Not too long ago, if you'd asked me what kind of photographer I was, I'd have said black and white—that's literally all I did back then. But digital processing changed the game, and now I'm making color images too. So you'd think it's just a choice, right? Pick one or the other. But here's the thing—that mindset totally locks you in. You start thinking every image has to be either b/w or color, never both. Turns out that's a pretty limiting way to look at it. I've got tons of examples of shots that absolutely work in both b/w and color depending on what the project needs.
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HT2678 - Limiting Your Choices
10-07-2026 | 2 Min.
HT2678 - Limiting Your Choices
You are serious about your photography, so you probably have a pretty reasonable kit of gear that covers almost anything you might want to shoot. Great. But what if you only had one camera, one lens, and that's it? Would you not be able to do photography at all? Would your photographic career grind to a halt? How silly. Of course you would do photography, just with the limited gear that you have. In truth, you might be more creative and more productive within these limitations.
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HT2677 - Obviously, This Is Not Good
09-07-2026 | 2 Min.
HT2677 - Obviously, This Is Not Good
Has this ever happened to you? I was watching a YouTube tutorial on a software feature when the speaker showed a "before" and "after" version of an image they were using for demonstration. They showed the before image and said, "Obviously, this is not good." To my eye, it was great! In fact, the before image was much better than the supposedly improved after image. This is a big problem with software tutorials — they always tell us how but almost never tell us why!
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HT2676 - Within the First Half Dozen
08-07-2026 | 2 Min.
HT2676 - Within the First Half Dozen
I watched a fascinating interview of Sting by Rick Beato on YouTube. Sting said that he loses interest in a song if there isn't a surprise in the first eight bars. I think I can say the same about photography. If I look at a photographic project and don't see something new, unexpected, a mystery or a question, something surprising, or that grabs me in the first half dozen images, my attention wanes. There is a lesson here about image selection and sequencing. Or perhaps an admission about my attention span.
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HT2675 - Photograph as Memory Trigger
07-07-2026 | 2 Min.
HT2675 - Photograph as Memory Trigger
A friend recently lamented that she was going through her lifetime of pictures and questioning why she ought to keep all the vacation images of landscapes and trees. She raises a good point. Why should/would any of us be interested in these personal mementos? Her question demonstrates the defining line of demarcation between photography as a memory trigger and photography as an art medium — the intended audience.
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Over LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process
Over LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process
Over 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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