Episodes

Episode 335 One of the challenges that we photographers face is that our work isn’t what we photograph but rather what that image represents. We see a tree and photograph the tree. In our seeing, that tree is something else. It might be a person, face, galaxy, love, empathy, or joy. The object of our affection is really about the relationship we have to something else. In this week’s podcast, we take a look at the notion of the metaphor to understand our work and find more meaning in the images...

Episode 334 One challenge I believe that many of us face when sharing our work is having a conversation about the work rather than about technical aspects of the work. For many people, the basic what is it, what f/stop type questions are a starting point. Maybe they don’t know what to ask about the work or have the words to ask so they ask what they know. We, as photographers, answer the question and then move. Both parties leave frustrated not having the dialog they wanted. In this week’s podc...

Episode 333 We are trying out a new segment for the podcast called footnotes and endnotes. This segment is a collection of small random thoughts I have in my notebooks and conversations that rather than stretch into a longer podcast where I might get a little redundant I rapidly cover each topic in a few minutes. This week’s podcast covers ordering off-menu, hard being easy and simple being hard, buzzwords and discounting your efforts and work. As always thanks for checking out the podcast and ...

Episode 332 In the movie Office Space the main character has a goal to do nothing as a successful job. At one point, he has a day where he does nothing and says it was everything he hoped it would be. Our photography can be a lot like the movie. It becomes easy to define success as series of tasks or skills to accomplish, but our photography is more than just a set of tasks. In this week’s podcast, we take a look at the ideas around success and how doing nothing might make you the most successfu...

Episode 331 I have heard over the past several weeks’ other photographers talking about other people’s photographs. What caught my ear was how critical these photographers were of people’s subject selection, the commonness of the subject, or general bashing of the image as been there done that. I found it interesting that these photographers couldn’t see past their own same shortcomings in their conversations and were in some cases downright mean. This week’s podcast takes a hard look at what th...

Episode 330 I often hear people talk about or suggest the proper settings for your camera to make good photographs. You might also find people who are suggesting the proper methods to edit your photographs for maximum impact. In this week’s podcast, we take a look at that approach and discuss how more times than not, taking or editing a good photograph requires you to think more about your approach to the photograph than the settings in the camera or software. As always, I hope you and yours ar...

Episode 329 Often timed I find myself in a rush to do something. When that happens not much good comes from it. In this week’s podcast, I talk about how rushing can often lead to less than ideal results. As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and please remember to keep safe and wear your mask.

Episode 328 We all have places we work on editing our photographs. It might be a dedicated studio or room in the house, and for others, it might be a shared desk in the kitchen. In this week’s podcast, I talk about how setting up your space to work is similar to how you might approach working on a photograph behind the camera. I also talk about how getting a space set up to reflect your personality can make all the difference in editing. So no matter how big or small, private or shared, your spa...

Episode 327 In this week’s podcast, I talk about how the work we make is all about the small details and impacts. Like ripples in a pond you never know how big of impact something you do might be but obsessing about how big the impact is or should be can lead to a dark creative place. Much of the work we do in art isn’t about major groundshaking events, it is in the smallest moments. As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and please remember to keep safe and wear your mask.

Episode 326 In this week’s podcast, we take a look at the question of does our style change when we change what we photograph or is our style consistent. I was asked recently if our style changes all the time based on what we photograph. They gave the example of black and white landscapes verse color fashion photography each being of interest but having a completely different look and approach. I thought it was a great question to tackle this week. For many of us, our core style will always be ...

Episode 325 There are times that everyone faces in their photography when you feel like things are going nowhere. Maybe you are spending more money than you wanted or time than you have on things you don’t need or want to do. The longer we spend on photography, the less time and energy we have to do photography. I imagine that each one of us has that thing that got us into photography that we really loved doing. Taking pictures of family, spending time with other photographers or experimenting ...

Episode 324 In this week’s podcast, I take a quick look at the notion of accuracy in a photograph. Each photograph has a given set of attributes that we respond to when we look at the image. In critiquing work, there is often a sense of correctness to those decisions behind the camera. In the discussion this week, I challenge the idea that there is one accurate way to create and respond to the photograph and offer suggestions on how to approach our response to images. As always, I hope you and ...

Episode 323 In this week’s podcast, we talk about the duality of many of the concepts and ideas that we might face when making photographs. We look at how ideas can be both easy and hard or how expectations can be both meet and disappointing. As we face this dual nature of many aspects in our photography, how to ultimately choose to use that duality to make more interesting photographs is a question I think we all must face. As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and please remember to keep ...

Episode 322 This week’s podcast looks at how we learn things and the language we use to describe ourselves when we don’t know something and the impact of making more positive statements. There are numerous times in my conversations with myself throughout the day that aren’t always positive. I have found that being critical of myself for things that I shouldn’t impact my creative conversations. So this week, I dive into the ideas of how we talk about our approach to creative learning and the impa...

Episode 321 One thing you will hear a lot when you get into making good photographs is storytelling. Images should tell stories. Collections of images tell stories. What story are you trying to tell in your work? For the most part, I agree that good images tell a story, but other times great images are just pretty but that’s for a different day. In this week’s podcast, we talk about the way to tell a better story in your photographs and how to approach storytelling in your images. Don’t worry th...

Episode 320 There are many ways to learn things—some things in life we pick up pretty quickly, others not so much. As we learn our craft and art in photography, we can take all sorts of shortcuts. In some cases, we should stand on the shoulders of the photographers that came before us to learn, extend, and develop our understanding of our work. And in today’s world, we can also find a two-minute video on anything to teach us about something. In today’s podcast, I talk about how most of the time,...

Episode 319 I got to thinking these past few weeks about what would happen if I lost my eyesight. What would that mean for my photography? What would it mean to make photographs and appreciating photographs? In this week’s podcast, I talk a little bit about not being able to see could impact our photography and also how in some cases, it might make us better photographers because of how we would have to share what a photograph means in a much more complete way since we couldn’t just rely on some...

Episode 318 I have heard from several friends how every day in the pandemic seems to run together. Sort of a Groundhog Day effect. In this week’s podcast, I dive into that notion of everything and every day being the same and how that can impact our approach to talking about our photography in a meaningful way. I also talk about the challenges of shifting our focus on what we talk about to celebrate the experiences of every photograph we look at. As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and pl...

Episode 317 This week’s podcast takes a look at the impacts of how we react to events and information. When you hear someone talk about your photography, do you focus on the negative, which in turn makes everything negative, or do you focus on the positive? In the podcast, I talk about how your approach to that feedback can make all the difference in improving your work. I also talk about some strategies to help you focus on slowing down the experience so you can focus on what matters most to yo...

Episode 316 If you ever take one of my classes or workshops, you will listen to me talk about reading the photograph. The idea of reading a photograph is just like reading a book. You have to slow down, take it in, process the work, and think about it. I first came across the idea of reading the photograph from a Minor White article in the Aperature archives. Reading is an active state of being rather than a passive state. In this week’s podcast, I talk about why reading is important, how to sta...

Episode 315 This week’s podcast breaks out the dustpan and broom. It is spring cleaning week. It is important to keep yourself organized and with sufficient space to be creative. With that in mind, this week we take a look at three easy places to do some spring cleaning in your photography practice to make some room for both the new and old ideas you might have around your photographic work. As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and please remember to keep safe and wear your mask.

Episode 314 This week’s podcast is all about answering questions from podcast listeners. We tackle five questions that really got me thinking or were asked more than once. I hope you get something out of the answers and if you have any questions feel free to reach out and let me hear them. This week I chime in on: What do I think of new technology and software like Adobe’s Enhance and Resize software and how I plan on using it? Am I worried about Nikon going away? Where do I find inspiration...

Episode 313 Sometimes when we are working, it is easy to stick with what we are good at. We tend to think that we are meant to be doing it if we are good at something. However, being good at something doesn’t mean that we enjoy something or should keep doing something. In this week’s podcast, we talk about how sometimes we need to give up what we are good at in favor of doing what we’re meant to do or really want to be doing. As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and please remember to keep...

Episode 312 This week’s podcast takes a look at why we create. I believe that art, and by proxy photography, is best when it is personal. It is born out of our curiosity and desire to discover, learn, grown, process, and sort out how we fit in the world. When we make work from a place of self–understanding, it taps into a common thread across lots of people who have similar feelings and ideas. While made by a single click, our images allow us to connect as a community to more important questions...