seeing that I work too fast, too frenetically, too voluminously. I end up firing away rather than taking a moment to feel ...
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