May 26, 2021

Photography Blog

Photography once upon a time had depth and purpose exposing the hell people lived in all over this world. These photographers risked their lives to photograph history and to try and change the corruption of governments including ours that tentacles all over the world.   

There are still photographer working at news agencies that try and give the people the truth but now most people get their news from talking heads and web sites that promote violence under the mask of freedom for the people but the people they are referring to are not colored but white and their propaganda is a lethal weapon spurring violence and death around the world.

Everything in its place, nature and man intertwined in the beauty of existence. If you think you can create the perfect photograph think again. Perfection is an illusion of your ego.

The challenge today in photography is fighting conformity, the redundant image seen thousands of times over and over again, a cliche of our shallow existence as social media dulls the inspired brain and seeks conformity of thought.

Photography is undermined by the ease in which anyone can take a photo and upload it for free to the stock agencies.

What use to be a good living creating images now is just chump change as the stock agencies get more wealthy off the backs of the newbies of photography.

A photographers independence, his shooting style is not scene in the news media, the public eye but now seen only in a family album.

What we have in today’s manipulated society is an attempt to exploit subjects without connecting on a deeper level with the person or scene in front of you.

If you had a dream of becoming a professional photographer better think again.

The saturation of images being produced has reduced prices and the ability of photographers to succeed in this crazy world of stock photography.

With their scam of greedy motivation for power and money the corporations make sure that the image creators can’t make a living doing something they love for there is no viable way one can survive when images are sold for pennies.

Could you ever believe that the photo stock agencies would be reduced to a handful of monopolies undermining the photographers ability to make a decent wage for their efforts by reducing his income, lowering the split of sales now at 80% for the agencies and 20% for the photographers and surely that will also go down as more and more people seek a means to stimulate their egos not realizing they are being scammed by the agencies to do their work for them and allow them to keep all or most of the profits from your hard earned efforts.

It seems we are back once again in the days of criminal wealth that converted into a legitimate business but still seeks a pay scale that gives them the power and the image creator a wage below a sustainable income.

The impact of cell phone cameras and the ease of programing your camera to do the work for you creates a massive amount of images that undermine the artists ability to make a decent wage for his/her family.

Photography is moving toward a technological break through whereby the corporations won’t need us photographers much anymore because all images in future publications will be digitally created, looking as real as any other photograph now being created.

Now that would undermine any possibility of making a decent living in photography especially for studio photographers. Lets face it, our reality is breaking apart and we are being replaced with tech savvy people that can create people on a computer.

Technology is convenience, you don’t have to think but have someone else do the thinking for you.

It used to be a way of life for a photographer. A means to express oneself and being paid well for doing it.

Photography is more of a hobby now and your financial return on the images you create by uploading them to the goliaths of stock photography won’t buy you a home or feed your family. You will have to work at two maybe three jobs to make a living in this world! But it certainly won’t be in the artistic realm of image creations.

There is no way you can make a living by submitting your images to photo agencies now in this overloaded spectacle of the old run and gun approach to taking photos. There are billions of images taken daily and very few have a depth of character that creates a meaningful purpose allowing people to see and feel the underlining reality that is hidden from us by the criminal elites that spew nonsense and contorted truths to sidetrack people in believing life is good and all can make a name for themselves. Yes, on the unemployment line.

But if you are one of the few super stars of stock imagery, producing model released photos of the current fads in marketing then you could make a comfortable living. But you have to remember you can easily be replaced by photographers with a good visual sense that could make the same quality images on the cheap just to get exposure.

And don’t forget your time as a photographer is wearing down to a crawl and finally a stillness in the air as one still makes images not for the agencies but only for themselves.
 
Photography is an addiction where you have no choice but to make your individual life a series of unique images that express who you are.

What a wasteland of talent being pushed aside by corporations unwilling to pay these talented photographers what they are worth.

The take over of photography by corporations is a means of media control, if you look closely at what getty wants for their clients it is poser rock, happy faces and people eating, people sitting together, eating together, hugging, laughing living the good life and where is this good life they speak of I guess because of the corporate profits they make off the backs of photographers doing the dirty work as they vacation on the islands they own but they are moving away from islands and buying land that is safer than having to board a noah’s ark to escape the big floods.

This is a media scam, a conditioning of the population in believing that life is good and we are all happy and feeling good instead of the truth that this world is deteriorating into a man made free for all that pits the elites of criminal behavior and wealth over peoples rights to be free and not mind controlled by the manipulators of ads, making people believe they too can live the high life, bullshit there true purpose is to placate the people making them think that they are living the good life when they live in a massive climate change and vicious storms all created by the polluted air we breath by the corporate criminals, their profits destroying this planet.

I will always keep making images no matter how old I get and I will select my favorite images to give to my daughters and put them in a book so they can see my efforts of image creation before I pass on.

 May 4, 2021

We see an image as a reflection of something we should have taken. A truth we know was real. Even though we were never present we feel like we could have been there because of the beauty of the landscape and the photographer’s intense perspective.

We seek ourselves reflected in another’s image creation. We long for our truth to be present, something authentic. We seek our inner world to be objectified and we demand our place in the universe, a known position to be acclaimed for our photographic beauty.  

Each second of our days become a photograph that gives us hope in the beauty of this world.

Even when the subject is someone else or a different landscape we want it to be ours. This is the power of great imagery, a personal expression looking for revelations of our inner self placed in a beautiful photograph that we can contemplate and feel connected with.

We need to seek to an image that has meaning and purpose, insight into our own personality, not our outer facade but our inner imaginative self.

Whether it is a street scene or a scenic landscape we must identify with our emotional desires and connect on a deeper level with one creation over another that doesn’t represent your lack of focus and timing.

Being human we have our outer counterparts, individuals that have a similar attraction for certain subjects that we also like. We seek those on social media to inspire us to be involved in this world and not a couch potato without any semblance of goals and creative representations, if we don’t seek beauty in ourselves we can never create a beautiful image that represents us in this physical space.

This masquerade of a reality stable and structured, insistent to become one master, the architect of our shaped reality in their own image of greed.

But this reality was created not by a god but evolution of man and woman. Human nature always seeking a fixed motive for living. We still hunt but what we hunt now is profit.

The power over our visual senses is a conditioned life of repeating words infiltrating and corralling your ability to see for yourself your inner intuition represented in your unique vision.

Let your imagination begin your journey to a life of making photographs in your own style.

In order to free oneself from the exploitation by the wealthy that make one believe the purpose of this life is buying things which hinders your ability to see beyond the physical nature of our created reality for profit only, leading you to ignore your own artistic talents, the abandoning of your inner reality waiting to be projected outward to shape your external world to be a place to explore and make images that reflect your inner truth.

Photography is personal, it isn’t about making an iconic image each time you trip the shutter. Image creation is the desire of expressing your inner being with external details that that give the viewer a glimpse of your talent.

The pleasure of photography, its addiction, is making an image that is unique. The image expresses something inside you, you found irresistible to ignore.

That is the key to making successful imagery. You must be connected to your subject in a personal way if you hope to have viewers see your point of view.

You should never expect an audience to see your work as perfect because no matter how great your image is there is always going to criticism of your work.

Discipline in your work is your road to success. You can’t expect to create great images by the run and gun approach by shooting anything and everything. Stop, relax take in the scene before you and just ponder the possibilities.

Being present, aware of your surroundings in a scene give you patience, pre-visualizing your subject will begin the journey to finding your inner expression.

What hinders a photographer in their journey to expressing themselves through a photograph is
there inability to just stop, look, study and explore.

Thinking to much leads to a snapshot not a photograph. There is always surrounding you an infinity of possible photos to be made, all demanding your attention but where to start?

What do you need not want to photograph? We all have likes and dislikes and they can overwhelm your ability to find your personal reason for choosing this particular scene to create your inner vision.

Good photography is seeing the external reality for the first time and then your eyes widen and you see the inspiration that made you stop and explore this landscape and your composition unfolds and the essence of your photographic vision is revealed.