LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Here's a Thought… #2757 with Brooks Jensen

Entering the Creative Bubble

The world of athletics can be divided into two different sets of action. There is the preliminary part of preparation. Then there is the performative part of the competition. I think this provides a useful metaphor for photography and points out an interesting idea about preparation. When I'm out with my camera, my goal is to enter the creative bubble and starting the work of being a photographer. Like the athlete that stretches and warms up before the competition, what should I be doing as a photographer to prepare myself before entering the creative bubble? What is the creative equivalent to stretching and warming up?

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Here's a Thought… #2756 with Brooks Jensen

Too Much Salt Spoils the Food

Not long ago we tried a new Italian restaurant, just for fun. I ordered eggplant parmesan. Is there anything worse than bland, tasteless Italian food? Of course, I couldn't help but compare this to photography. What do we want in food — or a photograph? Intensity, a sensual thrill, a memorable experience, a good time, a sense of lingering satisfaction. We don't want bland, yet too much salt spoils the food. Similarly, too much "volume" in a photograph overwhelms the senses

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Here's a Thought… #2755 with Brooks Jensen

The Subjectivity Scale

Imagine, if you will, a linear scale with Objectivity on the far left point and Subjectivity on the far right point. Every photograph you produce (or have ever produced) can be located on this scale. Is the image factual and optically faithful to normal human vision, or is it imaginative and a personally expressive, fanciful, or an emotional interpretation by its creator? Is it documentary, or an expressive fiction?

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Here's a Thought… #2754 with Brooks Jensen

The Exposure Triangle Reconsidered

There are certain unavoidable truths in photography that are based on the laws of physics. At least, that's the way I think about it. The Exposure Triangle is one of these. The ISO is fixed, the shutter speed selected for sharpness, and that leaves the aperture as our primary tool for controlling exposure. This was a foundational truth for the first 35 years of my photographic life. And then it all changed.

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Here's a Thought… #2753 with Brooks Jensen

Blue Light Blues

We spend hours and hours, sweat numberless bullets, and endure creative torture so that our precious and precisely crafted art preserves our creative intent. After all that, it can be altered beyond our control by the Blue Light Filter of our viewers' phones or tablets. And then there's the problem of uncalibrated computer monitors. Should we abandon the archaic concept of photographic excellence in the hands of the master artist? Should we give up the myth of control?

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