Three weeks ago, I found myself sitting on the banks of Hudson Bay, a stone’s throw from the Arctic circle, waiting for a polar bear to wake from his slumber. One can wait a long time for a polar bear to awaken. Several times, our group of photographers asked whether we should move on, and several times the answer was, …
Failure Rates? Keeper Rates? There is a better way of thinking about this.
Do you ever hear yourself say something and immediately wish you could take it back? It’s like words are coming out of your mouth and you’re only seeing them for the first time and you think, “wait! I didn’t mean that!” It happened to me the other day. A friend and I were on a small plane heading home from …
Print Your Work Without Printing Your Work?
I have no idea how I got there, but I found myself on YouTube a few weeks ago watching mesmerizing videos of a carpenter making the most beautiful tables and desks. Cam (the carpenter) can be found at BlackTailStudio.com or on Instagram, and his videos (including one about the making of a $10,000 Myrtlewood desk) gave me a new appreciation for the idea …
Are You Using the “Right” Camera?
There is tremendous freedom when you finally stop worrying about meeting the expectations of others, most especially the expectation of doing things the way you should do them. For years, my Achilles heel was the expectation that I had to do certain things and use certain gear because that’s how the so-called pros did it. That’s how a “real” photographer …
You’re an Amateur. Is That Enough?
You’re an Amateur. Is That Enough? In September 2019, I wrote the words below for my podcast, A Beautiful Anarchy, and I feel like perhaps enough time has passed since I’ve reminded you of these important truths, and I want to offer them to you again. _________________________________________ I spoke with an artist recently who expressed the feeling that because his …
The Pleasure of the Poetic
I’m taking a bit of a chance with this one, but as I’ve been talking lately about the poetic possibility of photographs, I thought I’d make some further observations. I read a little poetry most mornings, coffee in hand, as I gather my wits for the day. Lately, it’s been Billy Collins, a two-term Poet Laureate of the United States. …
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 …
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 …
The Joy of Photography?
A couple of weeks ago, I confessed to you that I hadn’t picked up my camera for six months. The replies I received by email and comments on the blog were like a big collective sigh of relief from so many of you—like we were all holding our breath, thinking we were the only ones who had lost some of our …