Have you ever, honestly, taken a truly great photograph when you were uninspired or simply going through the motions. I don’t mean the creation of that single errant photo that all of us once in a while simply luck into when snapping the shutter out in the world, but rather a day where you created consistently great imagery that matched the grandeur of your inner vision.

I had a friend once who said, after seeing an Ansel Adams print hanging in my office, “Yeah, nice photograph, but anyone with a camera could take that.” I resisted the urge to argue with him but instead spent the next few days thinking about what he said and contemplating what it was that made one photograph different from another in terms of quality and essence. After all, I knew that two people could stand in virtually ...

I often wonder if the whole concept of a Supreme being might simply be simply inspired by our own primal and innate desire to create. While the Great One’s handiwork resulted in the construction of an entire Universe from what was apparently a black and silent void, we humans are constrained to create by mixing, adding, subtracting, blending, and fabricating from those substances that are already available to us here on earth, in the sky above us and from within our own imaginations.

For me, nothing is more gratifying than to find a scene or place in the world that I can capture, then later render on screen or in print, to convey a similar ambience, presence and beauty as what I witnessed originally. To accomplish this, sometimes I feel the need to enhance the original by using, say, ...

In keeping with my promise to write something totally useless here; something with little or no redeeming qualities; something that while having the appearance of lucidity, in fact caters to our base and more primal functions, I give you the first of what may be several (or not), Photography Based Limericks. Please feel free to add your own or assail them as you wish. And since it is unlikely that I will receive any credits for this, please don't assume that this was a cheap attempt to get free credits. :)

There once was a woman from Crockett,

Who kept her best lens in her pocket,

But while climbing a wall,

She took a bad fall,

Now the lens is so hosed she can't hock it.

A spendthrift used Rubber Cement,

To patch up his old camera's dent,

But he dropped it one day,

And the ...

The other day I had a discussion with a member of my photographic society who was an old time large format film photographer. His work was always good and worthy of a look. While talking with him however I was struck by the subtle lack of respect he demonstrated for anyone who used a digital camera, photoshop or who in any way engaged in a digital work-flow. His opinion, as it turns out, is that technology apparently blunts the creative edge and chases the muse away.

I thought about this at some length and tried to see it from his perspective. Did my abandonment of film, the darkroom and 35 mm cameras in favor of a digital work-flow mean I had somehow fallen from grace and forsaken high art? I didn't think about it too long because I already knew the answer.

No matter how far back ...

For those of you who think I'm referring to good eyesight. . I'm not. The ability to create interesting photographs is more than technical ability. In fact, technical knowledge is best utilized at the end of the creative process. What I mean by this is that many a wonderful image has been produced by low end equipment and/or technique because the photographer had a remarkable vision of what he or she was looking at. Over the years I've seen quite a few very well executed, and technically proficient, but mediocre images.

There is a tendency to sometimes think that the amount of elbow grease or perspiration expended to get a photo will yield a work of art, when frankly the simple (or for some not so simple) act of trusting your vision often times is the critical factor in the success ...