LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience.

Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life.

Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).

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Episodes

HT2252 - Subtle Shadow Detail

HT2252 - Subtle Shadow Detail I've always found that efforts to preserve subtle shadow details are important, particularly in landscape photography. This was always a challenge in the film days because the toe of the exposure curve was relatively flat and didn't provide much separation of tones. The best strategy was to increase exposure. But here in the digital age, I've found a combination that provides a simple method to help preserve subtle shadow detail. Show your appreciation for our free ...

May 09, 2025•3 min

HT2251 - Framed Trilogies

HT2251 - Framed Trilogies In 2022, we published a book titled Trilogies. Each of these trilogies consisted of three images the photographers used to illustrate a story, an expanded view of a subject, or a guided and deeper involvement with a scene. In the book, these three images were presented on facing pages. As a layout, this got me thinking about printing three images on a single sheet of paper and matting and framing them as a sort of triptych. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Pod...

May 08, 2025•3 min

HT2250 - Pick Your Compromise

HT2250 - Pick Your Compromise When choosing which lens to take with me out photographing, it often boils down to a debate between two strategies. Do I use a two-lens strategy where both are the best lenses I own? This will require a lot lens swapping and invariably some dust on the sensor. The other option is a travel lens with a "super zoom," one with a 10 to 1 zoom ratio that requires no lens swapping in the field. It's a good lens, but not quite as sharp as the superior lenses. Since I can't ...

May 07, 2025•3 min

HT2249 - Photograph What You Love

HT2249 - Photograph What You Love It's my observation that every photographer has something that they love other than photography. Maybe that passion of ours can translate into an interesting photographic project. If you love pitching horseshoes, I would bet there's an interesting photographic project there, but I've never seen one. I've never seen a photographic project about gardening, although I've seen countless projects of flower blossoms. Don't think in terms of the product, but rather the...

May 06, 2025•3 min

LW1452 - A Sketch vs an Image

LW1452 - A Sketch vs an Image One of the most influential artists who have shaped my thinking about photography is, believe it or not, Charles Dickens. As a young writer, he worked for a newspaper to wander the streets of London and create short "sketches" of the scenes he encountered. Sound familiar? All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online . 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that exp...

May 05, 2025•13 min

HT2248 - Glossy or Matte Surface

HT2248 - Glossy or Matte Surface A common question that every photographer has to answer, assuming they make prints, is which surface to use with an image, glossy or matte? It seems odd to me that this is so rarely discussed but yet is such a fundamental decision we need to make with every print. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules, but here's my thoughts on making this critical choice. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donatio...

May 05, 2025•3 min

HT2247 - Phases of a Career

HT2247 - Phases of a Career If we work at something long enough, we will eventually recognize that we've been working our way through phases of a career. Without being conscious of my evolution, I can now look back and identify four distinct phases of my output: prints, folios, PDFs, and chapbooks. I wonder what's next? Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

May 04, 2025•3 min

HT2246 - Universal Excellence

HT2246 - Universal Excellence If we look back in history as recently as 25 years, certainly as recently as 50 years, what separated the Masters from the rest of us was their incredible command of craft. They could create such stunning prints that the rest of us simply couldn't. The digital workflow has turned that separation into the ultimate democratic equity. Today, everyone can master the craft fairly easily. What are the consequences of this universal excellence? Show your appreciation for o...

May 03, 2025•3 min

HT2245 - A Fascination with Process

HT2245 - A Fascination with Process The other day, a photographer came by the house to show me some of his work. I always enjoy this opportunity to meet with people and learn about their creative process. This fellow had images made by using glass plates and hand coated gelatin silver materials. Clearly, he was a photographer who loved the process. In viewing his work, all of his comments are about the technical and chemical challenges of making his images, but virtually nothing was said about t...

May 02, 2025•3 min

HT2244 - Sharp vs Tack Sharp

HT2244 - Sharp vs Tack Sharp Since my earliest days in photography, I've recognized that lenses are far more important than cameras. Lenses touch the light which makes the image; cameras are primarily light-tight boxes that allow us to control how much light gets in, but they don't actually touch the light. Knowing a lens thoroughly is important, especially if you're looking to make a tack sharp image. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a...

May 01, 2025•3 min

HT2243 - Orson Wells on Limits

HT2243 - Orson Wells on Limits Orson Wells is said to have observed that "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” My interpretation of his thought is that nothing is as supportive to creativity as a structure. Here are a few examples from my creative endeavors. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Apr 30, 2025•3 min

HT2242 - Photography, a Verbal Art Medium

HT2242 - Photography, a Verbal Art Medium We photographers like to think of photography as a nonverbal medium. Then why do we title our prints? Why does someone look at a sunset and think " beautiful"? When showing our work, why do we feel compelled to tell viewers where it was photographed and when? Is photography really a nonverbal medium, or is it a medium that is often supplemented with words? If we don't need words, why are photography books from other languages translated into our language...

Apr 29, 2025•3 min

HT2241 - The Right Amount of Difference

HT2241 - The Right Amount of Difference One of the primary challenges with project oriented photography is to avoid the deadly appearance of repetition. The images in the project need to be alike enough to go together as a unified body of work, but different enough to not become repetitive. Finding that balance is one of the greatest challenges in editing and sequencing a project. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Apr 28, 2025•3 min

LW1451 - Sharing Our Work, Goldilocks Style

LW1451 - Sharing Our Work, Goldilocks Style Let's say someone wants to come over to your house and see some of your work. What do you show them? Do you pull out one print and that's it? That seems arbitrarily limited. Do you bring out 500 prints? That seems a bit overwhelming. Viewer fatigue is a reality in sharing our work, so how do you decide what to make available? All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online . 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10....

Apr 28, 2025•13 min

HT2240 - Prints Throughout the Day

HT2240 - Prints Throughout the Day As the sun crosses the sky, the light in our house changes dramatically. This is one of the primary reasons why I like to live with a print for a while before I am done with it. On many occasions as the light has changed I realized the print is slightly too dark or slightly too light. Art should live well over time, but the only way we'll know that is if we observe it over time. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thou...

Apr 27, 2025•3 min

HT2239 - Two Things We Need More Of

HT2239 - Two Things We Need More Of It is so easy to think that what we really need to take our photography to the next level is that better piece of gear, or more gear, or lots more gear. Looking back on my personal history with photography, it's never been new gear that has created an important piece of work or project. The true genesis of work — and therefore the two things we need more of — are ideas and time. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Tho...

Apr 26, 2025•3 min

HT2238 - Gear Overboard

HT2238 - Gear Overboard Exactly 50 years ago today I learned a valuable lesson in photography. I was photographing on the Oregon coast when I decided I needed to use a different lens for this one particular shot. I miss that lens. Show your appreciation for our free weekly Podcast and our free daily Here's a Thought… with a donation Thanks!...

Apr 25, 2025•3 min

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