LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Here's a Thought… #2715 with Brooks Jensen

The Power of Titles

Titles have such power to steer the viewer in directions we intend. I've often used the example of Dorothea Lange's famous image, Migrant Mother. What if that image was instead titled, Waiting for the Return of the Soldier, for example? What if Weston's Pepper #30 was titled, The Last Pepper, or perhaps, Tina? Words change perceptions, sometimes with a nudge, sometimes with a sledgehammer. A title, even if it is only one word, can make all the difference in how the viewer sees your image.

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Here's a Thought… #2714 with Brooks Jensen

To Know a Photographer

There are so many photographers I think I know because one of their images has become important to me. I'm a fool to think so. People are complicated; photographers are at least as complicated as people. (Ahem.) I've come to believe that in order to know a photographer even a little we need to study at least a couple dozen images or more. Better if this covers at least a decade or so of their creature career.

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Here's a Thought… #2713 with Brooks Jensen

An Excuse to Explore the World

I'm pretty convinced that I don't need to add any more images to my Lightroom assets. I have enough RAW files in my catalogue to keep myself artistically busy and productive for the rest of my life. I just need to mine deeper into what I already have. That will not, however, prevent me from heading out and capturing more. That's because the core of artmaking is exploring life, exploring the world, exploring our responses to experience. Making the art is secondary; curiosity and inquiry are the primary values in the Art Life.

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Here's a Thought… #2712 with Brooks Jensen

Why the Sharpest Lenses

I've always thought that spending money on the best lenses made more sense than expensive cameras. A blurry picture can always be made with a tack-sharp lens, but a tack-sharp image cannot be made with a fuzzy lens. By the way, how do you know if your lens is sharp? Which apertures? Which focal lengths? You do know, don't you, that manufacturing under the tightest control will still make a lemon now and again?

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Here's a Thought… #2711 with Brooks Jensen

One Kind of Photography

You know that old business about what books you would want with you on a desert island? Just for fun, if you could only make one kind of photograph for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Landscapes? Portraits? Still life? Wildlife? I think I'd choose abstracts. I could make abstracts anywhere, anytime, with any subjects, with any camera, in any light, at any size, for any purpose.

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