December 30, 2020

Language like pure intuition moves experience into the abstract away from the finality of grounded reality, this reality defies words.

Life begins with blood and the stillness of death for in birth we are condemned to die.
What supports us in our time here on earth? I believe it is photography and poetry. Others have their own personal revelations of the art they wish to explore and share.

I feel we are being numbed to the natural beauty that surrounds us and we are as photographers looking for details that skim along the surface of a scene and doesn’t do the landscape justice.

I think technology is a landslide covering us with an intellect unable to break free from it's conditioning and seeks simplicity of thoughts reflected in the careless photos being taken of redundant subjects.

If the photographers looked deeper into the scene they could have made a statement of its beauty and not a surface reflection of inconsistent details.

What are your mental sticking points, details that demand you create an image of? You do not want to be conditioned to repeat snap shots that have no interior and exterior purpose. Look inward to find what your interests are. Do not be lead down a path of spewing hate for other human beings because of your childhood conditioning. Open up to the world’s beauty and the beauty of all races living on the same planet. Photography is your conduit to a broader acceptance of your inner vision and the external subjects that can bring you deeper into the creation of great unique images. Let go of self doubt, your anger is toward your lack of empathy with the world.

The world is not a play field to be demeaned by callus actions.

Seek your vision your connection to everything around you that has been waiting for you to open your eyes, your personal truth expressed through your photographs.

Photography has become frozen tv dinners. Just put your dinner in the microwave and wait a few minutes and your done.

You see something in the scene that catches your eye but you don’t really know what you're looking for, the subject before you is
overwhelming your senses.

It is intimidating to just be present and wait for those moments of light without trying to copy an image you saw in a magazine and besides you are on a tight schedule so you just better start snapping pics of anything that looks pretty.

Cameras are already set to take the pictures for you without your thoughtful input.

We get conditioned as we grow up to perceive reality through the eyes of our parents and friends. But art is not seeing through another’s eyes, it is your responsibility to break free from the copycat imitations and create unique images that you found, studied and made.

We should not fear our individuality we should embrace it.

Photography steals from reality its continuity and an overall scene is reduced to a segment of the landscape, person, architecture, animals, street scene, violence, wars, climate, poverty, criminality, religion etc…

And because the camera captures external reality that surrounds us we see a stillness in the image but also a purpose, a reflection of your inner skills to make something in changing light.

History is a liars paradise for in our life path any words written down became truthful voices describing the times of our ancestors our grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers, fathers their lives were told through authors good or bad, newspapers, books, schools, preachers chasing a buck.

But we know now that this was a con game to divert the criminality of our elected officials, our police force, our military, our justice department, our land owners, our billionaires, our taking land from the indigenous tribes, the slavery of innocent human beings taken from their homes all in the name of the united states of injustice etc…

But now we have phone cameras, small cameras, big cameras, video cameras where everything is documented and the truth shines through.

Of course not, the rich’s propaganda machine is constantly spewing out misinformation in order to confuse the populace into believing that their lives are as they should be. Creating tension and anger toward different cultures, other human beings trapped in the same mess as all of us as the elevator of money goes up but never down to the people who need it the most!

Lets face it, the touch of money is addictive and in this addiction we lose our moral values and become addicts of exploitation.

If you listen to the fluff of false inaccuracies on the tv networks news these talking heads that give us only bits of truth to keep us placated by creating hateful cliches, the result is undermining our openness to accept all peoples instead of blaming others for our predicament when in this absurd reality of wealth the rich are the culprits of criminality, oligarchs that own the world! As we sit silent lumps on a log without the courage to stand for justice and not the stealing of our planet for profit over human beings.

We try to hide our lives in abstractions to extend our life in hopes of painless illusions of self worth. But we don’t look at ourselves through our own intuitive inner vision but we more often than not listen to outside voices deciding our future for us. This eliminates any chance that your true voice will be heard, your true vision seen through photography, writing, paintings, etc… all pushed aside so you are forced to live a life under the thumb of the powerful propaganda dictating to you where you belong and what your life will be.

You must attempt to over throw the disconnected life experiences in your earthly conditioning because that is the great barrier we must overcome if you want to become an individual with your own unique visual purpose.

What is photography to you? Is it a documentation of your life? A glorious means of expression? Is image creation an expression of self?

Photography for me has been a way of life. A destination of seeing nature and humanity in a new light.

Photography has a god like ability to stop time, freeze it in a frame that allows you to look back in time to see how your photographic instincts matured and your images got better and better.

Photography takes from our external world pieces of our reality and stills the rushing of our lives toward death!

If you find yourself taking pictures of certain subjects and ignoring other potential scenes you are in a narrow minded fear of change. Broaden your horizon seek your path within yourself and then look outward at the beauty you have missed.

We all have been there, tried something and failed and you give up, well that is defeat at its worst level. To let go of your potential for creating beautiful images is a sign of your ego worrying about what others say concerning your image creations. The question you must ask yourself is do you like them, your images, who cares what others say about your work all they are trying to do is confine your artistic talent because they are jealous of your unique vision.

We want our images to be liked for each image taken has the potential to become an iconic representation of a reality constantly shifting.

Image creation in the wrong hands can become a technological curse, a lessening of a photographers ability to make a living. Technology now can create subjects that look real but aren’t. These images are created on computers without a need of a camera.

We are entering a cursed future where any image can be manipulated or created to look like something else.

Lets face it professional photography is obsolete. It started with film being obsolete and then digital cameras became an easy access to beginners to create images that were passable to give to photo agencies and then camera phones sealed the deal, everyone is a photographer and are willing to accept pennies on the dollar just to see their photography on an agencies website.

When you think of the amount of images taken each minute, each hour, each day it blows your mind!

Photography used to be a love of your external world seen through your unique vision of subjects chosen.

There was nothing better than hiking miles into the forest and coming upon a waterfall that burst open your photographic talent.

Now photography is a tsunami of look alike subjects that have no meaning or purpose.

I have said this before but photography is only a commodity that has no other purpose than to make the big photo agencies money and the image creators get duped into believing their creations are worth only peanuts.

But now of course photo agencies are giving the photographers work away of free. What is it about people that they can’t see the greed of money rampant in the demise of the stock photo agencies once a friend of the photographers! Now a bully limiting any chance to make a living off our hard earned work.

The corporations have destroyed any chance of photographers making a living creating stock images and must look elsewhere for new avenues of income. But that will be hard to do since photography is no longer looked upon as an art form but now treated like day old bread.

The absolute bombardment of images taken,
undermining talented photographers to move away from their chosen field because who can compete against the tsunami of photos taken every second, a constant bombardment of redundancy, a narrow belief in ones talent.
 
Your efforts to create your unique vision is not a lost cause for your success is not an addiction to the run and gun image creations happening now, a standard means of ego’s wanting to be seen as prolific and then the manipulation of the image on the computer, but a determined vision to continue doing what you love to do expressing your inner vision of nature and humanity. Your individuality, your path of self realization exists in the photographs you make. Your unique perspective is yours and yours alone.

Yes, you will not be paid for your efforts as before but photography for you is a passion, a statement of expressive honesty, your documentation of poverty, wars, protests all needed to try and break through the wall of deceit by the 1%.

We all want to be liked for what we create. But that is not the only purpose driving the artist. An artist has to create something that represents his internal fight with the external reality governing our lives.

If we keep allowing the manipulation of our minds toward possessing material things then as a race we are lost in the corporate power of greed. We don’t need more stuff we need more empathy toward our fellow human beings!

 

 

 November 14, 2020

Ask yourself why you are interested in making photographs. And remember that now you are competing with billions of cheap images. So making a living at photography is going to get more complicated and harder to succeed.

As with all artistic expression preparation is the key to success. We must be present in ourselves ready to travel miles to feel the elation of knowing the scene you hunted is here, where you stand.

As the light shifts startling your senses you remain calm without nervous energy overwhelming you. You have begun the most important aspect of being a photographer finding that all-important instinctive perspective that will allow you to bring out of the
chaos of overwhelming details your vision of the landscape that is your own personal revelation.

Serendipity for the photographer is no lucky break, you knew the composition you fought to get and now as the light illuminates your subject you press the shutter.

Photography is choice, seeking a reflection of yourself in the image you are creating. Image creation is always a personal involvement with the subject wether it is a street image or a still life it is your perceptual insights into the scene that is present when your image made.

To create your unique imagery you need stamina and a single mindedness that focuses your attention not on the scene per se but on how you are relating to the scene. Are you involved in the image creation or are you in a run and gun mode whereby your mind is filled with many distractions all of which are interfering with your intuitive inner perceptions demanding you stop the rat race and be present before the scene evolving.

Relax, take a deep breath and just open yourself to see and feel the landscape you are in and begin to piece together why you choose this scene and then start the journey of self revelation, your inner interpretation of the scene externalized through your visual senses creating a unique photograph.

The seeds of intuition are already planted firmly in your minds senses. You are aware of your inner universe and you understand that to create great imagery you must see beyond the formalized structure of perception through your intellect and into a feeling of a bonding connection with your subject and a willingness to be part of the scene by immersing yourself into natures miracles. This way you have laid the groundwork for creating a personal unique perspective. For you have made a deep connection with the external physical reality without over thinking its distracting nature but allowing your instinctive personal vision to guide you to your composition.

Great photography doesn’t need to be taken but made.

Shift your senses to become sensitive to your inner projections. We have to free ourselves from the devilish propaganda that instills in us at an early age to be followers of someone else’s vision instead of our own unique expressions, which will lead us into a security of thoughts and actions that demand realization. We must seek our own efforts to become comfortable in our own skin with a plan of attack to crystalize our inner being as an external visionary force.

We must focus our inner energy to move beyond the structures that inhibit our lives and to follow instead our intuitive artistic truth.

When you come upon a potential image you take your backpack off and sit and really survey the scene before you.

Your vision is on the alert. You have entered a scene that is beginning to register something of importance happening, the scene is evolving. You senses are now on alert as you dissect the scene in front of you looking for that detail that will blossom as the anchor of your photographic landscape you are preparing to make, a coherent reflection of your inner insights becoming externalized.

Then your photographic eye senses something extraordinary developing in nature’s majestic light and  you will apply your unique perspective to find the visual patterns that will create an image with power and uniqueness worthy of your visual skills.

Good writers dig deep into the minds for their characters, photographers look deep into peoples characters to make an image that not only represents the person being photographed but also the visual uniqueness of your photographic personality.

Photographers are composers just like writers feeling their way through the beginnings of their composition.

Words can make the reader feel like they are present in the scene when the author is on his game and the words flow just like the photographer who is instinctively absorbed in what he is attempting and having the patience to be still as mother nature opens her visual creation, applauding the effort the photographer took to get his unique image by supplying the light needed.

Both photographer and writer need self discipline to make words ring true and the photographer needs photographs created everyday to sustain his unique perspective and let his inner awareness of himself ring true in his photographs. Both photographer and writer need concentration and courage to sustain their talented vision.

When a writer sits down to a blank piece of paper and begins to fill that page with ideas he relies heavily on his own experiences, his own history and unique environment to help him discover his self and his characters.

A writer needs details that enhance the visual words that will create characters and a story line. Writers research their subjects, the characters that are being realized through their intuitive insights.

A photographer comes upon an infinite array of details in a scene where the writer fills the emptiness of silence with ideas, his words. The photographer eliminates excess paraphernalia, omitting anything that doesn’t contribute to the whole feeling he is trying to express. His visual intuitive senses are in high gear seeking through the scene only those details that will enhance his visual story.

Photographers need to research their visual possibilities narrowing down the details that will eventually create the photograph that you perceived without a concrete realization unveiled.

When you first came upon the scene you didn’t have the necessary visual stimulus to look further into the landscape. Only when you began to eliminate subjects and details that intruded on your unique visual perspective did you see the landscape change and get smaller in your inner revelation focused discipline. Once you see what you want and what was needed the rest of your time is spent in patience waiting for the pristine light to envelope your field of vision and complete your inner feelings externalized through a great image.

The best photographs are the simplest, they state the photographers feelings in a clear and precise way.

It is easy in stock photography to think that anything photographed will sell. And that is true if you have the only shot of a history making event and were able to in split second raise your camera or cell phone and click the shutter. But the competition is so great nowadays, so many skilled amateur photographers that if you are a professional stock photographer then you better not turn in sub-par work. And even then you are losing ground because in truth everyone now has the ability and luck to be in the right place at the right time to create an image that will sell.

I used think that photography took something away from our reality. In a split second we captured a scene and grabbed from your visual perspective, your physical presence, an external witness to the constant flow of time where human beings feel left behind, abandoned until they create a personal image that their families will keep in a precious photo album or a gallery show of your unique perspective each representing another inner viewpoint one in which you feel compelled to make images of a subject hiding its true characteristics and the only way to uncover the mystery subject is to dig deep, studying the subject until little glimpse of possibilities form and you begin to understand the scene and as you wait for the light to illuminate parts of your hidden subject you begin the necessary camera checks to make sure everything is functioning properly.

Technology is more than just tools created to sell products it also hinders the evolution of good photography.

Photography has become an albatross around the necks of professional image creators for a couple of decades now, they have been overwhelmed with the new kids on the block that use gear that pretty much takes the image for them.

This new gear takes away the importance of image creativity. It is no longer about the subject and the revelation of insightful compositions. Now it is about shooting, shooting, shooting without a care in the world about any thoughtful connection with your subject.

Digital cameras broke down the barrier between real photography of the pros and substituted cameras that took the photograph for the photographer.

People now take images without fully grasping the importance of feelings, empathy, confusion, connection etc… all paving the way to demand from you as a serious photographer to stay put, don’t run around clicking away at anything and everything, take your time, quit this run and gun theatrics of importance and just be yourself and make image that called to you to be made.

Snap shots are a penny a dozen now, you must settle into the details the scene presents, study it, focus your attention of the colors, light, time of day, early morning, late sunset, take in all mother nature’s beauty being given to you whether it is people, places, animals, still life, you must stop running away from your subjects.

Immerse yourself in the landscape seek the right light to bring out the surface details and to illuminate the landscape with beautiful texture a unique gift to you from our external reality.

 

November 28, 2020

Is It To Late To Become A Photographer

Photographing an unusual subject has given me a new awareness of the freedom to do your own thing. With subjects rarely photographed you have a new playground to perform in. We must open our interior field of play
to the changing atmosphere of photography and be ready to photograph the weird, wild and unique.

We are separate from others external reality and what we choose to make images of is our own personal expressions.

The intent of your photographic vision is the most important aspect of your image creation. Why are you attracted to this particular subject, what is your intent.

When it comes to image creation you must be fully present, immersing yourself in the landscape, seeking your moment of visual revelation. 

Your unique purpose in photography is to be true to your inner preparation, your skill of knowing your self in relation to your subject and then creating a photograph that reveals your inner creativity externalized.

When we photograph in the abstract we leave little clues as to what we are making images of. Not to many clues but enough so a viewer of your image can piece together the absence of details, rebuilding the image, making the image into his own visual reality.

Taking a household product and reducing the object to an abstraction and seeing if anyone could recognize what the pieces of the puzzle are was very enlightening. 

When we reduce an object to limited details of recognition then the mind can’t form a coherent wholeness of your subject in its usual visual form, the clarity of subject matter, so our experiencing the photograph becomes a puzzle to solve.

For the object is no longer real in its physicalness to excite our intellect, the sense of visual understanding is missing.

When we look at an image abstraction, we need to let go of our preconceived ideas of what we are looking at, and try and piece together the puzzle before us without an anchor of normalcy.

Immediate impressions of images don’t have to follow a static formula of experience. Shake things up and look for details and compositions that will create for the viewer a new way of seeing an old boring, familiar subject, a cliche known immediately, by mixing things up in a unique visual way through a composition and exposure that attracts the viewer to really look at your image with a more intuitive vision rather than the dullness of one more copycat image creation.

Photographers must break free from the cliche’s of copycat photography and build their own personal image portfolio of unique personal photographs.

By creating a new arena of abstract photographs you entice the viewer to enter your visual imagination.

The intuitive force of perception, finding a piece of the puzzle which breaks open your unique visual excitement from the dull reinforced commonality of societies fear of being themselves and not pawns to narrow mindedness of imitating what other's have created.

In photography is there anything new being done when it comes to innovation and artistic talent?

We can’t all be Jackson Pollock creating a new vision of experimentation and expressing his unique vision and being able to demand the attention of the entire world.

Photography is now a limiting artistic expression. We can’t reinvent the wheel and create through talent alone a new vision for the masses to believe in. And lets face it follow they will. 

Life is corrupt in every sense of the word. Cheaters, healers, fantastic liars, incomprehensible mutterings of madmen and the writings of of poets without substance.

Photography is now a means to copy and exploit. It is photoshop and dull lights of a lessened imagination. 

Our utensils for eating haven't changed in the sense of a quick exposure and then move on. Everyone can look through the viewer and press a shutter and take an image. 

But that certainly doesn't mean the image will be a reflection of intent to create something personal worth studying.

What does photography lack now that makes images seem so redundant?

The fact of the matter is photography was never redundant in the early years of photography, it was a mind altering experience, a means of seeing the world as it was through the individual photographers ability to be present in the right moments to express the people's lives through great imagery.

These photographers created iconic images that made people see the truth and falsehood behind the glory and sorrow of America and a lot of it wasn’t pretty.

The poverty of millions of people, wars brutal depravity, hunger a means of exterminating other cultures, people living in lies, people living in extravagance as people slept out on the streets,  all were explored by these creative photographers that saw the importance of imagery as truth.

Now in America we never see in our shallow news reporting anything to do with the continuation of violence and oppression of people all over this planet. But we do see ads demanding we buy these products for our own personal gluttony.

For our own awareness we must seek information that brings us truth not surface news with no depth, as the early photographers did, they awakened our controlled, mindless existence by the corrupt governments and oligarchs around the world, to force us to see beyond the words and begin to find our truth by opening our minds to new sources of information not from the models mouthing nonsense on news shows that give us nothing but surface glitter without substance, distractions, undermining our knowledge of what this country has become.

These bought politicians owned by the wealthy make laws that exploit the people and make the wealthy's off shore accounts bulge with our hard earned money. 

The illegal money these criminals take from taxpayers should go into rebuilding our infrastructure, long overdue, but the oligarchs don’t care about the people and their suffering for they have parties to attend and their egos want to show off their diamond and gold robberies. It has always been this way. Power and fear are synonymous with mind control.

Through the centuries these brave men and women photographers have seen life’s ugly mess and have decided this abomination of cruelty must be seen and heard by all humanity.

These photographers went out and showed the world what was truly happening around this planet and the cruelty of life people lived every day of their lives.

Theses iconic images made us stop and think about the cruelty of wealth and we began to make changes that opened the door for awareness of other cultures poverty and we opened America to them to enter our country without fear and hate that was eating away their lives under dictators.

The changes in photography are mostly technology driven making it easier for anyone to pick up a camera and make a decent photograph without having to think. We call that kind of image shooting snapshots. These images have no depth of character but are just surface reflections of ones limited inner vision.

And the majority of these images are made by deliberately copying someone else’s original work.

Human beings are a herd species, what is good for one is good for all and in photography taking pics in a split second is the new norm for creative expression.

Run and gun photography and then quickly post it to your blog and you are a hero of what?

We are cattle following the bull down a road of stereotypes, dependency and betrayal of your own inner originality. 

The primordial instinct of survival is our addiction to be seen and heard for we all want to be noticed even if it is an embarrassing moment but you can believe someone took your photo and it is being downloaded right now and seen by by thousands!

Picture taking is now being turned into a billion dollar social media extravaganza,
for we the people give our images to them for free!

Where does one begin to find subjects worthy of your intensity to create your inner perception? Everything is possible when your intuition begins to formulate a plan to explore the world with new eyes, open to the possibilities of expressing our visual connections of the outer world with your inner visualization of your unique originality seeing deeply the expressions of your inner being expressed through photography.

When we see fake news broadcast on the airways we assume that the truth is being told. We are gullible in the insistence that their words are our truth when in fact they are repeating words known to satisfy the disinterested spirits exhausted from the daily grind of frustration, low pay, racism, forced to make choices that are not ours but someone else’s. Since childhood we have been conditioned to repeat words that became ideas and then became traps that most of us got caught up in.

To express your own choice, your own purpose, your true character in all it’s uniqueness is to just open your front door to the world anew and let go of your prejudices and be true to all the glory of mother nature that surrounds you.

There is a new visual world of exciting original imagery awaiting photographers with purpose for those opportunities that can immerse you in your photographic project, harken back to the days of openness and visual awareness of what was happening to our world slowly being controlled by the elites of criminality.

Your imagery is not a facade built around ads that want you to follow the herded cattle to shop and buy their products for their profit not yours.

This overwhelming distribution of faceless consumerism, this instinctive drive through decades of exploiting the populace to ignore their own uniqueness of choice and to follow the ads domineering enticement to be someone else when you buy their product, is manipulation of your mind to choose an exterior purpose instead of your interior purpose of inner revelation and your own individual perceptions that can be made into photographs.

In creating photographs with purpose you must release your burden of the exterior reality pulling and scaring you into a submissive role of follow the leaders. These leaders do not have your interests at heart, they have money emanating from every pore on their body, it is greed and power that they are addicted to and not your unique perspective. Conformity to worthless lies is the new dawn of our confined future obeying the oligarch demands and not our own.

 

 

November 23, 2020

New Photography Blog

We are in a hectic world running around in fear and anger as our lives get more complicated. We are being attacked by the covid19 virus that will bring us to our knees if we don’t follow the plan of safety before gathering with others in a party atmosphere!

We make images of importance to us and the viewer when we are faithful in our witness to the beauty of life.

Photography’s purpose is capturing a moment in the fluidity of time. Humans need the stability of external
subjects to be stagnate not fleeting moments of our lives. This gives us a sense of power over the illusion of reality we experience everyday.

Humans need control over the forces of nature to feel empowerment over mother earth. Our gaps in life are made true when we capture a moment of beauty, anger, wars, poverty, portraits, nature, industry, travel, people… that shows our being present and involved in our unique space and time.

Life is transitory always changing and to be able to capture a good image you must be present in your ability to uncover the composition that best fits your visual consciousness, your visual experience being present in the scene.

You have entered another realm of being when you immerse yourself into becoming more than just a tourist snapping pics and then moving on.

You must have a connection with your subject in order to create a composition that is real and true to your visual talents.

By being present you absorb the beauty that surrounds you and you put it securely in the camera’s memory card as a witness to your visual perspective. The camera is your link to experiencing the external world without a need to race through your life and miss the important moments of truth connected with your unique style and nature’s willingness to share with you these precious moments.

In photography when we are intensely present in our moments without our mind wondering, over thinking these present moments we enter a new dimension. Once a connection is made you begin to see with open eyes the potential of the scene before you.

The world has always been in chaos but our job as a photographer is to find moments of form that will allow the viewer to see into your unique vision, your expressive character and your determination to make an image worthy of your talent.

Photographers can stabilize their angered perceptions of a reality built around money. Money is only a tool but for some it is an addiction. Instead of worshiping a god we have replaced god with the worship of cash as our means to a physical paradise.

This greed for power is an illusion of grandeur and it undermines the natural flow of living a life that is intuitively connected around your love of creating photographs.

To see external reality not as means to power but a means to create images that inspires our youth to follow their hearts and intuition and not be sidetracked by envy, for your power is in your focused attention on your subject and the composition beginning to form.

When we come upon a scene that has potential to be
a good image we must pause and take in the entire landscape searching for the right elements of composition to inspire us to formulate in our photographic eye details that will become the foundation of the forthcoming image.

As photographers we are detail oriented, we make judgements based on our intuitive recognition of
a scene that has potential.

Photographers must clear their minds of cliches and copy cat images seen in travel magazines. We must focus our attention on our own inner composition and express it through the layers of possibilities present in the external world.

As we approach a scene worthy of our photographic efforts we begin to feel a complexity of choices we are reacting to because our senses are getting hyper aware of the possibilities just beginning to surface.  

There are times when you enter a scene and you have already sensed where you want to be and what lens best fits your inner visual composition.

Your years of experience allow you to dissect a scene quickly and know exactly what you want to express.
 
This comes from years of experience and understanding your inner selective vision and the purpose being given you through mother natures infinite expressions of beauty.

Photography is a symbol of your visual perspective, if it is less defined then your subject will communicate to viewers weakly as if the photographer just snapped a shot and moved on without a focused purpose in the composition and exposure.

What do you look for in a scene when you find a potential image to be created? Is it drama, emotion,
action, a person or is it a potential unique composition and the strong play of light and dark contrast in the scene made by mother nature that excites your visual stimulus.

Image creation is always through your unique inner vision!
 
Any place you choose to make pictures of has the potential for you to create a classic image.

Beauty isn’t in the eye of the beholder but in the eye of a photographer!

You need to develop a deep core relationship with nature. Let nature express its beauty to you and be sensitive, patient and aware of damaging nature through careless disregard for the beauty deposited in front of you.

The more you spend time in nature, the more respect you will have for mother earth and the beauty reflected in your choices that will create a composition that will draw attention to your unique vision.

Your talent is blending your personal vision with your choice of subject matter.

Don’t settle for the average stock photo, really look deep into the scene and make images through finding the perfect angle possible that gives the viewer something unique to appreciate, a new better perspective of an iconic scene.  

Always be looking for the moment of awe when your determination to find and compose your image is a personal revelation of your unique vision.

 

 November 15, 2020

 

The Abandonment Of The RM Photographer
 

Great photography is intense immersion into the interior or exterior scene with a rush of adrenaline that opens your eyes to the possibilities present, which one you choose is up to your emotions on that particular day, your self-awareness and a deep connection with the emerging subject finally showing parts of itself, details opening, becoming possibilities as mother nature helps you with your visual creations.

Once we entered the digital era of taking photos not making photos then the photography universe broke apart. The ease of use of these digital cameras, auto exposure, built in filters, auto focus in the camera bodies allowed everyone the potential of making a good image. To take images and get good results was now only a lucky accident away but soon with a little practice the making of great images was possible.

But this new automated technology undermined the professional photographers way of life by cheapening the cost of taking images for now instead of sending your film to a lab to have processed all you needed to do was dump your memory card onto your laptop and edit and submit to whoever was interested. It doesn’t matter in today’s climate of over saturated image creation whether you are a professional or an amateur, it is the image that counts and really always has been that way.

And what photo agency you are with, Rights Managed or Royalty Free either way your sales are diminishing yearly as I write this for with the overwhelming amount of images being taken and uploaded to stock selling sites the buyers have basically an infinite amount of choices to choose from and all the choices are being sold for pennies on the dollar.

What a great return to the photographers working hard to spend money traveling and making images that reflect their inner nature to see one of their images being sold for peanuts.

And let’s face it Rights Managed image creations are over and done with. Why would anyone want to send in RM imagery when no buyer will even look at them? Getty Images my agent for decades has eliminated RM imagery from its photo site and like all the other big Photo Agencies goes strictly with RF.

With so many images uploaded around the world every second how can a photographer earn a living from his craft. You can’t and you won’t, those days are gone forever.

Those billions of new photographers out there just snapping away and through luck and timing creating images that could compete with the old school professional photographer is the culprit for the evaporation of any worthy sales.

Once this explosion of image snap shots grew exponentially the professional photographer was an old relic of the past era when artists felt their talents in connecting with the deep internal revelations of purpose seeking more than just an image but a masterpiece by creating something from their inner intuitive force, by seeking images that others couldn’t take and these photographers roamed the world in making images of unbelievable beauty no matter what the cost to them mentally and physically.

When film became obsolete you no longer had to worry about processing costs it changed photography forever now everything is done in camera with memory cards and then uploaded to computers and then submitted. Now everyone is a potential photographer and this undercuts the professional photographers ability to make a living by selling his images to news papers, magazines, art galleries, etc., and submitting these classic images to the photographer’s photo agencies.

Back in the day all agencies were rights managed and usage of their photographers  images was regulated and sold for a specific purpose and priced accordingly, the photographer received 50% of the sale. Then came Royalty Free and this undermined the chances for a RM photographer to make a living created images. 

Now everyone is a photographer and the billions and billions of images taken hourly, daily, monthly overwhelms the senses of the viewer and photography is seen not as an art form anymore but a product like lettuce, a hobby, a means to take images of your life and post them on social media to get likes and to be seen by others!

And also why not send my images to a photo-agency they are paying me pennies on the dollar but it feels good to get my image bought for peanuts.

By allowing your images to be reduced to cheap products on sale at grocery store prices you have undermined the natural flow of reasonable pricing and allowed the buyers to dictate to the photo agency the price they demand no matter how hard you fought to create the image you are now at the mercy of the buyer and the photo agency that makes their money on volume pricing that creates a billboard ad of look at our lower valued pricing and this they claim is a new model, a win win situation for the agency and the photographer bull shit!

This will demean the image and the photographer’s talent by accepting anyone calling themselves a shooter and any image they submit that is almost in focus and has detail in some shadows areas and highlight areas and this is the new outlook of what photography is becoming. It no longer is an art form with intense purpose through the image creator efforts to make the image but now anything goes as long as the agencies
can take advantage of the new photographers and at the same time say bye bye to the old guard of image creators that know that stock photo business is now a dollar store bonanza of selling peoples lives away by pricing photographs for peanuts.

Who cares about the aging photographers that made their livelihood through creating beautiful landscapes, portraits, underwater images, mountain climbing and more. 

There is no honesty and integrity now in photography, a once creative art form!

In the past your goal of image creation could be a slow process with your subject revealing itself to you in parcels as you get more familiar with the details becoming realized and the scene begins to dictate to you your inner vision its possibilities, at this stage the photographer doesn’t push his intuition toward any detail but allows his consciousness to let go of his narrow thoughts and just flow with the landscape before you until you have that fluidity of sight and reflection that allows you to see beyond the details of the physical space before you and opens your vision to encompass the reflection in your mind of a unique presentation of nature no one else has made. Your visual foundation is special and only you can see through the infinite details of a scene to create your inner cohesive image vocabulary.

In order to become your truth, your purpose you must merge with your individual self and not the socialites commonality of the herd instincts. Don’t be fooled into following the crowd, that is a dead end, your photographic vision is to understand the complexity of your physical nature present fighting in a vacuum of mental conformity unwilling to free themselves from the tyranny of fear, accepting their narrow vision as the truth unable to break free from the easy manipulation of redundant behavior and false gods.

These milestones of seeing beyond the surface glitter and not to be duped into ignoring the plain details that when composed properly succeeds with a new vision and better still a vision that you have recognized and explored with full understanding and precision once the scene presented itself from the clutter of details trying to misguide you to their commonality.

There are times when you find that your one subject is immersed in the infinity of details and it begins to hinder your ability to relax and go with the flow of your selected, potential scene. You are present but stifled and you need to just step back and allow the scene to formulate a new series of details that intrigue your artistic talents and by relaxing and letting the scene settle itself in your eyes you begin to unravel your frustrations and begin to see the composition that will become your inner vision externalized.

Your new found subject suddenly opens your emotions and gives you a necessary foundation of details, light and composition that will compliment your patience by capturing this unique landscape.

Photography even in a crowd is an isolating journey.  Each of us have our own path to take. The question you must asked yourself is do you have enough self-awareness to free yourself from the bonds of the addicting cliche, societies need for redundant snap shots without depth or persuasion, all of us meek sheep without a unique voice.  

With the explosive conformity of images created for social media overwhelming our senses, reducing photography to a cliche without purpose, just ego’s trying to be seen but what good photographers need to do is just keep on trucking creating images that mean something more than pennies on the dollar.

November 7, 2020

 

Photography Is Your Bridge To Inner Awareness

A good image is like finding a needle in a hay stack. You can hike for hours and still in that time not find an image you feel is with shooting.

Eventually with perseverance you will finally see the light opening your visual inner door and the composition you were looking for in its natural beauty has been waiting for you to finally see.

You were determined to find images that represented your interior insight to mother nature. In order to create great imagery you must immerse yourself in nature with respect and awe!

Your image must not be over manipulated, that will ruin the natural beauty we all need to be part of.   

The captivity of elusive imagery, your number one goal, the abrupt tiredness when hunting that perfect landscape in beautiful light.  

There are many barriers to creating great images but you must steel yourself to endure the ups and downs, the frustrations and blown exposures and keep hunting for those perfect moments.

Whether it is sports, people, abstract expressions of inner consciousness and mother nature you must let go of the conditioned response to external vision. You must seek through your own eyes the beauty you feel present in and not a past image scene in a photo book that you want to imitate.  

Light is never stagnant it is constantly chaining and you must always follow the light in your unique vision to capture the essence of your inner world externalized.

What does authenticity mean in todays image creations? Really nothing at all with all the copycat landscapes being photographed, we have given up on seeking an original, personal image and now click and run to the next subject to exploit without showing our own unique perspective.

You must feel the excitement of discovery when you enter a scene and feel that this place is calling you to just be present and wait as the light changes in infinite directions, to the small details, to overwhelming magnificent landscapes and your subjects move forward with potential then retreat as you narrow down the details being given you through earth’s natural beauty and your sense of what is important to your inner artistic vision.

It can be overwhelming to begin recognizing your own inner world of perceptions. Seeing for the first time subjects that mean more than just snap shots but a representation of your passion, a revelation of your wholeness of reality, inner and outer coalescing into a visual image of perfection.

To be present in vision and deep awareness of your surroundings is a gift given to all but most don’t listen to their intuitive inner voice that would allow them to perceive the outer beauty inside themselves.

We are corralled in our human skin to follow the leader don’t rock the boat do what you are told keep your head down and don’t make waves all these ways of defining you done to control your restless visions to remain stagnate in your own revelation of yourself in time.

The culprit in your narrow beliefs, your narrow vision and hate of change is your intellect that wants everyone to be on the same page doing the same repetitive actions over and over again without the freedom of thought and freedom of expression.

Our system of power has always been to keep the population under strict ways of feeling and seeing this paradise called earth. And controlling your mind, your thoughts was the easiest way to keep ones vision under the rule of strict repetitive dullness, make a living so others will profit, to keep one from experiencing the joy of freedom of your internal senses becoming alive and aware of the external worlds potential of energized caring about others and your own expressions of your inner world whether it is through a lens now open to all nature’s beauty and ugliness or in painting, writing and speaking your own unique truth.

Release your mental stereotypes you have been conditioned to believe in, think about your unique eyesight opening up to the explosion of details, light, composition, your inner instincts quickly become alert to the changing light and as the landscape reveals itself, you anticipate the composition that will bring your connection with the external world to a new visual exclamation of this paradise we live in.

 

 

September 19, 2020 

Are You Present In Making Images   

Is the ability to capture a scene, or a person in a scene with artistic talent and then have the images history represented in a book and then as you age your memory reminisces about the time that image was made as you recollect every detail including why you choose that particular angle? 

We fear time and yet we allow our fear to be controlled by a physical distance that our minds perceive when we travel between objects in our physical space. Without image purpose you can walk through the greatest landscapes and not see the beauty before you. 

If truth be known we are always at a distance from our outer goals and the distance we travel we never reach our destination. But isn’t life a journey and in that journey who wants it to end by accomplishing all your visual goals in one life time. Take chances, embark on your own originality, your unique perspective. Don’t run through life, keep a steady pace and listen to your inner voice to live life in awareness and not blindly by the overwhelming intrusion in our lives by social media and corporate power.   

Or is there something else going on that attracts someone to photography?  You the photographer have a certain power, an ability to document the world in all its horrors and pleasures. 

This ability to take from the physicality of existence, another piece of a puzzle, creating an original image, an expression that can’t be duplicated, but can be admired through your lifetime, is just one of the powers in photography’s addictive nature.   

It is a means to describe the world through your own personal vision whether it is snap shots of a scene or an in depth study of a person or place, a subject that you are attracted to and want to be immersed in because it has a meaningful potential for yourself and you hope others. 

This feeds your ego and any image no matter the content brings to the image taker a since of power over the external world.  We are trapped physically in this reality but a photograph takes from the scene a conduit to self praise and awareness. A photograph conquers the infinite details overwhelming the person behind the camera, by reducing your visual sense to a fragment of the scene that caught your eye and the hunt is on for you to capture it not with your physical abilities but with your ability to reproduce a duplicate of the scene that caught your eye through the technology of the camera. Your creation is your red badge of courage, a symbol of your inner world materialized. 

This gives one a sense of freedom and control over his selected scene either in nature or city life, and doesn’t allow oneself to be intimated by over studying a scene that would tie up much of your time to untangle an image that could possible reflect an outer representation of your inner being. This is what a good photographer demands, his time is precious especially when one is creating an image, a voice for the subject presented. 

But because the majority of people take pictures as a means of enhancing memories they are not immersing themselves in the scene looking for that special detail, that composition that reflects their inner artistic expression.  

What is it that demands we take pictures of our lives, is it a means to document ourselves, our family, our friends, our lifestyle, our reflections, our exterior importance, are we so full of our ego's manipulations that we are addicted to taking a picture of anything just to showboat our external facade that we were there? We were there but were we present in our inner unique perspective? Or did we lose interest in the external world because the intellect we have trained like pavlov’s dog doesn't care about your connection with the physical space surrounding you, that is calling you to see deeper beyond the narrow myth of human conformity and become an individual with your own unique insights.  

We seek to become the stereotypical reflection in the cameras eye rather than becoming our inner truth through a unique inner vision of the reality we think is always stable. It is anything but stable and is always changing and creates in the photographer a vital significance that needs exploring without prejudice, for if we want to create great images we must be open in our minds eye to seek all the subjects that instill in us a universal acceptance of man in nature, your inner world through external expression.  

 A photograph is a message to ourselves that we were present in the photograph even though we were't seen. But our presence is insinuated by the image that we created.  We can describe the image through the lens that framed the picture. Proof is our recollection of the events that led up to scene being captured. The details visualized to create a cohesive composition.  

Can we really state we were there taking the photograph from a picture that doesn’t expose your presence in the scene? Or a least a symbol that is your unique signature. 

Photography is more than just being present behind the viewer. Photography is interacting with your subject, it is immersing yourself into the scene looking for artifacts in the physical space that you are connecting with, that intense will to find in the infinity of life a moment that can reflect a universal awareness of nature’s beauty and human dignity. 

You have the intuitive senses opening the locked doors we all feel guilty of, hiding our talents, afraid of criticism and having your images misunderstood. 

You must ignore the external jealousies by those that want to tear down your art because they are trapped in the mud of life where they have nothing to become for they are what they hate, their awareness of the world through someone else’s unique perceptions. 

You must bond with your instinctive understanding of the scene and look for a subject that is a reflection of your inner being.  

If the only proof that you were there and did take the picture is the picture itself then we are relying on a statement from you about the picture but in reality we have no proof you took the image.  We listen to you because you used words that depicted the scene and suggested your presence behind the camera but we still have no means of truly saying you took that picture. 

What a good photograph does is give us a sense of the photographers presence and his creative perspective. 

A good photograph has a deep connection with the subject presented and the inner eye looking through the view finder. We must be present in the scene through our ability to identify with the contours and imaginative visual elements that will eventually make up the foundation for an image you will make. 

We can claim to have seen the landscape on a surface level and our picture represented a general feeling of being there but does it really constitute a connection that has to be made for the image to have a personal insightful relationship with your intuitive expression.   

An image without seeking a true connection with the scene presented is not a necessary confirmation that you were the photographer present when the image was taken. You were not present for the subject but quickly clicked the shutter to capture a souvenir of the scene without being mentally aware, and immersed in the scene before you clicked the shutter button. 

You were a tourist not seeking a relationship with the scene but only a physical representation of where you were that would enable you to brag about the beauty surrounding your snap shot and the beauty that was present just outside your visual frame of sight. 

Just being physically there and not interacting on a deeper level stifles your ability to create a connection and thus an image that exposes your inner sight in a visible presence. We all can get surface reflections off any subject without immersing ourselves deeper into the very presence of their true characteristics that connect with us on a personal level.     

It is like viewing a photo album, your presence in the picture creates an illusion of you being present, when in fact you ignored the natural landscape by turning your back on nature and facing the camera instead of being immersed in the beauty of nature that surrounded you, ignoring the true inner scene to please someone else that didn't want to document the scene in its entirety but to be narrowly selective, just focusing on the human element, ignoring the beauty present by turning away from the image you should have made.  

Your physical appearance outside the scene doesn't constitute a relationship with the scene. Being connected to the scene is more important than being in your present mindset, opening up your visual senses to the external relationship with your inner visual sense which was trying to give you a new view of the landscape and wanting you to feel and see the meaning behind the scene through your vision and not a copy of someone else’s. 

If you can have a focused attention on the scene before you with a perceptive concentration and awareness of the scene you now can immerse yourself in the beauty present without faltering and moving away from the connection made. 

We are all guilty of the run and gun approach to many creative skills.  We are in a hurry to get somewhere and we can't spend the needed time to study the scene and delve deeper into its potential.  Instead we take a couple quick snaps shots and off we go to the next tourist attraction.   

 

 

September 8, 2020

Photography Notes:

Even though the photography industry is breaking apart we must keep our professional standards when making great images and our mission of being present in a great landscape totally immersed in mother nature. 

What the photo industry giants have done is poison the water, making it virtually impossible to make a decent living through creating images that used to be sold for good wages.

Because of the greed of the of the photo agencies trying to compete and claim they are the top agency, come join us, which is a farce in itself, because they have lowered the standards of images being submitted and the worse deal for photographers not being paid a decent amount for their hard earned efforts by eliminating Rights Managed and going with the poverty income of Royalty Free. 

Now this is only for us peons that don’t have the financial backing of the photo agencies glorified editors, to travel with their crew to create images that are beginning to look like all the other cliche images we see in the billions each and every day. Where is the originality of the past stock photographers? The answer is they couldn’t survive doing something they loved for pennies on the dollar. Who in their right mind would want to spend thousands of dollars traveling to exotic places and then after submitting their original intuitive, insightful images find out that their images are being sold for bargain basement prices. How is that supposed to inspire anyone to go out and make more images for that agency when they have bills to pay and mouths to feed and they can’t do it for peanuts? 

But do the super egotistical Goliath’s, the editors of Royalty Free care about the people making them a living. I doubt it for their intellect has shrunk as their big heads have become huge as if they know anything about hard earned image creation.

And besides there are so many shooters now in this world giving their images away basically for free that the pros are doomed and can’t compete in that low ball arena with the agencies reaping the benefits of  signed contracts that allow them basically to sell the photographer’s photos for anything they want while the photographer gets to eat peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And the young photographers don’t really care they  just want to see their images in print no matter how bad their images were sold for. 

Nowadays everyone is a photographer with billions of images being created on a daily basis.

In this lowering of professional standards we need to maintain our professionalism our insightfulness in creating great images no matter how competitive it is to get any good image sold for a decent price.

We must never lower our integrity and cut corners in order to get an image sold. 

Nowadays everyone wants to just take snap shots with their phone and then send the images to the agency just to see if anything sells, and to be honest when you add up your costs to get the image made your travel time, gas, equipment, not to mention foreign countries, you could be talking about thousands of dollars of out of pocket expenses and for what, your first sale was worth less than a buck!  This is an insult to all photographers, it is highway robbery as the agencies makes billions and you reap the benefit of pennies. These agencies should be ashamed of themselves for the scam they are running on the photographer. I wouldn’t be surprised if these mega agencies lower the payment again soon to 90% for the agency and 10% for the newcomers that came into to the stock photo game too late to know  previously how the agency and the photographers worked together. They respected each other and they respected the photographer’s hard earned work they created and the photographer respected the photo agencies honesty and the sales force that made the selling of imagery their responsibility that allowed more time for the photographers to keep traveling and shooting. The sale split in the beginning of stock was 50/50 so the photographer and the agency both got equal pay for the great work they both had done.

Now photographers feel that shysters rule the photography Industry and all these men of avarice want is money and they could care less about the photographers out there sacrificing their lives and livelihood trying to create images that sell. The problem is that the stock photo industry is a losing bet. We now have so called free agencies giving your image creations away for free. Free for the photographers perspective his ego thinking that free is better than nothing, but the agency makes a profit off the images for how could they stay in business.  Someone always makes money at the expense of us photographer peons.

And on social media you have viewers stealing your work and selling them as their own. 

Once a price has been reduced to its lowest possibility you can never bring the price back up to a living wage. For all intents and purposes stock photography is dead. There is no possible way to make a decent living wage when the agency you work for screws you with pennies on the dollar sales.

September 4, 2020

Photography is having the courage to look your subject in the eye, sincerely, honestly knowing your own insecurities and yet communicating your determination by expressing your connection with the subject that eases confrontation and opens up the potential for an image creation that expresses not only your subject’s beauty but your own inner style.

Photography is having passion for creating something that stimulates your inner realizations. It is evolving into your own visual awareness of what you want to externalize.

Your empathy and honesty links oneself with your subject and in those moments of truth, in that slippery time, just for a split second, you are immersed in the infinite universe and you see an expression revealed in beautiful light and you press down on the shutter to create your image.

What is your game plan when you come upon a unique scene are you calm or are you so overwhelmed by mother nature that you end up taking pics of everything and anything without studying the landscape in front of you and familiarizing yourself with your inner vision?

What stands out in the scene that begins to draw you towards it? What is the subject telling you about itself and what details begin to register with you as a natural flowing composition presents itself?

Deep breaths release the tension mounting as you want to start right away snapping photos because you have a lot of other icons you want to take pics of today. First slow down, if you don’t take the time to relate to the subject then your images will be dull, uncomposed, touristy snap shots.

We all have the ability to create works of art. What determines your abilities to create your vision is your unique perspective?

Determination, your steady forward progress, learning the intricacies of exposure, lenses and composition.

Your subject is patiently waiting as you begin to immerse yourself in the scene waiting for the light and shadows to deepen, taking your time to explore and discover a perspective that is original.

What elements in the present scene do you relate to? You are not their to manipulate the scene but express through your skills the beauty that surrounds this present moment.

Nothing remains the same and as a photographer you must be aware of the changes happening right in front of you as you assemble your composition, your camera angle, allowing the light to emphasize your inner resolution, your choice where to make the image from.

By ignoring time and focusing on the scene in front of you, you are connecting with external forces and your inner intuitive vision to will the image into being.

Compositional purpose is your instinctive originality, your unique personality, your novel perspective.

In the past you have tried a lot of technical stuff as if this will automatically create a beautiful image. You must ignore the intellect trying to disperse your energy with ideas that are beginning to jumble your focus and concentration. Take a chance try a different avenue of expression by opening your mind to a natural flow of seeing through your own unique imagination and no one else’s.

Enjoy the beauty before you which is trying to connect with you on a deeper level giving you an awareness you never had before, a true means of making an original photograph through your burgeoning ability to see beyond the standard path of redundant snap shots.

A great image like a great line in poetry takes focused intent and a means to arrange the details of the scene being created with your truth and a strong sense of wonder at the descriptive details of nature that make up the ingredients that make a so, so scene into a great image for you and your viewer.

Photography is seeing the dignity in a moment forever past yet renewed in an ever changing light and experience through the image creation.

Life is continuous motion, a never ending illusion of external time in space.
But when we make an image time freezes and we can view our past moments through photography, for isn’t that the addiction of cameras to stop time and our aging process and make us immortal. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder but the creator of the image viewed.

August 16, 2020

Photography now is not for the faint of heart. Where it once was a brotherhood of respect for the photographers working to make great images for the stock photo agency it now has turned its back on the very artists that made the agency successful. And lets face it, it is now all about money for the investors at Getty, ShutterStock and Alamy! So while the photographers sweat in exhaustion to create good imagery the agencies lower the financial return for the image creators. This puts an unfair burden on the photographers that need to make a living to pay their personal bills and to continue to go out and make unique imagery that will sell.

It is the same story all through the American economy.
Money flows up the ladder to the powerful never down. The money men have turned their backs on the photographer giving them peanuts on the dollar for their hard earned efforts while the photo agency sucks up billions in revenue off our hard earned talent.

Once agencies introduced RF imagery it was only a matter of time before Rights Managed imagery was abandoned. We have entered the fast paced life of our future economy. Where people don’t look for the beauty that surrounds them, the beauty that is being destroyed from pollution and new buildings exploding across our country and the world so the wealthy can look down on the masses and feel themselves above the peons scrambling to make a decent wage to survive. These ego’s of unrelenting greed, the new gods of avarice.

We must keep a focus on new ways to make a living from our unique perspective. Our ability to see in an ordinary scene something that catches our eye and in that moment of realization the drab scene becomes alive with possibilities and you become immersed in the scene tuning out all the distractions that surround you and you are focused on details that illuminate your intuition and your composition will be endlessly discussed but you see the entirety of your personal vision as your subject was taking shape and being created.

All image creation can be interpret differently from the photographers point of view that is what makes photography so important. We see through our own private vision and what works for one creator might not work for another. It is called art and art is always open to discussion and personal interpretation that is what sustains the artist, his creation being looked at,
studied and analysed.

We must not feel that every image we take will be perfect. And It will automatically reveal to the viewer what your unique vision was. Each of us have our own unique qualities of perceiving the external world, our own intuitive force that alerts us to seek a certain train of thought, a photographic idea we are drawn to. Contemplating your subject is the starting point of experimentation before you hit on the composition that reflects your inner mode of seeing the subject with fresh eyes.

When we seek perfection we end up with mediocre images. But when we go with the flow, have an open mind to just look over a scene without trying to fit the landscape into a standard copy of someone else’s published image we are allowing our imagination to guide us to our true potential, we have made our beauty where it didn’t exist.

July 23, 2020

Photography

How do you express externally your inner vision?

Each image created is part of an overall journey toward your inner discovery your inner self demanding to be seen.

There are many barriers to creating great images but you must steel yourself to endure the ups and downs, the frustrations and blown exposures and keep hunting for those perfect moments.

To create great images you must be involved with your subject, studying the nuances that can make or break a classic image.

Your subject needs to be respected and you need to be intuitively aware of your relationship with the subject and have a deep personal respect for the subject you are creating in a photograph.

Before you can create any image you need to be aware of the landscape you are viewing. Whether it is a person, animal or scenic you need to be present, intensely aware of potential compositions that will enhance your subject and bring out in the landscape your personal vision.

This means knowing the subject and the terrain in such a away that it becomes second nature to approach your subject from a certain direction with confidence and empathy of spirit and a willingness to spend the time exploring this unique view, your unique presence in a landscape speaking to your intuitive nature.

The important approach is not to waste time flitting here and there taking snap shots that tell us nothing of your relationship with the subject before you.

Use your time wisely forget about your past and your future thoughts and just be present in your now, each moment goes by so quickly for those that rush through life thinking they are accomplishing something of importance when in fact most of us get worn down as we age and feel the pains of regret for not exploring our intuitive interests more fully that would have taken us into our future lives with a greater understanding of ourselves and our beautiful surroundings on this isolated planet more fully and not with an indifference of spirit, a cold impersonal outlook toward others and our own personal life.

When you begin to meld your thoughts into the landscape and feel the terrain with your visual senses heightened with awareness a detail is seen and then another detail and the puzzle that was fragmented before you is now coming together to become an expression of your inner landscape externalized.

Western thought is built around intellect, functionality and profit. Eastern thought is more introverted and focused in contemplation and reaching toward a new becoming. Western thought is controlled as always by the intellects redundant nature, a nature of order and selective focus, a consciousness easily exploited by powerful forces of monied interests.

Our elites have an addiction of greed not to be intimidated by our external nature but to control it, harness its power for profit from it and ultimately destroy mother earth.

Western thinking wants physical things and wants them now. This in turn also spreads in to everyday life and especially photography. We are in constant hurry mode running from one thing to another without taking the time to immerse oneself in the landscape of self and nature. Our minds are blinded by anything that shines but this isn’t getting to know your subject, this is capturing something quickly, without purpose, treating our existence as if we had no existence outside our working lives. We are caged animals exploited by the powers propaganda of a fear based existence.

All great image makers look at the scene and study the important details of the scene that they want to include to get the viewer of his image to stop and really look at the subject, studying the movement of the visual dynamics, levels of creating and eliminating details that interfere with the vision behind the photographers intuitive perceptions.

As the light gets better and the suns beauty shines over the scene in front of us we find ourselves living in a wonderland of possibilities that will push our intuition to find a perspective that will be your trademark.

A great photograph shows the viewer an insight into the photographer’s purpose by through his composition. A personal relationship with the subject that respects the subject and allows the viewer to also appreciate in the image the play of light, composition and exposure.

Your personal relationship with the subject is an acceptance of the scene and your intent is to create an image that keeps the viewers eye from roaming through the image frame trying to see the center of interest in the details and failing exits and turns the page.