I spend way too much time on YouTube because it's such a great way to learn tidbits about the technology of photography. That said, there are also gazillions of videos that will try to tell you the steps you must (or must not take) to make an aesthetically pleasing photograph, in essence how to follow the rules without admitting that you are following the rules. The challenge is to learn from the technical while simultaneously using aesthetic advice with extreme caution lest you find you are making other people's photographs.
This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.
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HT2554 - Scant Feedback, If Any
07/03/2026 | 2min
HT2554 - Scant Feedback, If Any
Applause is lovely. Accolades are lovely. Sales are lovely. Relying on such feedback to fuel your motivations is to place yourself in a position that doesn't help your creativity. Statistically, it just doesn't add up. Produce your work because you need to do it and because the Universe needs you to do it, not for the applause and (God forbid) not for the sales.
This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.
HT2553 - Minutia
06/03/2026 | 2min
HT2553 - Minutia
It can be quite entertaining to hear photographers talk about their images. Almost without exception, the photographer will examine tiny areas of the image including details, juxtapositions of composition, perfect tonal relationships, extremely subtle things that non-photographers would never see, or I should say never notice. For some reason, photographers think these minutia can make or break the success of a photograph.
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HT2552 - Big Things and Little Things
05/03/2026 | 2min
HT2552 - Big Things and Little Things
Some friends of ours are visiting Kyoto this week, many of the same places I visited in 2019 in my last visit to Japan. They are sending lots of pictures and I can't help but observing a difference between what they're photographing and what I photographed. Same locations, different visions. I suppose this shouldn't be a surprise, but it does have me thinking.
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HT2551 - Four Hundred Donuts
04/03/2026 | 2min
HT2551 - Four Hundred Donuts
We all like a donut now and then. Two donuts on occasion. Three donuts? Might be entering the realm of excess. A dozen? Impossible without getting sick of donuts. Enough is enough and more than that leaves us overwhelmed, repulsed, ill. This comes to mind because I recently received a 400-page monograph of photographs. Roughly 40 pages in and I started feeling numb. At page 100, I gave up, realizing I hadn't really seen the last 60 images at all — and there were 300 more pages left to go! Too much of a good thing finds us racing for the exit door.
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Sobre LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process
Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience.
Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life.
Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).
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