Author: The Photographer Clay

I spend a lot of time studying photographs. Not just the photographs I take but also photographs from others. Some of the others I know, and some of them I don’t know. I say studying because I don’t merely look at the photographs. By studying the work of others I find styles and techniques I like, things I had not really considered before, and things I don’t like.

It is said the average person spends about 15 to 30 seconds looking at a piece of artwork in a museum. 15 to 30 seconds! I suspect that may be much lower when we’re talking about viewing images on social media or a website and yet there are lots of people willing to give a critique or opinion on a photograph on social media after spending a few seconds viewing it.

Studying the photographs and artwork of others is a way I have found helps me become more creative. I don’t attempt to copy what others have done but use their work as a springboard for my own work, especially if I see something I find compelling. Try it, browse through the work of others, and spend more than a few seconds looking at each photograph. You may be surprised at what you see.

It is often said that we should never stop learning. With that being said what was the last thing you learned pertaining to your art and photography? When did you learn it? I would like to offer a thought. If you haven’t learned anything new about photography and your art creation, you may not be progressing as a photographer or artist.

The last thing I learned about my photography and art was a few days ago. I learned more about the AI masking features in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I knew the existence of the tools but I was not using their full potential. In fact, there were a couple of options I was not aware of. Prior to that, I learned what is important to me in my photographic art journey which was something I had struggled with for the past couple of years.

If you haven’t learned anything new, or for that matter, relearned something you have forgotten, make that a goal for the next 30 days. Learn something new, and continue learning and progressing. Remember we have at the tip of our fingers access to a whole wide world of knowledge.

I mentioned yesterday that I watched a webinar given by a well-known photographer. During the webinar a question was asked, “is that a composite or in-camera shot” pertaining to a photograph he showed. His first response was, why does that matter? This is exactly what I say about such photographs when people ask, is that Photoshopped?

With film, you don’t hear people asking how the image was processed in the darkroom. Questions such as, what chemicals did you use? Did you dodge and burn? How long did you process the film in the chemical wash? What were your settings on the enlarger?

I’m not sure about others but I work to create art not a copy of reality. As good as my camera is, it still cannot create the art I envision. Sometimes, I underexpose a shot to preserve highlights and then bring up the exposure of the subject in post-processing. Sometimes, there are elements that cannot be cleaned up that get included in a shot that distracts from my vision and those elements are removed in post-processing. Sometimes, the lens is too sharply focused and I envision a softer focus which is achieved in post-processing.

In the end, you either like a photograph or you don’t. If you like it does it matter how it was processed? Likewise, if you don’t like a photograph it also doesn’t matter. It’s all subjective and about the art, not the process of creating the art.

Winter time can be a very tough time for landscape photography, especially in the midwest. Nearly everything is some tone of brown. The grass is brown the trees are brown, and the leaves are brown. One must often look carefully for any color. Even if you’re converting to black and white it is all about tones and when everything has a similar tone it is difficult to get much separation. It can be found, just keep looking. This is the time of year to challenge your creative eye.

I used to be able to just point my camera at something and snap a picture and be satisfied. Now, I go out and may take several pictures and get back and think eh! I do believe that it is for the best, sometimes. The reason I say so is because of the photograph above. I was just browsing my catalog of “assets” (as many call their catalog of photographs) and my wife asked me, “when did you take that one?” The photograph above I took just over a month ago. When I took it I thought it was decent. I converted it to black and white, I believed the color was distracting, and the more I looked at it the more I thought eh, it’s okay but. What I found interesting was that someone else saw the photograph and it caught their eye. Now that got me thinking maybe I’ve become too selective. Maybe I am looking too hard for a wow factor and not finding it, the proverbial can’t see the forest for the trees. Maybe it is time for a reset, you know, “have you tried turning it off and back on again?

I’ll be back tomorrow, I’m restarting my system.

I take a lot of sunrise photographs and I’m sure many of you may wonder why? I’m an early riser, most of the time I’m awake and up before the sun rises. I find each sunrise unique. Taking a photograph of the sunrise also gets me out and thinking about photography and creating art. Sometimes, like today, I grab my “real” camera and set up the shot. Other times I use my cell phone. It doesn’t matter which camera what matters is to start the process for the day.

While there are many days I may not take many other photographs taking a photograph of the sunrise starts my new day, getting me thinking about art and photography. It generates the mental flow of developing concepts and techniques.

What stimulates your thoughts of creativity and art, I’d love to know.