Postcards from the Creative Journey

1096 Smaller Pieces of Pie

I was speed reading through the daily mountain of photo related emails when I skimmed over an announcement of a street photography competition’s scandal because a prize-winning image for a street photography contest turned out to be a fully orchestrated, casted, scripted and photoshopped production. Apparently, this violated the canon of street photography and more importantly, was so well executed the jurors of the competition were bamboozled.  The apparent solution was to the entry was to include a new category for the competition.

Comprehension and retention were never strong suits in my reading skills so I might be wrong about such little things, like facts, but it seems that we continue to create niches in all things in the world, (especially art) so that everyone can claim to be the “best” in their little world. Now everyone can get a piece of the pie, it’s just that the pieces continue to become smaller and smaller.

1095 Lookin’ Good First Published 8/31/2014

One of the keys to successful photography is the ability to know what looks good when photographed. A skilled photographer must be able to see as a camera sees in order to avoid that “who took that photograph with my camera?” moment we all experience. The human eye sees differently than the camera because it is connected to a brain that inconveniently forgets to see things it should and sometimes sees things it would like to be there.

The pre-visualizing types have this under control because in addition to seeing as the camera sees, they add the “here’s how I am going to process that image when I get home” part of the creative process. So, for them the whole joy of discovery is a done deal at the time they make their exposure and all they have left is the work of making their vision a reality using the tools they have under their command.

1094 “Your Honor, The Defense Has Photographic Proof!”

Used to be this assertion killed the prosecution’s case in those old black and white crime drama movies. Not so, anymore. I updated to photoshop 2024 and Adobe’s Regenerative AI function graduated from Beta and is right there just below content aware fill. If Adobe has the rights to images that it can use to modify your images, you can have that inserted into your image – and no one will be able to tell the difference.

Two years ago, I had fun with a project, The Sky’s the Limit, using Adobe’s sky replacement tool to replace the sky on each image in the project using the same Adobe stock sunset. No one made a comment that the same colorful sunset appeared in a black and white image of London’s Parliament building, or over the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, or the Snake River in Oregon.

In the world of art, our ability to photographically create our own fantasy world now exceeds the most skilled of artists in other media. I am apprehensive about this new power because the ability to abuse it for selfish means demeans the value of images created in the real world.

Check out  “Sky’s the Limit" in The Lipka Journal.

1093 Convenient Light First Published 11/18/2018

Convenient Light is the light that shines any time other than the “golden hours.” I love Convenient Light because I can sleep a few more hours and it’s not crowded because those “golden hour photographers” aren’t around. After all, isn’t it our job as photographers to look more closely at the world around us and see opportunities where others do not? At those times we look for the opportunities other photographers choose not to pursue.

I am aware the shadows may be different during the hours when the sun is high in the sky, but it is at those times we photographers just have to look a little bit more carefully at how light strikes what we are photographing.

Right now, in the Northern Hemisphere we are approaching the season of Convenient Light. Winter light is always directional and the shadows are always long because the sun is lower in the sky. Even in the middle of the day the light will cast some nice shadows. Here in North Carolina, the winters are not that severe, so you have great light and great weather for most of the day. It’s time to create some photographs.

 

1092 There’s That Time Between Projects

The time between projects is a very fertile time. There is no deadline to be met, no specific tasks to be undertaken, there is time just to let go and think up ideas for things to do. Letting your mind run free to come up with ideas that are not related to a specific task is great for coming up with new ideas and projects that you can begin at any time.

While I was brainstorming some thoughts on what I should be doing next, the thought struck me that what I should be doing next is either one of two things, or maybe a combination of both.

I should be spending my creative energies on (1) something I do better than anyone else and/or (2) something that nobody else has done. Now, I need to spend some time figuring out what these things are.

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As usual, I write these posts weeks in advance and review them before publishing. One other thing to note about that time between projects. Don't take a lot of time to figure out what you should be doing next. A loss of momentum is just as infectious as momentum. Celebrate and then immediately begin work on the next project. 

On another note, the image you see above will be included in the LensWork Publication, "Light, Glorious Light." Hope you are a subscriber to LensWork. 

1091 Kilroy was here! First Published 2/7/2021

I coined a new descriptive phrase describing a type of photograph. It’s a type of photograph we all make. It’s the “I was here and made a photograph” photograph. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of photograph because I guess there are more of these photographs made than any other. The vacation snapshot would be the prime example of this genre. The above photograph is Monument Valley from the Parking Lot. 

Kilroy was here. So was I.

Since we all have a bunch of “Kilroys” the question comes what do you do with them?

“Kilroy Photographs” are the starting points for any project. Whether these photographs can transcend the initial “here’s a photograph of where I’ve been” to real art is the task we need to face. The key to me is to imbue the Kilroys with more meaning than the “I was here and made a photograph” photograph.

1090 Lessons Learned Photo Safari XL Part II

Here are five more things I learned during this year’s Photo Safari. Next week we get back to the usual deep philosophical thoughts on the art of photography.

6. More about using a tripod
One of the bad habits about tripod use is not changing the height of the tripod after each exposure. Way back in the olden days of view cameras, I had to disassemble the camera, lens, and tripod between exposures. That way I was sure that the camera height would be different for each image I made. With today’s lightweight carbon fiber tripods, it is easy to forget to change the height between photographic opportunities. 

7. Photographing sunrises
Sunrise photography means that you must be out the door at zero dark thirty to get into the right spot for the sunrise photograph. The advantage to sunrise photography in the fall is that with the days being shorter you don’t have to be out the door until zero dark forty-five.

8. The Quiet Light
John Sexton proclaimed The Quiet Light was the best time to photograph certain subjects. I think that is true, too. But since John coined the term “The Quiet Light” I really can’t use that term. I’m left to my own devices to come up with a name for this special time. After considerable meditation on the topic while waiting for sunrise at zero dark fifty, I have decided that for me it is the time of “Reduced Illumination”.

9. Where to place the effort
Our group spent most of the day photographing, and then spent some time in the evening processing the day’s work in preparation for a “slide show” critique of the images. While a nice way to share what we’ve done during the day, that took away from conversation. Because digital editing is so addictive, we set a time limit on editing so we would have to have those important conversations about life, art, philosophy, and baseball.

10. With Age Comes Wisdom
We’re supposed to get wiser as we age. For me, that comes from recognizing that leaping from rock to rock while crossing a stream or climbing boulders above pounding surf is probably not conducive to longevity. I’m now starting to think about negative outcomes when I’m clambering about the natural world trying to find a better position for the next photograph. On this trip I noticed for the first time that it is very easy to get to that precarious vantage point atop a rock pile. It is quite another matter to figure out how to get back to the starting point of that climb. I wonder how this will affect my selection of future vantage points for landscape photographs.

Well, that’s all I learned on this Photo Safari. Soon, we shall begin to plan the Safaris for next year.

1089 Maggie the Ghost First Published 5/3/2015

I missed Halloween by a couple of days, but it's always a good time for a ghost story.

The Jameson Inn in Wallace, Idaho is haunted by the ghost of a young girl named Maggie. Maggie is a playful ghost and likes to hide keys. The manager warned that Maggie would move keys around and sometimes she would hide the keys and then return them (maybe) weeks later. We vowed to keep our keys in our pockets.

I was about to photograph a doorway, but a large boot shaped key fob interfered with my composition. Brooks stuck his head in the doorway and asked me to look at a composition he had set up. As I walked out of the room, Brooks watched me take the key out of the lock and put it on the bed, behind me. We went down the hall to look at his photo set up and we spent a few minutes discussing his situation.

I returned to the room where I was photographing, and the key was back in the lock. We were alone in the building, well, except for Maggie the ghost.

1088 Lessons Learned Photo Safari XL Part I

It’s that time again. After spending two weeks on the road photographing with Brooks Jensen it’s time to enumerate the lessons learned when we went out to photograph.

1. Change your focus
One the first day we started photographing statuary at a cemetery. This was limiting on many fronts. We recognized this after completing the day’s activities and discussed how to avoid this in future days. We decided that the cemeteries were urban forest landscapes and that we should concentrate on the landscape portion of the cemeteries and work whatever statuary was included in the landscape was just a bonus. This was a much better idea and gave us the flexibility in both composition and subject matter. I’m going to include these two days of photography in the next issue of The Lipka Journal to demonstrate how some thought at the end of the day will improve future images.

2. People are honest
Halfway through a day long photography session, we took a break and purchased some non-nutritious snacks from a convenience store. After finishing our photography and driving back to base camp, I discovered my wallet was missing. After going through a mental checklist of the last time I had my wallet, I decided to return to the convenience store to see if someone found it. Someone picked up my wallet and gave it to the convenience store clerk. Everything was just as it was when I dropped it.

3. I am not the only stupid person in the world
When I inquired at the convenience store about the wallet, the clerk opened a cabinet, and my wallet was on top of a stack of about a dozen unclaimed wallets. I was not the only one to have stupidly dropped my wallet in the parking lot of a convenience store.

4. Just Waiting Around
Photographers seem to waste a lot of time waiting for the sun to rise and/or set. If you’ve ever been to a body of water late in the day, you will find a lineup of photographers standing behind their tripod mounted cameras waiting for “the moment” to make “the shot.” It’s as if they are in a groupthink about making the one shot from the same space and ignoring the gorgeous light all around them.

5. How to slow down photography
I packed a tripod on the last three or four safaris and I finally used it on this trip. It took me more than a day or two to gain proficiency in controlling the ball head. It was kind of retro having to fiddle with the tripod to change the heights for different photographs. In low light situations, it was still nice to have the steadying influence of some carbon fiber.

Stay tuned for next Sunday’s blog on five more things I learned on the most recent Photo Safari.

1087 How to Finish a Long Term Project (LTP) First Published 7/2/2017

Last week I introduced you to “Portals and Passages,” the LTP I have been working on for several decades without realizing it. Just before posting time I changed a word or two. I changed “finished” to “reached a milestone.” My LTP will end when I stop photographing or the world does away with doors. The former will occur long before the latter. How do we approach the LTP that appears to be huge and endless?

I have come to think of the LTP as a serialized novel. Completing a chapter is an accomplishment that can motivate you to move on to the next chapter, or maybe a different project. Breaking the LTP down into smaller tasks helps because completion gives you a sense of achievement and accomplishment. Starting the next chapter with recent success on your mind makes starting another project much easier.

Work never shared is unfinished work.

1086 On Acquiring A Gallery Exhibition

If you are searching for a venue for your exhibit, you will have to pass the gauntlet of gallerists, curators or possibly a committee of people to decide on the acceptance of the work you submit. Hopefully, these gate keepers will publish some criteria or themes for acceptance. Those guidelines are a good start, but there are some additional thoughts about what makes acceptable work.

Good work. There are two aspects of craft. One is the topic of the work. The more specific the topic is, the better the chances for an additional show. If your show is “My all-time best photographs,” you pretty much cancel out future exhibits. The second aspect is craft. Craft still means something in the gallery world. In addition to photographic skills, presentation in terms of mat cutting and framing are important.

Subject of interest. The photographs must be interesting to the curators, and more importantly, must be interesting to the audience. The location of the gallery is a good clue as to what is attractive to the audience.

Adherence to terms of contract. A signed agreement has terms that must be fulfilled. Be respectful of deadlines, image requirements for publicity and completing paperwork is a timely manner. The curators have a job to do, and they require your cooperation to complete their work. If you make their lives miserable, your chances for future exhibitions approach zero. If you make their jobs easy to do, you increase your chances for future exhibitions.

Plan for exhibition. Laying out the exhibit well ahead of the delivery date makes everyone’s life easier. Knowing the number of images you need to fill the exhibit space should be the first thing done. It’s an old project management trick. If you don’t know the destination, you have no idea of what it takes to get there. Once you know the route to the destination, the plan becomes evident.

A final thought. Competition for gallery shows is intense. You have no idea what the gallerists, curators or committees think about when they select shows for exhibition. The plan should be to hope for the best, prepare for the worst and don’t take rejection personally.

1085 How Long to Wait for the Decisive Moment? First Published 7/30/2017

How Long to Wait for the Decisive Moment? The answer? Ten minutes, tops.

For those of you that want a crisp, clear guideline on how long you should wait to make a photograph, there’s your answer.

For the rest of us, the correct answer is, “It depends.” Are you on vacation with a limited number of days you can devote to photography, or are you on a long term assignment from a big budget client who expects “the shot” and is willing to both wait and pay for you to bring "the shot" back, then you can afford to wait it out. If you’re fortunate enough to have a client with deep pockets and lots of time, you can sit down, put up your feet and wait for that cloud to move into the exact spot you need.

When on vacation, I go by the ten minute rule because that’s enough time to figure out if something is going to happen in your scene, or I have to come back later for a better picture. I might make a record shot to remind of the place, or to help me refine the composition for later. Then again, I just might make the photograph and move that cloud into the proper position with a little nudge in photoshop. (I added this thought after the final draft. Isn’t it amazing how we sometimes don’t give up on four decades of ingrained analog photographic behavior?)

The vacationer also has a value judgement to make. Waiting on one photograph means you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to find another subject to photograph. So it is a gamble we willingly take when we choose to wait or move on to the next opportunity. As it is with gambling, you make a choice and take a chance.