December 20, 2019

Photography Notes 

Ease of taking photographs, there is nothing to it just point and shoot without a visual foundation for your personal expression. A haphazard reality we seem to live in now where anybody can create art even though they didn’t really create their art, it was more or less a copycat expression of someone else’s work. 

You know a truth when it is your individuality being present, when you connect on a deeper level with your subject and you feel the purpose behind the image created.

You also realize that after the fun of photography is done you have a lot more work to do to get these image ready to be viewed by others. 

Then a nervous reality begins to take hold after you look at your exposures on your cell phone/camera, you see a run and gun approach to your photography that doesn’t work in creating meaningful imagery. You fell for the standard approach to tourist photography,

snapping pics in a random manner. 

What you needed was a structure to your visual mission before you went berserk and started clicking the shutter at anything that was in front of you. 

So after the shoot you download your images onto your computer. Now first and foremost what is your after shoot work flow, your editing process. I like to look through the images fast the first time through and deleting the obvious mistakes, the out of focus and haphazard compositions that doesn’t give a constructive visual sense of the scene that was present in front of me.

And then I settle down and really study the images to find a few that represent your inner intuitive feelings with the scene. Obviously most of the images won’t feel right, they won’t fit your unique visual perspective and you might feel defeated.

But this is a good thing, a good lesson as well because you learned not to just go blazing in upon a scene and blitz it hoping for a few good images. You have to have in your mind images already being formed as you approached the subject and you must allow those perceptions to blossom in you. Let them take a hold of your senses and open your eyes to your intuitive vision. 

Next you enlarge your image so you can find all the dust, foreground and background distractions, tree limbs jumping into the frame, people stopping in front of your subject to admire the wonderful landscape, your wife or husband yelling at you that the kids are getting cranky, lets go! all these things frustrate you and limit your ability to move closer to uncovering the subject you were finally interested in to create your visual perception. 

But that is the life of the photographer. There is always and I mean always something that will interfere with you and your ability to have the time to create your vision but you must control the time you have and with a focused attention to create a worthwhile image.

You have to be aware of your surrounding, the time of day, the fading light and even who you are with and work as quick as possible, once you have uncovered your subject and are beginning to compose the scene to create a beautiful image. 

And finally you will color correct the images. Not exaggerating the color but giving it the necessary quality that creates for the viewer an image worth remembering.

Photography is a lot more than just snapping photos randomly hoping for an image that looks OK.

Let your imagination go, let go of stereotypical image creation that you see repeated endlessly, look for that detail, that expression, that realness you felt as you begin to set up your visual senses to examine the scene before you, beginning to find a connection with some elements of the scene but more work needs to be done exploring the nooks and crannies of the landscape before you can zero in on your unique composition. 

You only see the reality you were conditioned to see, this structure of narrow-minded perceptions is to blame for your confusion when you are attracted to a subject but then give up because it didn’t fit your pre-planned comfortable, redundancy of a narrow perspective, as if shooting the same old subjects over and over again will create an unexpected visually unique perspective. It will not happen.

The only thing that is stagnate in this world are people who don’t accept/see the truth that they know in their souls is the right path to take but instead they are so filled with fear and hate and the blaming of others that they fold inward and refuse to allow their unique perspective to be seen and heard. 

A society that is fear based, that has been manipulated by the corporations and oligarchs has a deceitful purpose in controlling the population, it is a form of slavery, just ask the Native Americans and African Americans what a false life we live by becoming mouthpieces for lies and hatred of other human beings dictated to us by hate groups fearing the coming changes that are upon us now.

It is your responsibility to outgrow the cliches of behavior and visual stereotypes that permeate through our society and to have the courage to look through your own unique eyes and to create your individual sense of the physical world through photography. 

Conformity is a decease and it is spreading hate and criminality through this world. You must have the courage to break free from the conformity of vision, the endless replicas of the visual cliche’s and break free with your inner vision poised to create unique beautiful subjects.

I can remember that image I created that changed my photography forever. It was a photograph of my daughter sitting in front of a blue door in a downtown Seattle alley. It was far above any image I had taken up to that point. What was different about it was that I took my time finding a place that intrigued me and allowed me to compose an image that I intuitively knew would be a good image.

Hopefully, we all can get to a point in making images that transcends beyond the snap shot that everyone shoots, but not you, you studied the scene the lighting, the contrast, the tourists, and decided to make an image when the early morning light just brushes along the mountain terrain creating a special sense of nature’s magnificence.

You must be confident in your abilities to learn and create great images. What is missing most often is having the confidence not in your bombastic ego or redundant intellect that keeps meddling with your visual senses, demanding they know better than you what to shoot. Just be yourself flow with time and your physical presence allowing all the details of the scene to penetrate your intuitive mind and focus your attention on the little details that will guide you to a photograph that was not present until you allowed a connection with the subject and your inner talent to be united together to bring forth the image that was hidden.

Without ego’s meddling and just being yourself in your individuality, you will create opportunities that others won’t see because they are being ruled by the intellect that judges them without mercy and creates a barrier to originality and a fear of trying something new. Your unique individual experiences are with your efforts!

November 18, 2019

Street Photography A Stream of Consciousness

We look for the open expression, the subject allowing their inner feelings to project outward into a reality unconquered. The photographer welcomes this openness of thoughts and moves ever closer to the subject by positioning himself where their will be no details that will distract the photographic eye from the facial expressions of the subject, his clothes, her hair, their originality. 

A good photographer can have one subject and in the time it takes to create an image the subject could express a litany of expressions from happiness, anger, loss, guilt, resignation to a bad situation, tears the full gambit of emotions that expresses the inner/outer universe of our human lives. All these will be expressed and felt in a photograph. A click of the shutter, time passing onward, oh illusive time, but in the photograph taken time is frozen still, in their eyes the meaningful and elusive, a split second, the shutter captures a moment, in war, in a wedding, a friendship, happiness, guilt, anguish, handicapped, hateful, all the emotions of humanity captured in a millisecond and put into a frame, with that unique moment created as time moved on but not in the still image that is now present, jarred loose from the passing seconds, forever stagnant but with purpose yanked from its moorings and now stands free, alone just like the subject in their anguish and this stream of consciousness isolated, separated now forever from the persons physical presence, separated by the click of a shutter, a moment taken, irreversible taken from the subjects fluidity in physical space, this person’s time line abruptly stopped in that split second of seeing a possible composition by the photographer and then the subjects time begins again outside the frame as they move on and leave nothing of themselves only the impression on a digital file separated from their physical source, prior to the feeling expressed and taken from the person by the photographer now without the ability to change their frozen expression, this photographic reality, this image, is possible because of the infinite time we have to make images without a structured necessity, only our own rules of composition and exposure making it more a cutting away, like an artists sculpture, catching something from the person, her inner personality, more anger bottled up an extension of the person’s personality becoming her exterior unknown to her now until she sees herself through the photographers lens and realizes this is not her, it is someone else without a foundation of times motion in completing her expression instead this expression was in flux when the photographer broke through times unity, seeing into the photograph through her exterior emotions and in her facial expressions unclear, broken away from the next moment settling for an irrational revelation, something of her personality more unique, taken and this separation is an abstraction from her outer facade and is not representative of her internal self hidden under an accumulation of narratives tried on like used clothes and now caught in this moment an idyllic self acting a role for someone else’s entertainment looking back years from now at a picture taken without knowing the ending, a mystery puzzle now forgotten, it is what it is without change, a still life exposed to random views without a connection, alone in self without speech, without an explanation, a dutiful personality compromised and forever alone maybe in an album or in someones wallet, the perceiver and the perceived unified through technology and not seeing the ramifications of a new awareness in random exposures, a new feeling of capturing someone else’s moment without permission a new street revelation, a motion of the camera coming up to an eye moving on the street moving with the crowd or against the crowd an observer, a truth seeker, his purpose never planned always ready in anticipation, the old way, the random objects reflected in glass in front of the mannequin, the truth of the photograph doesn’t lie, it reports the details and leaves the impression of the scene for others to observe and feel their disconnection or connection with the subject, the independent scene a contrast of thoughts in characters acting their roles in physical space, without favor, without forethought, just now in the present, quickly push the shutter now! now! an objective vision trying to unmask the facade of faces as objects once hidden trying to turn away, we hide behind inner rage to get a glimpse of these special moments, under currents, under the skin glimpses of another character wanting to come out but forfeits the freedom of their expression, their purpose, something gritty and bleak with tears and in a reality that is truth without clothes, without a mask of happy spirits bubbling away supposedly ecstatic while underneath an impulse ready to act out in a street performance of violence, look at me I am alive but dead in your camera, once the image taken I no longer exist, do you understand this, I am in a new spacial dimension without escape my purpose now is to be observed by multiple eyes seeking my thoughts in a purpose never exposed I have no voice in the theater of a still life, the image maker always with his intuitive antenna up looking for that moment that begins and ends with the image taken and the subject forever reborn and placed in a photo album or book for the dead in heart will inherit this menagerie of sinful natures, for the truth of our existence is this, we are inner beings with an outer shell, purposely disguised as someone else that hides their emotions from the prying thoughtful eyes of others, the camera always ready to expose an inner truth through outer materialization, the photographer takes from the street an image, the subjects likeness and applies this dubious foundation to ascertain the realness of the expression or the middle finger being presented in front of the violent facial features an anonymous photograph behind the persons dramatic features and an image is still-life enhancing ones selective ambition to inside the moving target, feeling their inner vibes unknown unexpected the photographer grasps a scene beginning to develop not with tricks but patience a subtle plausible reasoning of our being aware of ones surroundings, knowing the alleyways, the corners to go through or stay hidden in doorways waiting for that inkling of personality that will pass, always seeking an uncomfortable representation of yourself in others but only their outer shell that gives a simple clue to their nature and how we should respond in apathy, without emotion at our first encounter, a test of the other’s performance, now we must listen to the frivolous sounds of a camera clicking away at everything and anyone seeking to unmasked them and we find in the infinite void of our dual reality an emptiness in the photograph even though presented with a knowing power, a godlike power to take from spacial sequencing an absence of expression, an appearance coming to life with deliberate agonizing features, yelling obscenities, knowing that the camera demands truth in a suggestive cloak as one parades in circles down a busy sidewalk that expresses and commands something within, an inner journey maybe saved, as the people separate and give space to a spectacle of someone else’s truth, all is blank until details show in the scene a possibility of composition waiting for the right appearance, one seeks their hidden persona, the detail that illuminates the inner vibes you feel that this is a truth worth investigating to follow your instinct with emotion of details forging a possibility in the mind of the photographer their physical presence exploited as high art but not in an excessive selfish ego’s brute force but as a person who roams the streets looking to repeat a play for anyone moving in currents of deceptions, he chooses compositions through intuition, he never takes his eyes off the faces reflected in dirty windows always perceiving his visibility and exploiting the deceptive convergence of details excited to play their part, the betrayal of someones surface gleam for once in awhile one clicks the shutter at that moment when the pedestrian is himself and we can apprehend through the image made a depth of expression that exists through the photographers mind, who never once looked outside himself for inspiration and visual content worthy of his interest, his perception entirely his, externalized.

November 17, 2019

Is Photography Still An Art Form? 

Photography can still be a great art form if one approaches the subject with respect, openness and a unique vision.

Photography is an expression of an intimate moment between photographer and subject.

We live in moments strung together that create our past and future. If we become aware of our surroundings within our unique moments we have a chance to create magnificent realities on a two demential platform.

We express ourselves in obnoxious ways and we express ourselves in quite ways. 

These quiet moments allow us to think before we begin searching the exterior reality for an image we sense is present.

We have to become part of the image reality we are studying, an extension of ourselves made visible through the details we decide to choose that will enhance our visual insight present in the scene before us that represents an importance to our inner intuitive consciousness that is beginning to form a composition in the continuous flux of light as the photographer begins to solidify his composition.

Photography is an art form with many dimensions. Many avenues of study and learning opportunities. If we seek to make great imagery then we need to let go of the preconditioning of thoughts we were raised by and just see life through an open mind. A mind willing to take chances with light, composition and exposure. You must be your unique self studying the landscape searching for that image you feel is present. 

Photography is an expression of moments in time, in a physical space we occupy in constant flux. If we only focus on the surface details then we have abandoned our artistic insights of deeper emotions, and ignore the scene evolving, changing and giving the photographer 1000s of possibilities that he will have to edit down in order to find those details that will be the corner stone of his visual foundation, setting the stage for that landscape that will not only express his inner perception through the nuances of light but also be a revelation to the viewer of his personal artistic expression.

Photography sees behind the facades of an empty life, a reality dimmed because of the control we assume we must have over ourselves to conform to a certain standard of behavior and then snap images in the present through those restrictions without understanding the infinity of moments before the shutter should be pressed. Patience is the first step in becoming a photographer, without patience you will be part of the herd mentality always moving forward, backward, sideways, down never toward your intuitive photographic expression.

We are trapped in our flesh and our physical space we live in. Our presence is transitory and as we age and change we accept our limitations and seek solace in our past when in fact we should be expecting, demanding a newness of vision, as we age in our individual history and we should be able to create a deeper understanding of our unique reality we are traveling through by increasing our power of awareness, our determination to expand our vision of ourselves through new, unique images. And become through our interior perceptions of our external physical space a rejuvenated expression of our selves through our photography.

We are physical beings that seek knowledge in the appearance of our surrounding and the forever changing realities we try to conquer. We need to ignore the pressure of the past. We mustn’t adapt to anything that limits our choices. We should always be seeking revelation of purpose and explore our inner world projecting ourselves and our photographic eye outward into the realm of infinite possibilities.

A moment in time is all a photographer needs to create a great image. Awareness of your surroundings, the angle of light through clouds and trees all must be taken into account before one can position himself/herself for the image creation.

The most important relationship between subject and photographer is respect and being in the right light.

November 12, 2019

Future Of Photography

In this unnerving future of photography it has become apparent that cliches are the new mantra of the photo agencies. When you look through the millions and millions of images on these stock agencies photo sites you don’t see originality but a redundant expression from a narrow herd mentality. Everything looks the same, happy people (actors) doing what they do in rooms of bright lights and staged props all for the chance to be put in an ad and gain some money. These actors will reap the benefit of payment for the time spent posing for the camera but will the photographer make the necessary money to break even. The answer to that is no, not when the photographer is getting 20% of the sale and the agencies take 80%. 

If you want to know one of the reasons why Royalty Free is a bad deal for the photographers that is one of them, the money split is taken by the powers that be and the photographer is left holding a few pennies.

The agencies will claim look, these RF sales will be multiple sales to many buyers not just one offs and you will reap the benefit of more money from RF than you would from Rights Managed. 

Very doubtful when you look at the buyers getting giddy over the usage of these repetitive boring subjects by paying the stock house a cheapened sum of cash while the photographers hard earned efforts gets the shaft. 

And because of RF the agency takes their 80% while cutting more editors and staff because lets be honest everything will be done electronically without the need for a human presence. 

There is nothing original in their subjects chosen and photographed, supposedly representing, according to the agency, real life. If we could live like these superficial stage performers we would be as far away from real life we live now. Poverty, crime, racism, anguish, health issues,… and yet the agencies try and sell us photos that are supposed to make us believe that these are real households and real people. Right, I have some mountain view property in Florida I want to sell you. 

There is no realness in the images created, nothing that would suggest that these are intimate moments

between people that know each other, just paid actors acting a part trying to express real emotions in front of the camera.

There is no personality in the image creation, no connection with the subject, just a surface reflection of the same boring pictures we see time and time again in ads that are suppose to represent real people, in real life situations. These are not real people but actors posing for the product that is always forefront in the image. 

The redundant themes are now in place. Casual conversation with an expression of concern, love in the models eyes toward the actor playing a role, a smile, a laugh, never a tear, maybe a serious face of importance, but nothing original, the scripts are in place and the photo agencies are all playing the same tune, boring images without originality. 

Royalty Free is confusing but in one instance it is appropriate. Royalty Free for the photographers that took the image. 

Everyone chases the photographers dream to be seen as a great shooter, creating images of beauty and depth without the redundant cliches we see constantly in travel and people images. But everyone will eventually realize that photography today is not the photography of the past. There is so much images being snapped and then put online that for the stock shooter he/she will never reach the heights of their expectations. 

Sure their will be some good shooters that will try to be authentic in their approach to creating a realistic scene, a natural expression, an intimate moment. 

But the majority of images taken now are copycat imitations of already created images, a continual regurgitation of past shots where the subject is posed in shallow depth without originality. 

These images are not created out of love of nature or people but to exploit the external world for profit. 

All great images are made because the photographer took the time to know his subject. To explore the many facets of the subject habits and personalities and this guided the image creator to connect on a deeper, personal level with the person, place, or animal.  

Photography now is chasing the sameness of content, happy faces wearing the newest trend in clothes, hairstyle, makeup, props and phony expressions.

Honesty in todays stock horror show of repetitive trends is undermining originality and purpose in image creation.  

The old masters made images through their own inner vision and not a list of posed images to shoot by an agency that couldn't care less about the time and money spent making the requested images, all they want is more and more images to demean photography by making it a lost art, turning image creation into a commodity, a commercial enterprise for shareholders profit!  

The loss of caring about truth in image creation, assuming images are an honest view of a subject, is settling over us and eroding the meaning of the image, lessening our awareness of how to make unique expressions of our inner being.

This poser photography of snap and go as if you could really see the final subject in a split second of observation. 

We are diminished in our ability to present a subject in a new light, an authentic representation of a life we thought we knew.  

Great photography is not done in time’s movement, a great image is created when time stops for the photographer and his impressions of the scene developing before him unfolds slowly as he seeks a deeper understanding of the details of the burgeoning light that is revealing to him a new perspective that the image creator will use to express his intuition that is seeking answers to reveal a unique vision.

My advice to younger image creators is be true to yourself and create images you like and don’t rely on content briefs to trap you in an image box you can’t climb out of, use your own unique perspective to create images with purpose that express you inner world externalized for all to see.

November 11, 2019

Royalty Free Is Now The Standard 

Royalty Free is now the standard scam to sell a photographers hard earned efforts.

So Getty finally made an easy decision. They will eliminate Rights Managed (RM) imagery from their clients choices and finally put a dagger in the heart of a business model that protected photographers image uses and paid the photographer a nice fee for their efforts.

I feel that the paragraph that best summarizes why Getty eliminated RM imagery is this,

“Royalty Free (RF) imagery is now the preferred and dominant licensing model for our customers due to the simplicity, value and quality available. Licensing complexity has only led customers to other content and in many cases another provider, as the broader industry is now essentially a RF-only model.”

If we break down this paragraph we will see that Getty was being depleted of customers that were bypassing their web site and going to ShutterStock and Adobe Stock Image.

Their efforts in trying to make RM imagery work for them and the RM photographers one last time was a lost cause from the get go. I don’t believe they gave this “Market Freeze” enough time to work. They just wanted to have an excuse to fall back on if photographers started to complain. If this happened and I am sure it did they had a ready excuse to tell them, that this Market Freeze was the RM photographers last chance and it fizzled. I can’t remember right off hand when they began this approach to selling RM through Market Freeze, even the title of this new approach seems off kilter, by hiding Rights Managed Imagery on their site in a new RM downgrade, separating our RM images from their main goal of selling only RF images showed the photographers still shooting RM our time in the spotlight was long gone.  

After the limited time Market Freeze was supposedly up and running on the Getty site I would go on the site and look for my images. It took me many attempts, jumping through an assortment of categories that eventually would bring up my imagery but not all of them. If it took me this overwhelming amount time to just get to my images I am sure the customer/art director must have been so frustrated to the breaking point she/he just gave up, forget this BS, and either went to a different source or just went with how easy the access was with Royalty Free on the Getty sight. I don’t believe Market Freeze was up and running form more than 2-3 months.

What a great name for RM, Market Freeze. We are freezing out the Rights Managed photographers. They have already lost their life style to a royalty (payment) system degrading year after year as RF crept closer and closer, undermining the photographers control of over his image creations, like a rotten apple in a barrel of delicious apples, eroding any chance for a photographer to make a living creating photographs in the Right Managed market place. 

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s their was something called respect for the photographers and their efforts making great images for the market place and if a client paid for the rights of an image and then tried to extent that usage past a certain negotiated date then an extra fee was sent to the business and the photographer received an extra payment. 

I can remember when we heard the first inklings of this new business model called Royalty Free. What was it how did it work? As we learned more and more about it it turned our stomachs and made us sick. 

We couldn’t believe a photographer would give away his image creation for pennies on the dollar. And then have no rights to rebill the client if he used that image on another campaign. And now in this ever cheapening of image creation add the word Forever without any means for the photographer to be reimbursed for that extended usage is absolutely crazy.  

It is a new era of greed by the Photo Agencies who have abandoned common sense and have left the creators of imagery at the mercy of the market place. I believe Royalty Free is not royalty free for the agency but for the photographer who receives 20% of the sale. I can see why Getty wants to eliminate RM. It is harder to negotiate pricing and it takes a good editor

to see the potential of the images submitted. In the past we trusted our editors. They were our friends and we had continuous contact with them in getting ideas where to travel and ideas for shots. But a good editor always let the photographer choose his course when making his own personal expression, his photos. 

Our sales staff in the old days negotiated a fair price for the image, a 50/50 split between the Photographer and the Stock Photo Agency. We were on equal footing. And because of the openness of the agency with the photographer you felt inspired to travel and create the very best image possible, by waiting for the unique light that would enhance the subject and also the price of the photograph. 

I wonder if Getty’s move to exploit the photographers by migrating them over from RM to RF isn’t also a cost cutting measure by eliminating editing jobs. I thing we can safely say yes on that. For all the royalty free corporation brag about is the ease of selecting an image and then automatically buying it and using it without any restrictions. It is as easy as pie and oh yeah, cheap. 

Now with cell phones and digital cameras, everybody is a photographer and the billions of snap shots taken daily get posted or accepted into Royalty Free Corporation.  

And that is what they are corporations, with only one thing on their mind and that is profit. Not the photographers who go out of their way to create beautiful images but the bottom line, keeping the investors happy with a growing market share.

Photography isn’t for fun anymore, it is a giving away your image rights to people that couldn't care less about you and what you earn from your image creation. 

What you earn now is pennies on the dollar from your RF imagery. Oh yeah, you also get an ego boost from selling your image on the cheap! 

Tell me how does that feel!

October 29, 2019

Taking photos allow us the feeling of superiority over mother nature and human nature. We boost our ego’s jealous nature as we select a physical space, that we will take away from the aggregate of details present a composition that exits in the external physical reality and through this capture we have a picture. It is amazing that amount of images taken each second of each day around the world. 

Nothing is hidden, all is a potential snapshot of someone or something perceived as unique. We prowl in the streets for a stolen image, an image that doesn’t represent anything now but a redundant visual expression that has no meaning. 

Pictures taken to day are selfish in the sense that they are not representative of our feelings toward the beauty of people or the beauty of nature but pictures that are all about the ego’s of the one taking the image. The subject of image creation today is not the external scene but the one taking the snap shot, our addiction to be seen at any cost, to be liked at any cost is the obsession of our selfish culture seeing ourselves as objects, material to be presented on social media.

Ego’s are the main subject of all our hedonistic self interest. We don’t see the objective necessity to respect nature and to protect our rights as citizens of this planet, equal to each other and not under the rule of the oligarchs. 

We have been disconnected from our inner purpose, separated from our true course, our true vision. We are all here on earth to enjoy the beauty of the earth not the destruction of the planet by the corporate elites, junkies for more and more wealth as if they expect to spend this money in heaven, as if savaging the earth would get them to the pearly gates before they were sent where they belong.    

Soon we will be folded nicely into nature mysterious disguise that has warned us of the catastrophic consequences of voracious greed. There is no escape from the aging body and aging mind soon to be silent without funds to buy a way out of deaths brutal clarity. 

Pictures have become selfish in the sense that they are not representative of our feelings concerning the beauty of nature but pictures that are all about the ego’s of millions taking the image.

We don’t explore our own inner intuition but copy what we see others doing, we imitate others in order feel accepted.

Great imagery accepts nothing but the individual expression of ones inner truth. A photographer in tune with himself and nature’s beauty doesn’t look for the cliché but digs deeper, looking for the outer representation of his inner feeling and insights.

The earlier great street photographers created a base of uniqueness, an awareness of the subject and an instinct of visual expression that captured visual moments with revelation and beauty.  These images revealed a new level of picture making, a new underground of subjects never seen before, that would illuminate our senses and push other photographers into a realm of the ordinary made extraordinary. These street scenes  were a new avenue of expression and changed photography forever! A new memory of a subject yanked from its mooring from a flowing, ever changing reality. A reality that is migrating, and evolving and we are blind to its nature of assimilation.

Now we are snap shooters, making images is no longer necessary, now when shooting we are not looking for a representation of our inner vision but an irrational need to be the star of picture taken, seen as just another part of the herd and not an individual with our own unique perceptions. The scene exposed in milliseconds, the surface glitter like eye candy attracts a dull eye and that eye doesn’t see beyond the reflective positioning of a growing laziness in mankind to accept the shallow facade that your intellect determined was just good enough representation to take a picture of and then move on.

We need to be ourselves without a sense of reproducing another’s surface reality but our own inner world externalized in a photograph representing our inner force of character, an expression that is coming through the scene demanding your concentration to be visually present as you realize the subject appearing on a deeper level. 

Because of this new way of seeing through focused intuitive vision you will not take a quick snapshot and then run to the next surface gleam but be still in your vision, still in your insight, still in your willingness to allow the scene to unfold, digging deeper through your inner connection with the subject that you at one time would have easily missed for an easy point and shot image without depth but now you have become more in tune with nature and it’s calling. Your inner awareness is now your driving force to create that bond with nature that had been missing.

However, the new era of photography is not about revelation of nature through a deep connection with this precious earth but it is taking from nature its pride as mankind destroys it through ravenous addiction to money and power. 

There is no loss of beauty in life for we have been broken to feel a good life is impossible as mankind takes from the earth its minerals, the earths atmosphere, warming the climate to an extreme where we will have monster storms threatening all cultures and our children all in the name of profits, these men and women of avarice and deceit, these criminals of duplicity, using their billions to deceive the people of this world through their propaganda machine as if nothing is wrong, and this marketing of a false narrative through a bait and switch swindle and their gluttony for more and more personal wealth on the backs of the innocent is just fine and dandy with no problems and the earth we live in is going a little crazy right now but look we are misleading the American people for a grand purpose, our truth is the defrauding of all peoples of the planet for profit. Look at it this way you won’t need a camera in your kids future because all this beauty on this earth will be gone, destroyed by our callous, selfish greed of the elite for the elite!

October 24, 2019

Do you feel a little iffy today that something isn’t right.  You're feeling a little down, a little nervous about life and angry toward the people that are ignorant of your conditioned beliefs and cliche responses to everything that you believe in. Don’t worry just ignore the truth of their criminality blossoming all over this dying planet as the wealthy run rampant, ravage and take all they can before the collapse of our civilization.  

Where to begin, the beginning accepts the hurdles one must jump to express your inner thoughts.  Closed minds will always reject the true preposterous nature of words. Seek your own words to define yourself, walk in your own shoes. Not someone else’s footprints spewing a mouth full of hate and arguing for others to be hurt and condemned.  

Divide and conquer is their game plan. Propaganda from the elite to sway your thinking backward in time, hating others for their differences when if you looked hard enough you would see that they are human beings just like you, afraid of the coming storm of climate change that they are experiencing now and the mass corruption of governments at the expense of the people. That is their plan, getting us to fight amongst ourselves and in these created distractions of hate while they pass laws that benefit themselves, giving them more and more profits and power. Why should they worry about families starving, that isn’t their problem it is your problem, for they live above the ugliness of life and exploit those that can’t fight back? That is just good business practice.

We seem to like being shadow people hiding from the truth. We seek words that were ingrained in our consciousness from birth and solidified in our minds as we grew up stagnated in our ability to find truth away from the structure of our lifestyle and friends that reinforced the hatred toward change and people different from our propaganda of misinformation. 

The funny thing is that they never seemed to realize that the change was going on with them or without them and the wealthy used stereotypes and word manipulations to cement in your mind racists and selfish behavior toward other human beings. While the rich made a script and you fell for it, hook, line and sinker believing in someone else’s false ideology.

Yes, the people must be accountable for their actions but also the wealthy.  Why do they get a free ride when they are the very definition of corruption? Where are the wealthy’s moral foundation? I guess if you look at the profits they keep making and the laws that give them less and less taxes to pay then they have no responsibility to the people of the United States where they made their abhorrent wealth off its citizens.

The manipulation of our psyche, we read the words internalizing their additive nature. Someone speaks the words and it triggers a subconscious reaction, an instinctive need for anger and hate at the subject of the words spoken. 

We have been conditioned in our mind since birth, then grade school, through high school, through college to think a certain way and to react like Pavlov dog to certain words that instill in us hate and fear.

These words are like matches that excite your nervous system and make you automatically project outward an attitude of contempt for people, places and things. 

We fear change in our outer existence and change in our inner world. It is easier to repeat what you have heard than to look deeper into the reason why one assumes a negative stance when certain words are spoken and read.

The world isn’t going mad!  You are being conditioned to react a certain way that has been comfortable for you because you don’t have to think about the alternative. You don’t have to look deeper into your feelings and try and understand why you feel this way toward others. 

You fear that maybe you have been wrong as your intuition is beginning to break through your facade of false truth and it is piecing together how and why you react this way toward anything that is different from your perceived world of conformity.

We all experience those moments of revelation. We can ignore them or we can embrace the truth of our racism. We can choose to break free from the influence of the puppeteers that rule over our consciousness through their racist propaganda.

On social media these charlatans of hate know the words to use that will incite in the viewer of their post an automatic reaction, a response you have given before with likes and dislikes and because of your choices on the social media site you receive more propaganda of hate speech without you even knowing the influence they are having on you behavior and your common sense.

You react to these posts in stereotypical manner, hot under the collar because of the lying words specifically written to incite in you hatred toward another human being without evidence, just lying words written by the perpetuator of falsehoods knowing they will get you aroused, angry at your life being over run by non-americans.  All this in order to have people fight amongst themselves while the true crimes are done in the daylight of laws past that infringe on the rights of everyone. 

Ultimately you are fighting a battle against others that have no intent to fight or harm anyone but just looking for a life for their family where they can be free of violence. 

October 24, 2019

Oh, the mind bending control social media has over our individuality and our decision making. 

We all know our lives are being overrun by technology. This pervasive assimilation of our likes and dislikes, our buying patterns, our written words, our pictures, our lives are constantly under the scrutiny of social media and the corporate mindset of manipulation to gather information from our posts and then use our personal history, that they gathered from us, and then turn around and bombard us with ads to sell their products to us. But more than that to post lies by the politicians in order to get paid by the hooligans running for public office and to undermine our democracy. God damn the criminals now in power. These worldwide oligarchs have only one goal profits on the backs of human beings. If wars are necessary so be it, they are all in on the manipulation of truth and the total disregard of this world and its inhabitants. Why should they care, they are upper 1% and their values lie in making profits from the little people they exploit.

Picture taking used to be mainly for family albums, relatives, family get togethers, friends, a documentation of their faces, clothes, kids growing up, parties, birthdays, holidays and time spent enjoying each others company. These images are snap shots that become instant hits when you got back together with your family, and friends. 

These images now are no longer private moments but paraded out on social media for thousands, millions of people to look at and make comments on. 

What is it about human nature that demands we use our fixation of being seen on a small screen as some sort of people’s magazine? Where we see ourselves as a star to be noticed, heard, praised and made a fool of by uploading more and more personal information and pictures just for a few more likes.  

We have entered a new realm of reality where nothing is sacred or private and we join the throng of gullible needy humans looking for more in our own lives and we think giving info to multi billionaires is the way to get attention. It is a way of being taken advantage of, period.

What you are from birth to now has been a mirage of psychic turmoil. Social media will not help you. What will help is you backing off the wild ride of see me, hear me, be me mentality and regroup and find your inner self waiting to be discovered?

Is being someone else more important than being yourself. We live in a fairy tale of mis-information, lies and deceit and yet we still give away our personal information as if the ones collecting this info give a damn about you or your problems. All they want to do is sell, sell, sell you something by manipulating your inner personality you have offered them with your tweets. 

Seeking acknowledgement in anyway possible to justify our lives in today’s culture of the obsessive need to be seen and worshipped for being someone else and not our inner truth, we have become beings addicted to this non- stop distraction of meaningless information that is meant to bewilder, puzzle, perplex and twist the truth making us think there might be something there to believe in and to trust.  

We are being manipulated by the info we give these media giants and they use that info to spread lies and anger by tweeting misrepresentations right to your media account. Don’t be fooled this is a planned attack on the psychic of our nation, its people. Exploiting us with words that strike a cord of anger and hate. 

The only thing you need to believe in is yourself and not some outside force that dictates to you how to live your life and spew words of rage. Wake up, you are being molded into a creature without an original thought. A creature filled with constant hatred for anything you deem different from your self.

We know corporate media especially in the United States doesn’t give us any real information on all the catastrophes of war, climate, riots, murders, pollution hunger, migration of peoples, that is happening ever minute of every day. They want us kept in a selfish, needy buy, buy mentality while the rest of the world suffers under oligarchs that now rule this planet. Yes, the US has there oligarchs as well. The wealth that has accumulated in the upper echelon of power here in the US didn’t just happen without the manipulation of our government for the wealthy by the wealthy.  

This constant struggle the people of the US have to deal with everyday is deliberate and necessary for the criminals to maintain their power. Fear has always been used to quiet the crowds that gather to protest the wealthy’s greed and brutality. 

Their unwillingness to come down from their god like power and give back to the people what they have sacrificed their lives for, so their children could live a better life than they did. Is this still possible today? I don’t thing so. 

These men and women of duplicity have had only one mantra, more, more and more money without a blink of an eye as others suffer because of their monstrous addiction to greed.  

We can’t allow this erosion of our humanity, our

inner self, our inner truth knows this is not right, we need to be independent and focused in becoming our own personal truth, our own guide through the havoc of social media’s attempts at masking truth, playing to our emotions, our desire to believe in someone else’s words and not our own research, our own independent perspective. Thus becoming a dupe, ignorant of our nations truth, ignoring your first duty in your aging life and that is to be yourself as a free person, a self aware individual making his way towards his visual artistic goals and trying to raise yourself above this polluted world of hypocrites and con-men that have made it into every corporate board room and into every possible position of power in governments all around this dying planet.

We seem to like being herded cattle, addicted to  media that uses our information to send us ads to buy and buy no matter the consequences just for the excitement of a few likes. 

But one thing is for sure if you allow the distractions from truth, the lies of avarice, and the manipulations of our lives through organized crime then we will be a lost people, nomads in a life trying to survive in this world of greed and rampaging evil. 

For to be an independent individual you don’t need to demean yourself by the mindless chatter that is social media. Why distract yourself from your goals by taking a rutted side road to nowhere!

Inner perception, knowing yourself, is your only means to fulfill your dreams and feel you have accomplished your goals, not through an external force of meaningless jabber bombarding you with voices living in fear, loneliness and aggression, demanding their share of being present in your mind even if it is only a split second of your attention. 

You are worth more than just sitting wasting your time looking at a screen that demands your attention all the time and through this mental manipulation you lose sight of your goals and where you wanted to be in your life, one, two years down the road after graduation. Somehow your life’s journey got side tracked by technologies main purpose, an addictive drug, a duplicity of intent undermining your ability to think for yourself and become your true purpose. 

Belief in there lies undermines our democracy!

Social media lowers our standards of truth and respect for others and through social media we are taken from our inner journey of becoming our unique voice being forced to listen to the frenzy of fake news, fake purpose, fake lives trying to take from you your future!

Social media is an addiction, the willingness to take snap shots of our lives without being focused on our own true personal journey but it seems that that is not enough, we must have recognition by others lies and by a simple click you feel wonderful that someone liked your post, and we are off and running and will do anything to get more likes.

Like yourself first and the rest will occur naturally.

October 24, 2019

Photography is more than point and shoot. Photography is a way of life. I think what happens to most photographers is that they get overwhelmed by the infinite choices one has to make in creating great photographs. 

How do you find your image when you are in over your head with the external world and its physical details, people, landscapes and nature overwhelming your perception?

You already have some ideas that inspired you just by looking at photography books of the great masters and their original works. 

Your inspired vision will take aim and you will find subjects that you can relate to and explore in detail and through that exploration you will create great images. Personal images that only your unique intuition saw, felt and explored.

October 24, 2019

Photography

What a difference a new century makes. Now are lives are broadcast over social media, everything is exposed as if to say look at me, look at me, we are happy fun loving people, are you jealous yet of our ego’s need to project ourselves for strangers eyes to see us not as we are but as we wish to be seen. 

All these pics are snapshots of the run and gun type without depth, character and originality being present. To be involved in a scene, intimately, whether it be a person, a landscape, a street scene or a studio creation you must feel some deeper purpose in your connection to your subject. Without a feeling of inner recognition, a sense that something more is developing in your presence and this something is asking you to translate the scene with your intuitive perception is the only way which you will create a photograph worthy of being seen. Not just a snap shot of people as objects but a deeper understanding of the scene present and a willingness to dive even deeper into the subject with an original composition.

Picture taking now is random, without a set purpose. It has become a means of escape rather than a means of inner acting with the external subject being understood and accepted. It is a means of escaping your daily rituals of life for an adventure without purpose, just snapping away at anything that looks semi-interesting.

These spur of the moment clicks of the shutter and then your done and off to a new subject until you feel used and tired and nothing in the external world catches your eye anymore and you simple fold your conscious awareness away for another rainy day when you feel the urge to snap more pics of anything that doesn’t take to long and interfere with the baseball, football game or dinner!

One click and your done just like picking up pizza cooked and ready to eat. One click and you already have it on your social media site showing the advertisers that troll these sites a product you might be interested in and soon you will receive an ad with coupons for a pizza place in your area. It is ego that demands you upload it to a media site this way, your pic has been published for all eyes to see and make comments on just as if you were a world famous photographer!

Picture taking and viewing pictures is now random perceptions of a surface details without depth and an inner connection felt by you. Our intellect, the conformity of behavior, moves us onward for the hunt of a bigger better pic but in truth you just passed a subject that was calling for you to stop and look with patient eyes. Most of the images snapped to today are reflections in shallow waters.

The ability to take snap shots and have a digital record of your moments have created an addiction, a need to stop interacting with your subjects on a deeper level but now only interact with them in your physical space not with a purpose of a deeper composition you want to make but the new norm, a shallow representation of the scene present. 

You have to focus your intent in your image creations. Do you want an image that expresses your inner truth or an image that is a random snap shot that has no originality and looks like a billion other images without a purpose?

Stop living on the surface of life and begin to dig deeper into your outer reality looking for those instances of unique interaction, a unique impression, those special moments that as a photographer when you become present in your vision with the subject as it presents itself to you, allowing you the time needed for your energy and intuition to ramp up into high gear and you immerse yourself into the scene before you. And it is these special moments of insight when you are in tune with inner self and your surroundings, and your focus is only on the present moment, studying the different angles, testing different compositions looking for that unique perspective that will give you that image worth creating.  

When you immerse yourself deep into your selective vision that eliminates details that will not add to the final image creation you feel a widening awareness and a revelation of a connection with your subject and life.

In this fast paste hustle we lead, we have forgotten how to relax and allow our instinctive perceptions time enough to really see the subject hidden before us. 

We don’t need logic to interfere with our natural vision that is connecting with a unique composition that is present waiting to be discovered. 

With the stress in this world in constant hyper-overdrive we need to let go of the rat race of repetitive actions and delve deeper into our own inner awareness and develop a means of expression that reflects our inner truth. Not someone else’s inner truth but your own!

Why do we act like cattle moving in a herd repeating an action over and over again without originality hoping that what we are doing will eventually pay off in a great photograph? 

It seems that we have lost our barring, our future life has been sidetracked and replaced with a redundancy of boring reproductions of touristy images without it seems any intended purpose. Just a means to document that you were here, there and everywhere.

But you were not present in your moments of visual excitement. You ignored the moment of truth in your composition and then walked away from your image of a life time. Patience is the key to great imagery.

What is more important the image creation or the posting of a snap shot on social media? We have lost our ability to slow down and really look at something that intrigues us, that is demanding us to have a closer scrutiny of the scene. 

In order to create images worthy of your talent you must be present in your visual conception through a studied composition that takes into consideration time of day, color, lens, tripod, perspective, details in, details out… Your subject must feel your presence and give you little hints of appropriate angles to compose from, moving you past the obvious composition to a deeper connection with the scene and its natural appearance.

Photography doesn’t need more shallow pics of look alike redundancy.

Photography’s challenge is to keep it’s head above the overwhelming amount of snap shots happening billions of time a day that is undermining the integrity of photography’s true purpose. A great photograph is a means of expressing your inner vision through the details in our external reality.

By digging deeper into the scene, to find the connection that is at first hidden but through focused attention and experimenting with composition one finds the details that when framed in the view finder reveals the expressive character of the scene with deep meaning for you and the viewers insightful understanding. 

Your vision has been complete when you get back home excited to review your images, knowing that through your patience and sensitivity you have created a great image.