LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Here's a Thought… #2775 with Brooks Jensen

A Timed Event

At the suggestion of a friend years ago, I experimented with photography as a timed event. I was driving through Eastern Oregon and the challenge was to stop every hour on the hour without fail. Wherever I was, I had to get out of the car and make a photograph within 15 minutes. Instead of picking and choosing my photographic locations based on aesthetics or having seen something interesting, I only photographed when the alarm went off telling me the time was now. It turned out to be a fascinating experiment because no matter where I stopped I found an interesting photograph.

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Here's a Thought… #2774 with Brooks Jensen

Plein-air Photoshop

You're familiar with plein air painting, that open air approach to painting at the scene, in the environment, outside the four walls of the painters studio. Why can't we do that? How different would our pictures be if we were to process them at the scene, in Photoshop, with the subject still before us? Normal photo processing takes place elsewhere, from our memory, using the camera's capture which might be years or decades ago. I wouldn't be surprised if someone has actually done plein air Photoshop, but I've never heard of a photographer who did. The closest similarity I can think of might be shooting Polaroids in the field, but I'm wondering about Photoshop, on a laptop, where you can still see the scene before your eyes.


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Here's a Thought… #2773 with Brooks Jensen

Twelve For Six

I continue to have all kinds of fun doing Seeing In SIXES projects. I've been doing them long enough now that I'm starting to see certain patterns emerge that help the process. For example, when I try to produce a Seeing In SIXES project I'd better have more than six candidates to choose from. I don't need a hundred, but the editing/selection process is so integral to the format that there have to be extras that help me clarify and intensify the theme. I've come to recognize that the ideal minimum number of candidates for me is 12-16. Knowing this, when I'm in the field I keep shooting until I have at least a dozen that might fit the project.

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Here's a Thought… #2772 with Brooks Jensen

That Special Travel Feeling

Why is it that travel seems to precipitate a heighten sense of excitement to photograph that is missing from our home or daily routines? Is it simply that we are trying "to take it all in" while traveling? If so, can we purposely develop that "take it all in" attitude at will? At home? After all, a visitor from some distant land might travel to your home town with that same "take it all in" mind and be fascinated with your everyday experiences.

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Here's a Thought… #2771 with Brooks Jensen

Your Work and Ansel Adams

I've said for a long time now that the most influential attribute of a work of art is the signature of the artist. That is, a very bad Ansel Adams print will be more valuable than our best. Of course, the mental trap in that thought is the equating of fame/value and merit. I would unhesitatingly say that many of your photographs are every bit as good as an Ansel Adams photograph. Your work may never be as famous as an Adams print, but that does not mean it can't have the merit and power to move us profoundly. Perhaps merit is in the eye of the beholder.

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