Episodes

This past week we have been traveling to see family. The big storm that came in caused our flight to be cancelled, and as a result, we are spending several more days with family in Las Vegas. In an effort to be a good users of energy, I shut down the studio when we left and didn’t feel like having the pet sitter take on the responsibility of powering the place back up. So I spent the day trying to figure out how to best record a podcasts for the week on my iPad and AirPods. Well, the audio qual...

This week’s podcast is focused on titling your photographs and why and how that can impact our perception of the image, intention and experience of the work. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a variety of equipment in the years that I have been recording, but here is the current list of equipment that I am using. Also as an FYI and full disclosure, the links are affiliate links to Amazon.

Two topics for this week’s podcast. The first is the difference between explaining your work and justifying your work. For many photographers, they end up making justifications for there images when they think they are explaining what the work is about. I also talk about the importance of storage boxes for your prints that you’re keeping and using in your practice. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a variety of equip...

As 2022 starts to draw to a close, it is a time to look back and reflect on the prior year. As photographers that means we should look back at the impact of our photography in our creative and non-creative aspects of life. In this week’s podcast, I toss out three areas to think about cleaning up before the start of the new year so that you can put your best foot forward for 2023. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a v...

Speaking about your work can be a challenge. Sometimes we are insecure about our work. Maybe we are nervous about talking in public about our work. No matter what the reason is that you might feel challenged about speaking about your images, learning to talk about your photographs can not only help other understand your work better, but the process can make you a better photographer as well. The more you can speak to the why and what of your photographs, the more insights you photograph will hav...

It can take a lot of work to find and maintain an audience as a photographer. There are so many other photographers working and sharing work. So, how does one go about finding and using an audience? In this week’s podcast, I share some thoughts on how to use and work with your audience so that you can share your work and find more people who are engaged with your message. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a variety o...

This week’s podcast looks at the role of recognition in our photography. We often seek feedback and validation for our work and might seek this out from various places. We might post to social media for instant validation or maybe do a critique session to gain deeper insights. Along with those insights, I feel there is a desire to get recognition for our work and efforts. So join me this week for a quick look at the impacts of the reason and types of recognition we seek and the potential impact ...

Today’s release is the 400th episode of the Perceptive Photographer. I started this little podcast 400 weeks ago and never thought I would be here today celebrating this milestone. As I looked back, I am most thankful for the community of listeners who tune in each week and listen to me ramble on about something that has caught my ear or attention. I never in a million years thought that this would grow into something more than just a little online spoken journal so from the bottom of my heart. ...

One of the significant challenges that many of us are brainwashed into thinking when photographing is that photography is about making a simple, clear, and concise photograph that checks all the boxes. One that meets the photographer’s intention is accepted by the viewer and meets all the criteria for what compositionally and processing-wise makes for a good image. We spin up all sorts of language that says if you follow these guidelines, use these tools, and process this way, you will have the ...

Many times in our creative practice we might find ourselves at a road block of sorts. A spot where we are struggling to move forward with some aspect of our process. It can be easy to ignore those feelings and push away from that resistance or wall we are hitting. In this week’s podcast, I talk about how important it is to face the resistance and see if we can sort out the root cause of why we are so against some aspect of our work. In that search we may find out that what we are so against turn...

In this week’s podcast, I tackle two of the hardest topics for any photographer. If you follow these very simple steps, I promise that your photography will grown by leaps and bounds. So take a listen and learn how a comfortable pair of shoes and a return to the basics of your photography can set you free from the binds of bad f-stops and shutter speeds. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a variety of equipment in the...

My partner, Lori who runs Ritual Mischief, organizes her products by the emotional support they provide. That got me thinking about how we can create photographs that fit in to our emotional buckets. This week’s podcast explorers the idea of grouping photographs, not by subject or subject matter, but rather by emotional support or insight they provide. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a variety of equipment in the y...

Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged when looking at other people’s work. They already have the shot, not just because of their skill level, which can be a challenge. I know for myself, sometimes I start to plan out a trip or shoot and then only to come across a very similar image taken by someone else. It can be hard to keep the excitement and energy up to go out and make a photograph. Which, if I am honest with myself, often looks like those other images I have seen. In the podcast this we...

When looking at a single image, it can be hard sometimes to understand the context for the image. Sure, there are photographs that stand out on their own, but in many cases, the single image is better understood from the photographs that surround it. This is true looking at contact sheets, or their digital equivalent, or a sequence on the wall, In the podcast the week, we jump into some of the aspects to consider when looking at one image and how to balance the one photograph with the other ima...

I recently heard someone say that looks normal. Now in a medical office, that might be a nice thing to hear. In the case of creating photographs, the thought of what is normal gave me pause. I started to wonder what is normal in a photograph? Do we want to even make normal photographs? What defines a normal photograph anyway? In this week’s podcast, I dive into the notion of normal in photography and making photographs in an attempt to sort of what is normal and does it matter. One of the ques...

In this week’s podcast, we explore a little more into the nature of time and how it impacts our photography. Not just in the images we make, but in our approach behind the camera, when to pick up the camera and how to balance the priority of photography in our lives. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what sort of equipment do I use to record my podcast. I have used a variety of equipment in the years that I have been recording, but here is the current list of equipment that I am us...

In reading about a recent photo competition where the winner in the digital manipulation category used an AI engine to make the photograph before doing some light tweaks in Photoshop caused a big uproar, I got to thinking about the nature of what it means to make art and to that end meaningful art. In this week’s podcast, I spend some time discussing the nature of what it means to make art and some considerations for when we think about approaching the meaning and context of art in photography. ...

Episode 390 This week’s podcast focuses (pun intended) on the idea that straight out of the camera is somehow better than images that are processed after being taken. While I think getting it right in camera is critical to success as a photographer, the conversation to push images as being better or more accurate and faithful because they lack processing is missing a big part of the photographic process. We have always had some variation in getting a vision of our images that wasn’t just straigh...

Episode 389 In this week’s podcast, I share ten tips for making your photographic process more creative. I know the creative process can sometimes become a rut for myself and many of my friends. It can be easy to fall into a pattern of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, wishing for more. I don’t think there is ever one magic tip that will work for everyone, so I have come up with ten ideas that will hopefully give you something to try if you feel like you can’t get out of first ...

Episode 388 One of the many challenges that I think many of us face with our photographic practice is our relationship to the concepts of simple. Simple is challenging to master. Complicated is easy. It is easy to get caught up in the weeds that we miss out on much of our process. it is easy to think that something is more than it is. Yet, we can misspeak and say something is simple for simplicity or something minimal is simplistic or straightforward. I often hear people wanting to do minimalis...

Episode 387 Much of what is talked about in making good photography is storytelling. Every picture tells a story. And while that might be true, it doesn’t mean every picture tells a good story. More importantly, it doesn’t mean every story can be said in a single image. In this week’s podcast, we talk about how editing and selecting images for diptychs or triptychs can make for more interesting work and boost your creativity in approaching your work. One of the questions I get asked frequently...

Episode 386 One of the main topics that seems to come up repeatedly is pricing your photographs to sell. For some jobs, that price is set for the payment for a given size image in a publication. Those “guidelines” are set by publication distribution size, cost, and audience. Other prices are set by the market rate, experience, pressure, or other variables. You can find a free wedding photographer or one that will cost $10,000 and everything in-between. With so much variation in pricing, what is ...

Episode 385 I recently was at a friend’s house and was talking with someone I had never met before. As the conversation often does, I was asked what I do for a living. I said I was a photographer. That led to a series of common questions about what I photograph, photographers they like that I might know, and how to use their phone better. Eventually, I got asked a really interesting question. The questions were actually pretty common, but what surprised me was my answer this time. The question w...

Episode 384 I was listening to some people talk about different photographs at a gallery. One point they discussed was what makes a great photographic print. One of them said that because art (vis-a-vee the print) was subjective, so you couldn’t define it. The other person was adamant that you could say what made a good print or not. Of course, I am glad they weren’t trying to define good art, as that really is subjective. For many photographers who are starting their printing journey, much of ...