photography
The Creative Bar Podcast
I went on Jon Wilkening's wonderful podcast The Creative Bar to talk about creativity, constraints and obscure 1990s photography topics I had bouncing around in my head. Check out the episode here [http://jonwilkening.com/blog/2017/12/7/the-creative-bar-38-cj-chilvers].
Has Photography Gone from an Introvert to Extravert Hobby?
Great observation from Guy Tal [https://guytal.com/wordpress/2017/11/20/the-traditions-of-photography/] on the mindset of analogue (or traditional) vs. digital (or modern) photographers: > “It used to be that photography was the favored avocation of introverts, allowing unquestioned solitary time in a darkroom—a private world behind a
Old Advice is New Advice: There Are No Rules
“If you let other people’s vision get between the world and your own, you will achieve that extremely common and worthless thing, a pictorial photograph...there are no short cuts, no formulae, no rules except those of your own living.” — Paul Strand, The British Journal of Photography in 1923
Behavioral Economics and Creativity
I believe most the readers of the A Lesser Photographer book [https://www.cjchilvers.com/books] understood and agreed with the basic message of the book: constraints foster creativity. Yet, some of the book’s biggest fans don’t follow that message. They know what they should be doing to
Random Positive Reinforcement
From David Allen on the GTD Podcast [http://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-30-david-allen-gtd-keynote-in-milan-part-two] : > “One of the factors of creating addiction is random positive reinforcement. If you’re trying to train your dog…you don’t want a treat every time. The more random, the more powerful the addiction to the
If You Could Only Photograph One Subject...
Artifact Uprising interviews Photographer Tim Coulson [https://www.artifactuprising.com/stories/photographing-what-matters]: > "If I could only take photos of one thing for the rest of my life, it would be my family. I've had the privilege to travel to the ends of the earth, taking pictures
Eric Kim Quits Instagram for Blogging
From Eric Kim's blog [http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2017/05/16/why-i-deleted-my-instagram/]: > "Why? I realized it was a major distraction in my life. Rather than focusing on what I do to create real value (blogging) I wasted my precious energy on how to optimize my follower
I Was Wrong About Landscape Photography
I made the argument in the A Lesser Photographer book [https://craftandvision.com/products/a-lesser-photographer], and here in this blog, that photographers should chase what's scarce if they want to capture something with longevity in meaning. At the top of the list of examples, I'd include
The Bayles Exercise
Brooks Jensen, in his 1018th podcast [http://daily.lenswork.com/2017/05/podcast-1018-the-bayles-exercise.html], describes a technique he can't believe he hasn't mentioned yet...in 1018 podcasts. It's a technique he learned from David Bayles in the 1980s for coming up with projects for
A List of Reasons to Pick Up a Film Camera
John Crane has many reasons [http://emulsive.org/interviews/i-am-john-crane-and-this-is-why-i-shoot-film] for sticking with film during his career, but this is one of my favorites: > "I spend so much time in front of the computer that when the time comes to get away and enjoy photography – the last thing