Postcards from the Creative Journey

843 Success as An Impediment To Creativity

Online judging of images employs the artistic equivalent of the Roman Emperor giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to a Gladiator. We are accepted or rejected. Yes or No. Accept or Reject. Right or Wrong. There is no middle ground, no “Well it was really good except for…,” or “ that could be improved if the next time you were in that situation you could…” helpful critiques that could be great help to the photographer.

The critique is a binary system and not a helpful method for the evaluation of images.

Relying on this style of feedback on photographic image and style your creativity is stifled in two ways. First, you do not know the level of photographic knowledge and competence of the people rating your work. They could be completely misguided and ignorant of the precepts of good photography. In the worst case, you could be getting reviews from people who cannot tell you what a good image looks like. Secondly, chasing those “thumbs up ratings” to achieve  “success,”  the temptation is to photograph to meet popular expectations. When crowd pleasing is the measure of success, the temptation is to play to that audience and not explore more creative approaches to your images.

842 - Craft and Art, First Published 6/3/2011

Yes, this is a homage.

A friend of mine saw a tribute (cover) band a while back. He said they were very good at impersonating the real band. They had the playlist in the right order, hit all the notes and did the moves. But they didn’t do it first. That to me is the separation between art and craft. It’s the ability to use the craft to convey your thoughts or feelings about a subject. Playing someone else’s song note for note is not high art, but high craft. These guys had the skill, craft and technical proficiency, to reproduce tone for tone other’s original work. Tone for tone, eh? That’s my cue translate this into photography speak.

We have tribute photographers, too. All of us, at certain phases of our lives can’t go by a photogenic green pepper (me, too!), or a torn poster on a wall or just drive on through the Wawona Tunnel in Yosemite without pulling out a camera and making a photograph. We all make or remake our version of the classic images. The suggestion (again) is, if you are not the first, do it better, or do it differently to let us (your audience) know either the subject or yourself better. When you look in your viewfinder or ground glass and see a photograph that you have already seen before, then please don’t waste either your time or our time on that image.

Craft is important. But it is a tool in service of your art. You can duplicate the masters if you choose. We all do, just remember, it’s a stop along the way to developing your own art.

It doesn’t take much effort to make a photograph. It takes a lot of effort to make a really good photograph.

841 When Things Go Wrong, Life Gets Interesting

In a career of creating computer systems there was one experience that everyone I worked with agreed about. It a nutshell, it was simply, “You don’t learn a thing until you ______ it up.” (Feel free to fill the blank with a word of your choice.) Learning comes from making mistakes and trying to figure out what you did wrong in the first place. No matter how clear the instructions, procedures and check lists, mistakes will be made and then life gets interesting.

Interesting in that you need a way to recover and then return to your selected path. Such detours are filled with information and new ways to look at things.

We recently were photographing the Grand Canyon on a smoky, hazy day. The images before processing in Lightroom were ugly (see the above initial digital capture) and looked worthless. But with judiciously use of the Dehaze filter, interesting results occurred for some images, but not others. With investigation, it turns out that images that were borderline overexposures were fine candidates for the dehaze process. Imperfect atmosphere and an almost technical failure taught us something new about making images work.

There. Isn't that better?

Upon further reflection, it is worthwhile to note that in the olden film days, we would have used either a yellow or orange filter in an attempt to thwart the negative effects of the smoke and haze. For the most part the film photographers of old would simply lament the loss of a "good day" and spend the day playing cards instead of photographing. 

840 - Love at First Sight First Published 12/9/2012

I was checking around for images to use for the weekly blog and I figured I might use some of the images from my latest project, “Time and Tide.” Last week’s image is from that folio and for the next few weeks you will see some more images from Greenhead Slough on the Long Beach Peninsula. To avoid using photos twice, I went back to check on the images I posted while I was on Photosafari 2011.  I wanted to make sure that I did not post the same image twice. Did I ever get a surprise.

There was only one image previously posted on the blog that made the “Time and Tide” folio. The images that were love at first sight didn’t make it to the final portfolio. It wasn’t love; it was a fleeting infatuation, a photographic one-night stand.

I really need to figure out how this happened. It was really a complete surprise to me.

839 The Experience Was Better Than the Photograph

We make photographs as part of our life experience. We go to scenic place, we have a family event, we want to commemorate a special occasion. We have our camera (or more likely our smartphone) and make images.

Therein lies the conflict. We want to participate and remember the experience and we try to record the moments for our audience, be it family, friends or those other wonderful people that stop by our blog or website. Handling the conflict between the photographic self and the “civilian” self is a conflict to be resolved on the spot.

Sometimes we forget to be photographers and we enjoy the experience for what it is. That is a good thing because, while maybe not accurate, sometimes memories are better than photographs.

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It's a new month so that means there is a new issue of The Lipka Journal over at my website. Click on the link at the top of the page and download the free PDF Journal for this month.

838 - Your Mileage May Differ… First Published 1/13/2013

Two weeks ago I mentioned that you would get surprised when you made photographs that required developing. That post got me to reminiscing about the “good old days (which, were highly overrated, I think). I would often postpone developing negatives because developing sheet film negatives was a huge pain in the rear. I was very good at developing sheet film in mass quantities (think twenty sheets of 4x5 sheet film per batch) because I just hated developing film. By postponing the inevitable development I had more time to fantasize about how great my photographs would really be. Then when I had to confront the reality of my negatives and prints I was depressed. This type of behavior effectively throttled my photographic output. Dreading the arduous task of film developing kept me from completing work.

We know that the only way to produce more is to do more, so when I converted (evolved?) to digital photography from large format film photography I saw a huge increase in the amount of photography I was completing. I think this is because I no longer have to wait to see results. There are no more surprises. I have done a lot more photography in the past four or five years than I have in the previous thirty five. I also think I have done much better photography in the past five years than in the previous thirty five.

I am not sure if the improvement in photographic quality and quantity can be attributed to the digital domain, the increased number of photographs I have made or the experience I have accumulated in forty years of photography. At this point I don’t think it is possible to experimentally determine which of the three reasons is responsible for improvement, but at least I can have some fun with thought experiments on the topic.

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It's a new month so that means there is a new issue of The Lipka Journal over at my website. Click on the link at the top of the page and download the free PDF Journal for this month.

837 Lessons Learned from Photo Safari XXXVI

After Photo Safari XXXVI there are lessons to be learned. Here are the things I learned this year.

It’s not a road, but people drive there. If there’s a gap in the fence and we see tire tracks, we’re taking it. Getting inside the fence to see what’s beyond the edge of the road can lead to something great. Remember, when the pavement ends the photography begins.

To separate out what I want it to be from what it looks like takes a lot of skill. One day at the Grand Canyon it was very hazy. We figured out how to use the dehaze tool and life got better. The final images (after a bunch of manipulation in LightRoom) looked far different (and much better) that what was captured by our cameras.

Photography changes every time you go out the door. It’s about figuring out which gear and which skills you need to bring to bear so when you go out the door you can figure out how best to capture the images. It is never the same set of circumstances. Ever. What worked yesterday may not work today. Very few people ever consider the improvisational nature of  photography.

Planning, execution, and attention to detail are not just for newbies. Paying attention eliminates stupid errors that can limit the end use of the photograph. Especially things like making sure your lenses don’t have thumbprints on them and your camera' settings are what you want them to be for the day's photographic assignment.

Cui Bono - Not like a murder investigation by Harry Bosch, but the thought relates to the sale of artwork. Successfully selling artwork depends on fulfilling the need of the ultimate purchaser as well as the gallery owner or other third party that would benefit from the sale of artwork. It is the third party that is the real key to making photographs well known. If the third party doesn’t want to sell your work, it probably won’t get sold.

Tourist destinations do not mean tourist photographs. We may have to stand at the same spot behind the same fence but that does not mean we need to see the same way. We photograph the same things. The differentiation between artist and tourist is how we interpret the scene in front of us and what deeper meaning we can bring to the image through the addition of ideas and text.

If your camera doesn’t have a GPS function, make sure you photograph a sign or something at the location so you know where you made that photograph. Yes, I know there are apps that will coordinate your smartphone GPS with an image file, but what’s the fun in that? You are making art. Who else will have a project of all the signs of the places you have been? If you remember to do it when you are “on location,” you have a “free” project!

And remember, no matter how carefully you pack, about one third of the clothes you bring will not be a good match for the weather. You will leave at home something that is on your list and very necessary. You will find another use for something you brought that will "save the day." Life is like that.

On the last Photo Safari I brought my full size carbon fiber tripod. I think I might have used it one time. To save room on this Safari, I decided to bring a much smaller carbon fiber "travel" tripod. I didn’t use it one time. Next Safari, I don’t think I will bring a tripod. For a guy that spent thirty plus years under the dark cloth of a view camera, letting go of a tripod is truly a monumental change in making photographs. Thanks to the folks at Panasonic that figured out image stabilization for cameras and lenses.

It should be known that trailer hitches stick out much farther than you think they should. My shins reminded me to add this to the list of lessons learned on the latest Photo Safari. 

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It's a new month so that means there is a new issue of The Lipka Journal over at my website. Click on the link at the top of the page and download the free PDF Journal for this month.

836 - The Image is the Thing. First Published 7/3/2011

Over at The Online Photographer Blog there was a whole bunch of heat and light on the question of archival materials for photographs. I didn’t want to invest too much time on a very lengthy discussion because my thoughts on archival materials are well, archival. I have always felt that if you purchase and use the best materials and follow the directions for proper photographic processing, the photographs will last longer than you do. If the photograph lasts longer than you do, it’s archival.

I have never worried too much about archival processing. I have always thought the Image is the thing. The emphasis should be on creating an image that is worthy of archival treatment. Exceptional effort should be expended on the creation of an image so good people now and in the future will be moved by your image. A timeless image that speaks to the human condition will be worthy of archival treatment. Rather than worry about the paper we should obsess about the real issue at hand; making your image worthy of the finest archival materials. If we put that much effort into creating better images rather than debating the fine points of archival preservation, I think we would have a lot more images that are worthy of archival materials and processes.

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Tomorrow there will be a new issue of the Lipka Journal over at my website. Three new projects, some single image projects and a republished blog entry from the past. Come back tomorrow and see what's new. 

835 - Empty or Abandoned?

I enjoy photographing old buildings and things that have passed their prime. (No gratuitous comments about my latest series of selfies, please.) When I was photographing the Cary Elementary School during its renovation, I figured out that the school was worn out and empty because generations of students had used it. It had fulfilled its purpose and was waiting for the good folks of Cary to find a new use for it. It was this realization that got me to consider how I photograph these old buildings.

I think the difference between how I photograph old, empty buildings and how other people photograph the same place is a sense of hope. I’m trying to convey a sense of hope that while there is no one in the picture right now, someone “will be right back” just after the picture has been made. And then once we get back, we’ll make the place habitable.

Abandoned means losing hope and admitting defeat. There is no one here because they have left forever and are not coming back. This is the sad part of photographing empty structures. Sometimes this is all you will find and there is no way to portray a place any other way.

834 - Playing the Photo Lotto First Published 3/9/2014

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Yet another success, I guess.

I hit the photo lotto big time last week. Photo lotto? Not the Powerball or Mega Millions, but one of the local juried shows with ca$h awards. Usually these are promoted by local arts organizations as fund raisers (and they do a wonderful job at that). If I like the organization, I will support them by entering some photographs and paying the entry fee. One of my photos earned a juror’s award that will keep me in inks and paper for quite a while. (Used to be film, paper and chemicals, but the photo world has changed, hasn’t it?) My other entry sold the day of the opening. Hooray. It’s wonderful to receive monetary award in one’s own lifetime.

I’m not quitting my day job.

The amusing part of the entire process was my image selection for this event. I prepared three images for a similar event last fall. Two of the images were rejected by the juror and one was accepted. (Art is all about rejection and failure.) At the end of the fall event, all three images remained leaning against the living room wall until they were called upon to be judged in the latest exhibit. One of the rejected images earned the juror’s award and the previously accepted image was sold at the opening.

That’s why I call this type of exhibition the “photo lotto.” You never know how a juror will respond to your photographs. At the very worst you have made a contribution to a local arts organization, maybe your work gets hung on the wall, maybe you take home a prize. You pays your money, you takes your chances.

833 - Awash in Images

With the ubiquity of smartphone cameras, digital cameras the ease of sharing images online, we are awash in camera generated images. The photo sharing sites seem to reward volume with quality being relegated to an inferior position. When people begin to share ALL their images art takes a turn for the worse. Image selection and editing have become lost arts.

Sadly, the continuing onslaught of visual overload is here to stay. The current trend (and I hope it is only going to last a short time – but not likely) is to have (almost) millisecond jump cuts between images in any presentation. Ninety photographs in sixty seconds would not seem to be out of the question. As one image appears you can only register the fact an image is in front of you before it is replaced by the next image.

One is left with only the vague impression of some images and the rest disappear from your memory. I surmise there are two reasons for presenting images at such a rate. One is to view as many the images as fast as possible before their mediocrity becomes apparent. Two, in the question of style over substance, style wins out.

I fear this fad will not pass quickly.

832 - Eventually You Are Going To Own Something First Published 3/23/2014

If you photograph for a long enough you will discover subject matter that is just yours alone. You will wind up doing it so much better than everyone else that everyone will know you by the photographs of this single subject. You will be so good in this one area no other photographer will attempt to tread on your photographic turf. In practical terms, how many people have photographed Peppers since Edward Weston? Many people have photographed Yosemite, but few have survived a comparison to Ansel Adams. Want to do cowboy portraits? You’ll have to do them better than Jay Dusard. These photographers owned their respective subjects. They earned the ownership through hard work and dedication to the subject matter.

Eventually you will find a photographic subject that loves you as much as you love it. Something that will be very easy for you to photograph very well once you figure it out. And there’s the rub. Figuring it out takes hard work and time to discover what you photograph best. Very rarely are wonderful things just dropped in your lap. Good photography takes a lot of hard work, trial and error and maybe a little bit of suffering for art to achieve the goal.