Episodes

In this week’s podcast, I got interested in looking at how fraud can rear its ugly head in our creative practice. I was researching something else, and I wanted to see the exact definition of the word fraud. When I looked the word up, I found the following: ” a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.” As I read the definition, I realize there are times when I have ascribed the word fraud to my photogra...

It’s about time for my yearly physical with my doctor, and it got me thinking about some of the test results you get back during your appointment. One of the things that I find interesting is that they have a standard set of bloodwork they do year-over-year. By doing the same basic test year-over-year, they have something to compare and benchmark how well we’re doing with our health. They are also able to use these test to help identify potential problems that may come up in the future. I was w...

In this week’s podcast, we take a look at the impact of not allowing ourselves to have any alone time with our thoughts or moments of silence by filling that time with our smartphones. I believe part of the creative practice is allowing yourself to have moments with your thoughts and observations. However, recently I noticed that when I have a spare 30 seconds to a few minutes, I reach into my pocket and grab my phone. Most of the time, I don’t even know I did it. This action has become an invol...

I have a couple of announcements to start this week’s podcast. Next week is Film Week at CreativeLive. Join me on the August 2st through the 24th. I am super excited to be one of the instructors. I will be teaching a black-and-white film class on August 22, and I will be teaching a large-format photography class on August 24. I hope you can attend both sessions. You can find out more at the creative live website. A recent trip to a big-box retailer taught me something interesting about my creat...

I have a couple of announcements to start this week’s podcast. Next week is Film Week at CreativeLive. Join me on the August 2st through the 24th. I am super excited to be one of the instructors. I will be teaching a black-and-white film class on August 22, and I will be teaching a large-format photography class on August 24. I hope you can attend both sessions. You can find out more at the creative live website. As we work our creative process we often time find ourselves stuck hitting the wal...

I have a couple of announcements to start this week’s podcast. The week of August 21 through the 24th this film week at Creative Live. I am super excited to be one of the instructors. I will be teaching a black-and-white film class on August 22, and I will be teaching a large-format photography class on August 24. I hope you can attend both sessions. You can find out more at the creative live website. I will also be speaking at the Northwest counsel for camera clubs the weekend of November 11. ...

When I was growing up, and you heard something that sounded strange our weird, you had to either blindly accept it, research it at the library or test it yourself. As those stories passed from person-to-person, we eventually learned that the urban legend was something that some of us just accepted and other would challenge. The urban legend has grown up and now become clickbait and fake news. And, by fake news, I mean information that has no backing, factuality or research behind it. As I looke...

A visit from some family inspired this week’s podcast. My sister-in-law’s family came to visit, and they have a little 2-year old. My brother-in-law and I were talking about being a dad, and he mentioned in passing how much advice they hear from people when it comes to raising their kid. As we were talking, it occurred to me that much of the advice that they got was from people who didn’t have children. Those people, like me, were only able to speak from knowledge gained from others. Over the c...

In this week’s podcast, we take a look at how some of the concepts that are used in cinematic storytelling can be applied to still photography. Photography and cinema have always been joined at the hip. While one is an expanded scope for time, sound, and movement, they are still visual mediums that are about the capture of light. As I looked back at some of the movies I have seen in my life, I realized that there was a way to think about some of the storytelling elements in those movies and how...

This week’s podcast is all about answer some listener’s questions that have been sent in over the past few months. I grabbed some of the more interesting and most asked questions and spend some time answering them. The topics include finding new photographers, favorite papers to print with, challenges facing photographers, my current project work and finally how to critique a bad photograph. Don’t forget to check out my 2017 Workshops including the Perceptive Photographer Workshop focused on t...

Bernie De Koven is an amazing person that my partner, Lori Kane, has known for a number of years. Bernie is all in on play and the importance and value of playing in everyday life. He has written more pages on play the pretty much anyone. He has a huge gift for sharing and helping people. I recently stole his his amazing book called the Well-Played Game from Lori. In this book Bernie talks about how we go about playing well. Focusing more on the importance of the community and players over the g...

In this week’s podcast, we examine a couple of varied themes and how they all relate to a different way to examine the role of criticism in our creative process. There is such value in doing the work. The reality of creating is that if you don’t do the work, it’s not going to happen. At the end of the day, you have to put in the effort to make sure that the work gets done. Without that effort and energy, nothing is going to change or make way for your creative process to move you forward as a c...

In last week’s podcast, we talked about some of the things to consider when submitting to a juried show. In this week’s podcast, I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the things to consider when selecting those images for that juried show. Before we dived in to talk specifically about the type of images, I thought it was worth pointing out that you need to make sure that your processing your images correctly. Specifically, when working with a JPEG, you need to make sure that you don’t hav...

One of the questions that I get asked about a lot is entering photo competitions. With so many contests, chances to win and options out there, it is easy to spend a lot of time, energy and effort on entering these competitions. I think that you need to be selective when you enter these for a variety of reasons. From cost to copyright, there are lots of things to consider when making the decision on if the show is even worthwhile. Other considerations include who is the juror or jury panel made ...

This week’s podcast was gonna be about selections for juried show and how you go about picking those. However, over the past several weeks, myself and some of the other instructors, I work with have noticed that there’s something strange in the creative space in the classes were teaching. Ever since the election and November, and the inauguration in January, there seems to be something for a lot of creative people that is causing them not to be able to create the kind of work they truly want to....

I was reading about the Hayden expedition to Yellowstone in 1871. This expedition is notable in photography because it included the photographer William Henry Jackson. On that same expedition, there was a collection of ornithologist meteorologist biologist botanist and a host of other scientists. The scientist spent a great deal of time gathering and classify all the plants, animals, vegetation, and rocks they could find. That process got me thinking a little bit about photography. I think a lot...

This past weekend we were helping setup a booth at a local farmers market. As I was talking to a few of the local farmers who were at the market I realized how there approach to farming was something that could be applied to photography. They work hard to make sure that they are developing food in long-term sustainable ways and with a passion for doing things on a scale that keeps them, their families and the planet all happy. As I talked with them, I realized that our creative life is much the...

I was recently listening to a couple of photographs look at each other’s work. One of the photographers was showing some abstract work. The other photographer wanted to know what the image was a photograph of. The first photographer wouldn’t say because they felt that it didn’t matter to the understanding of the image. As I listened to them talk, I got to thinking about how we create perceptions of objects and then assign our concepts to those objects. Each being limited by our own understandin...

After reviewing some old notes, I came across a list of things I wish I knew earlier in my photography. That old list got me thinking about what I could tell my past self-based on what I know today. Most of the list is pretty simple, but I think I would have liked to know about these things sooner than later. You will need a lot of skills to be a photographer. I started off a film photographer. I had no idea how much digital processing I would need to learn. I had to figure out and learn so mu...

CreativeLive I am speaking at Photoshop Week on CreativeLive in May. You can join me on Monday, May 16 and Tuesday, May 17 from 10:45-12:15. I am speaking on building a personalized workflow and creating the fine-art print. You can watch for free during the week, so if you can point your browser over to www.creativelive.com during the week of May 16, you can learn a ton about Photoshop and Lightroom from a great set of instructors. I have been asked a number of times over the past few months i...

After visiting some galleries recently, I got to thinking about audience and who looks at art. For photography, in particular, because we are inundated with images that on some level we are exposed to more photograph than any other form of art, and to get meaningful feedback, it is important to understand who actually is looking at our work. To try and figure out how to break down the types of feedback, I created three buckets: self, others and social. Within each of those buckets are two sub-c...

This week’s podcast is all about the crossing lines in our photography. There are always lines in photography that photographers have to think about. Most photographers think about lines in composition when they are thinking about the line. From leading lines to rule of thirds, there are always lines in the frame. However, there are also a number of other lines that photographers have to consider. For some photographers, it is the line to digital alter a file. From removing objects, move object...

This week’s podcast is all about the importance of figuring out the times in your day when you have the most focus on your creative living. Announcements I am teaching at a couple of conferences over the next few months. If you are attending Photoshop World in Orlando next week, please stop by and say hi. I will be teaching two classes. One on sharpening in Lightroom and the other is about the fine art digital print. In May, I am teaching two sessions for CreativeLive’s Photoshop Week. You can...

I was reviewing my old notebook from business meetings and came across notes from a lunch I had with a friend who owns a PR firm. He has a practice of having lunch with someone different every day of the week. This practice allows him to meet new people, connect new people and learn a ton about the city. PR As he and I shared lunch, he explained that he had a different lunch every day because he felt that at the core of meaningful work was a relationship. The work and sharing over lunch would ...