My next book just went up on Amazon. It’s always a little surreal because no one tells me these things and suddenly I’m looking at a cover of a book that looks suspiciously like mine. The less coffee I’ve had, the longer it takes me to figure it out. Wait! That’s MY book! 🙂 The Print & The Process began …
A Beautiful Anarchy
Self Portrait, iPhone. There are rules for engineering bridges, and flying airplanes. There are laws about how you drive a car and file your taxes. There are no rules or laws in art. Art is a beautiful anarchy, a place wherein we express – or try to – the inexpressible, to “eff the ineffable” as author Nick Hornby once wrote. …
Portraits: Some Questions Answered.
Old Havana, Cuba, 2009 I got some questions after we released the latest eBook, Forget Mugshots, 10 Steps to Better Portraits, that I thought I’d answer here. Some of this stuff was answered in Within The Frame, The Journey of Photographic Vision, but I don’t expect everyone to have read that, so here’s some additional ideas that have come up. …
Don’t Stop.
Agra Fort. Agra, India. 2008. I rediscovered this sequence of photographs while putting together Photographically Speaking. In the book I discuss one of these images and explore the elements and decisions that make the photograph what it is. But looking at the 3 together I think there’s a lesson along the lines of the stuff I’ve been talking about lately, …
Originality Part II
A week ago I left what might have been my shortest post ever: Originality is Overrated. It generated some good discussion, and from the comments it seemed to really resonate and get some thoughts going. My own thinking has been stirring too, but before I tell you where those thoughts have -for now – settled, I wanted some ghosts to …
Do The Work
“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” ~Emile Zola Lately I’ve had nothing but time. My feet are still weak and the closest I come to walking is fearful crutch-work across the kitchen floor as I put more and more weight on the feet. I have visions of the screws and plates popping …
Originality is Overrated
There is much talk in artsy circles about being “original”. I’m not even sure I know what that means. (Or if it exists.) Of all the places to put our energy, I think this is among the more futile. It’s the wrong answer to the right question. Is desiring originality (insert vague personal definition here) a good thing? Yes. Of …
Impressions
Impression I, II, III All three photographs were made with my iPhone 4, cropped to 4×5, and processed with the Magic Hour filter, all in the Camera+ app. I tweaked curves slightly, and added borders in Photoshop after import. One of the first things I did when the Ottawa Hospital finally let me have a Day Pass to go wreak …
Monument Valley, Utah
Sitting in a quiet restaurant in Taos, New Mexico. We’ve got one more day before we need to be in Albuquerqe. Some of you have expressed anything from wonder to shock to consternation at how fast I’m travelling. It won’t always be this way. Sadly in order to do this trip at all I needed to front-load some of the …
Better Portraits: Wait for the soul.
Mongolia, 2008. Image shot for World Vision Canada. With all the talk about technique it’s easy to forget, or to never learn at all, that the most important skills in portraiture aren’t photographic at all. You can use your fanciest 135/2.0 or 85/1.2 lens, blast 3 SB900 flashes through 6-foot octaboxes, or choose the best backgrounds the world has ever …