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 …
3 Ways Changing My Thinking Changed My Photography
As we grow in this craft, we move from uncertainty to increasing comfort and confidence with certain aspects of the skills and thinking that the making of photographs requires. To use a well-trod metaphor: it’s a journey. Some of the things we learn are adapted quickly; some we will work on all our lives. I clearly remember thinking how I’d be so happy …
To Make Better Photographs, Study More Photographs, Part Two
The first installment of this two-part series began an exploration of the way in which we study a photograph, first to experience it and then to learn from it. If you missed it, you can read the first part of To Make Better Photographs, Study More Photographs here. The main point in that first article was this: our first point …
To Make Better Photographs, Study More Photographs, Part One
I started this craft innocently enough—purchasing on a whim a Voigtlander rangefinder with a fixed 35mm lens when I was 14—but by the time I was 16 years old, I was hooked and desperate for something with a few more options. I wanted “a real camera.” I have no idea where I thought my mother would get the money for …
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. …
Motion? Make Me Feel It.
I don’t do rules very well. But I’ve got a couple of my own that come pretty close to inviolable. Don’t clean your sensor with your tongue is one such great rule. Very practical. In Bosnia, I was once given a large jar of honey that I thought would be better protected in my camera bag than anywhere else (I …
Further Thoughts on B&W
I’ve been hosting Heart of the Photograph virtual lectures for camera clubs around the world over the last couple of months, and one of the questions I seem to get after every one of those lectures is this: How do you approach your black and white work? The question comes in many forms, and now seemed as good a time as any to revisit …
The Most Powerful Tool Money Can’t Buy
Have you ever looked at an image made by another photographer and really felt like you were there? Like through some kind of magic, you weren’t just looking at the photograph so much as you were a part of it, immersed in it? Have you ever looked at an image and found yourself wondering about some tiny detail that is hinted …