Tag: quality

How seriously do you take your photography? Let’s face it, photography is an expensive hobby but does expensive gear show you take your photography seriously? I see a lot of photographers who profess their obsession with photography but yet they aren’t willing to invest in the one thing that will take their photography to new heights. I’m not talking about upgrading cameras or lenses. I’m not talking about buying the latest greatest craze. I’m not talking about using this computer or that one nor film versus digital. What I’m talking about is investing in yourself. I don’t give two hoots and a holler what kind of equipment you use or the media.

What do I mean when I say invest in yourself? I mean invest in your know-how, not necessarily paying for an education. I mean by reading, doing, studying, experimenting. I mean getting yourself into the mindset of an artist. I mean knowing when to just savor the moment and let the photograph go, when to take a camera and when to leave the camera at home. Investing in yourself also means self-care. Take a break if you need it. I’ve seen so many photographers burn themselves out, sell their stuff and never come back. Investing in yourself means don’t buy the presets or add-ons to your programs of choice but learning to build the style yourself.

Invest in your photographs by writing a short story about the scene or subject. Give your photographs titles. I always wondered why a photograph hanging in a gallery was titled “untitled”. Was the photographer/artist too lazy? Did the scene/subject not really mean much to the photographer? Was it something that the photographer rejected and someone, later on, discover it?

I’m guilty of these things as well so I’m telling myself to invest in myself. I’ve been negligent in not titling photographs. I’ve been guilty of not writing a story about a scene or subject. I’ve been guilty of letting the photograph go, or obsessing about the latest and greatest new gadget. Let us obsess over what really matters with our art, ourselves, and each other as artists.

When is good enough actually good enough? Do your photographs and artwork have to be perfect, or as close to perfect as is possible? Why or why not?

We often see this sort of discussion in terms of detail and sharpness. There is a group that believes photographs need to be “tack sharp” with all the minor details recorded. It also appears this mindset is growing amongst photographers but is it really necessary to be “tack sharp” and highly detailed? In some photographs that amount of detail and sharpness may be necessary but not in everything.

Sharp focus and detail are wonderful but they can also be a curse.

Super sharp lenses that can render all the minor details will show everything ruthlessly. Every skin pore, every bit of hair and blemish. Trust me on this one, the resulting image above is softened a LOT compared to the actual image on my computer screen.

My goal as an artist is to give enough sharpness and detail to convey the message I wish to without giving the viewer distractions or useless or unnecessary details. Back in the “olden” days, we used to use a variety of tools to give a soft look to images and this was before lenses and digital sensors were capable of rendering the level of sharp focus and detail as they can today. What changed? Was it that we were now able to achieve this level of detail and show off the quality of our equipment. Has photography become so narcissistic that we as photographers and artists have to show off the quality of our equipment rather than our artistic skills and creativity? Maybe we should obsess over the art rather than the gear and how “tack sharp” it can reproduce every minor detail. We don’t have to be scientists so we can study skin pores, tree bark, or insect shells and antenna. We don’t expect the same level of sharpness and detail from painters.

I’m not going to give up my quality equipment, not just yet, but I don’t obsess over the rendering of sharpness or detail. I, in fact, often soften a photograph in post-processing while developing the final version of my artwork. Let us lead the way to obsess over the art rather than the forensic science level sharpness and detail. Learn to convey your message using less rather than more. Remember the old adage, “less is sometimes more.”

I believe landscape photography is the most challenging genre of photography. People are easy to photograph. Almost anyone can make a decent photograph of a person. The subject in a photograph is easily established. The main point of interest in a photograph of a person can be more easily established. A landscape is much more challenging.

I know, there are rules of landscape photography, diagonal lines, geometric shapes, the rule of thirds, and framing.

Then you get areas like the photograph below with wide-open spaces and few elements except sky and grass.

If you want a real challenge, wander about and look for landscape compositions in places with wide-open spaces with few trees, rocks, mountains, or waterfalls. There is beauty in these places and you will notice that beauty there but to bring that beauty to life in a photograph is a challenge.

Why do I do it? I know, it is a cryptic question and title. No, I’m not attempting to do a clickbait title. It is a real question and it pertains to a couple of different actions.

First, why do I do it, as “it” pertains to photography? For me, there are probably many reasons but I will say the most important is that photography gives me a venue to express myself artistically. I enjoy getting a final product. Something that both myself and others think is interesting, compelling, an object of beauty, emotional, or thought-provoking. I spend countless hours reading, studying, experimenting with, and practicing my photography skills. It is one of my life obsessions. Photography is something I can become very compassionate about.

The other “it” to which I refer is this blog. There are days I get disillusioned with the few views I get, but then I remember I started this because the blog and writing are an extension of my photography. I also have a few readers that are very regular and occasionally I hit a chord with them. As an example, last night I received a message from a reader that consisted of a link to an article. The link was to an article, Postmodernism in photography. You can find the article here. The reader and friend said the article reminded them of some of my posts on straight photography. This is wonderful to me because it shows me that the size of the audience doesn’t always matter as long as I can make some connection. I am fortunate that I have a few readers of this blog who have made a connection and that is what keeps me going.

This is why I do “it”. I’m sure you all have your reasons and may, from time to time, ask yourself why do you keep going because it doesn’t seem like anyone is paying attention or is interested. It doesn’t matter how big your audience is, keep plugging away. Sometimes, you may not know who or how you’re making connections. You may be surprised. Keep creating your art, your writing, and sharing your creative ideas and concepts with the world. You may be the motivation others need or want.

Who decides your work is art? Is it you, the artist? Is it your audience? Is it an art curator? Is your work not art unless it is or has been displayed in a gallery? Who decides?

There are those who argue that art is what the artist decides. If an artist creates something with intent, it is the intentions of the artist that make something art. There are those who argue that it is the audience, the viewers of the work whose decision makes something is art. If they don’t determine the work to be art, then it doesn’t matter the intentions of the artist. There are those who say it is the powers that be, critics, journalists, curators, gallery owners because they are the trained and educated eyes.

For me, it is a combination of at least two of those groups. Certainly, the artist has a play in it, but what about people like Vivian Maier? She probably never intended her work to be considered art and yet today her work is displayed big name galleries. In Vivian Maier’s case, it is the “powers that be” and the audience who decided.

Since not all of us will ever have our work displayed in the big name art galleries, it comes down to our intentions as an artist and our audience. The size of our audience is often irrelevant as long as it extends beyond ourselves.

Certainly we should listen to the powers that be, the critics, the curators, and the gallery owners as they may help us to grow and mature our art, just as our audience. Without the outside influence and views of others we do not grow and mature as artists. Listen to your audience and the critics to grow your art into the masterpieces you dream about.

Photography is the only art form where some people require the artwork to represent reality. People don’t worry about reality in a painting. The artist can paint a scene as they imagine it or perceive it. The same goes for drawing or sculpture.

There are some forms of photography that must be as close to reality as is possible. Forensic and photojournalism, even though journalism as a whole has taken a hit due to both perceived and real bias or alteration of facts, but anything else, especially, fine art photography it should be left to the freedom of the artist.

Let’s take a look at the image above and put it to the reality test. First, the vast majority of the world’s human population does not see in black and white. So immediately the image above fails the reality test. Okay, you say we can give that a pass. Below is what the scene looked like in actual reality.

This photograph was taken on the east side of a building at 1:40 PM in mid October. This was an alleyway in downtown Kansas City, on a bright sunny day. Off to the camera left is an assistant holding a large reflector. to light the subject. This is what the scene looked like in reality. Not nearly as interesting as the final image. With a little bit of creative light metering and the use of post-processing I was able to get the image below.

So, if this was my intent for a fine art photograph is this okay? Most people would agree it is fine, we’re “allowed” to do this level of manipulation.

How about the next image?

When we look at a scene like this we don’t see the smooth flowing water, but again we call that permissible.

The image above has the sky replaced, a “ghost” added, lots of dodging and burning. Now some would say we’re going too far that “we’ve altered reality”.

The image above versus the original below.

Now we have really gone too far for some. The final image is totally altered reality.

As a photographic artist to hell with reality and what the purists say. My goal is to create art as I wish. If you like it fine, if you don’t not my problem. Don’t let others stop you from creating your art. Don’t worry about altering reality. Make your art, that is where the real freedom comes as an artist.

In September 2021 I went on a photography trip with a friend. The goal was to get a photograph of the Milky Way in the Flint Hills of Kansas. The featured photograph is from that trip. The entire trip was set up to take a photograph of the Milky Way, but we drove past a lot of scenes that were very photographic.

We were driving to a location, a secondary site, when we saw an old one room school house. We stopped and I got these two shots.

The photograph above was near a location we decided to visit. I was walking down the street looking for something worthy, in my mind, and saw this old fence at the back of a building.

How many of you have, like me, been heading to your destination of a photographic trip and drove past something and thought “someday I’ll stop here” or saw a scene that caught your eye but kept on going.

As Wayne Gretzy said, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. Don’t wait to stop and get the shot, because as I have found sometimes that shot disappears forever.