I talk to myself when I am making photographs—mostly mumbling, and it’s always questions. Questions like the ones I addressed in the last email I sent you about time, including “Could I leave and find something else? Could I wait a little longer?” Questions about light as well: “Could I be more creative about this, perhaps by underexposing?” And there are …
Clubs, Competitions, & Critiques
This is a longer one. You might want to grab a cup of coffee. In fact, if you’d rather listen than read, I’ve made an audio version for you and you can download it here. Enjoy. When I was a kid, I begged my mother to let me take horseback riding lessons. After some tearful pleading (mine, not hers), she …
Making the Poetic Image, Part Two
You wouldn’t be wrong if you called the last article I posted a bit of a “think piece” and wondered when the more practical advice was going to show up. Think of that last one as a nudge towards considering why an intentional use of composition is important if you want to make images that don’t just show us what …
Are Your Photographs Poetic? Part One.
Painter Robert Henri said, “Paint the flying spirit of the bird, rather than its feathers.” Similarly, Poet Anton Chekhov said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” One is a plea to painters, another to writers, but both beg the same thing: make me feel something. Don’t just tell me; don’t …
The Way The Camera Sees
One of the things that fascinates me about photography is the raw materials it uses. Painters have paint and canvas. Sculptors have stone and metal. But photographers? We have space, time, and light, and I think that’s magic. Hold that thought for a moment. How we think about making photographs can change how we make photographs and, therefore, change the …
Should You Specialize?
In the long list of pieces of photographic advice that gets foisted on newer photographers by well-meaning and more experienced photographers is this: you’ve got to specialize. And, like all advice, my reaction tends to be, “Well, yes and no.” One-size-fits-all advice will be extraordinarily helpful to us the moment photographers (and people in general) come in one size. We do not. …
Slowing Down is the New Speeding Up
I want you to imagine you’re sitting down with me, looking at a photograph, and I’m explaining what I was thinking when I made it. If it helps, imagine it’s the photograph I showed you a couple of weeks ago in the video of the man making coffee in Istanbul. And now that enrollment for the course I recently launched …
Your Next Challenge
For almost six months since mid-February, I didn’t pick up my camera. Not once. Yes, I needed a break. No, I don’t think to be a “real photographer” you need to pick up the camera every day. I don’t think we owe the camera any obligation at all; it’s there for us, not the other way around. But a couple …
New Thinking > New Gear
In the eternal quest for better photographs (and you can define that however you’d like), we all tend to spend a great deal of money. You probably already know how I feel about this. When I look back at the money I spent on gear that made promises that were never kept (and yes, I know, I heard what I …
I’ve Got Nothing.
My friend, I’ve got nothing this week. I’ve stared at this screen for what seems like hours, and my mind keeps getting distracted by the way my heart hurts. It’s been a tough year so far. The pandemic. So many lives and livelihoods lost. So much fear and anxiety. And now the murder of George Floyd, the subsequent protests in …
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