Jeff Curto's Camera Position

Edges – The edge of the frame, the edge of the subject, the edge of the world, the edge of a moment. Regardless of how we interpret it, the assignment of “Edges” can be a good one to expand our understanding of photography. Play Podcast: Links for this Episode: * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images * Jeff’s Photograph Italy Workshops – A few spots remain for Puglia and Rome

Can photography be better learned in black and white? That’s the question that I look at in this episode, as we look at line, shape, tone and texture as we see our world in black and white. Play Podcast: Links for this Episode: * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images * Jeff’s Photograph Italy Workshops – A few spots remain for Puglia and Rome

Photography is about storytelling. Sharing your images and the story that they create is one of the ultimate goals for most photographers. Fortunately, our contemporary world has some amazing tools and interesting ideas that can help us tell our stories with words and pictures. Play Podcast: Links to some ideas discussed on the podcast: * Listener David Crowe’s “Boulders” Flickr group * Listener Chris Bonney’s PDF of images of Cannon Beach, Oregon Jeff’s online stories: * Puglia Photo Workshop 2015 – made using MyAlbum * Tuscany Photo Workshop 2015 – made using MyAlbum * Your Story of Rome – made using Adobe Slate * Autumn in the Keweenaw – made using Adobe Slate * Grana Padano Cheese – made using Storehouse Jeff’s Photograph Italy Workshops – registration is now open for 2016!    

Today’s world of photography is so very confusing. Photographers are confronted with a barrage of advice about how to make good photographs and what gear you must have to make them. Of course, that advice has some value, but I think  best way to learn is to actually go and make photographs because, as a longtime listener once told me, “Pictures need to be taken to be any good.” Play Podcast * The Candid Frame – Ibarionex Perello’s podcast * Ibarionex Perello’s book – Chasing The Light on Amazon * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images  

The great photographer Ernst Haas said, “”The frame of the camera is the photographer’s discipline. It can contain as much as it withholds, cut into or hold together images that detract or contribute to a given theme.” In this episode, I explore the idea that the frame of the camera is a discipline. Play Podcast * In America by Ernst Haas on Amazon * Ernst Haas’ Estate website * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images

Using a quote from Janet Malcolm’s collections of essays about photography as a springboard, I talk about the relative truth of photographs and look back to our discussion about peripheral vision. Play Podcast * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images * Janet Malcolm’s Diana & Nikon on Amazon

As a driver, you use your peripheral vision all the time. So, too, with photography as you need to learn how to pay attention to what’s at the edge of your visual field in order to really see the world. Play Podcast * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images

What’s your hobby? As a recently retired person, it’s the question I often get as people try to figure out what I “do” with the time I used to spend “working.” In this episode, we look at the interconnected aspects of the things we like to do. Play Podcast * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images * History of Photography Podcast  

With creative work, there is often a gap between our ambitions and our ability to create work that meets our expectations. Fortunately, our “inner critic” is there to help us close the gap between our goals and the photographs we make. Play Podcast * Infographic on the 4 steps of Critique as a PDF * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images  

Human values — those emotions, beliefs, traditions, and knowledge that we understand and share as human beings are an integral part of how we come to express ourselves in photography. In fact, it may be the essence of why we want to express ourselves with photography. Play Podcast * Camera Position on Facebook – Share your images * Camera Position on Flickr – Share your images  

Rollo May (1909 – 1994) was an American existential psychologist and author. Among his books was The Courage to Create. In it, May lays out some ideas about art and creativity that have important implications for the creative person; photographers included. Play Podcast Jeff’s Podcast Facebook Page – for discussion of podcast topics The Courage to Create By Rollo May – on Amazon

One of the four steps of achieving true critique of a work of art is analysis and doing that analysis requires applying the elements and principles of art. In this episode, we look at what those elements and principles are so we can employ them in true critique of our photographs. Play Podcast Links for this episode: * An infographic on the elements of art and the principles of art as a PDF (also as a JPEG) * Use artsy.net to look at some masterworks of art to begin exercising these ideas: * The Old Masters * Abstract Expressionists * Cubists * Contemporary Photography: * Lens Culture * New York Times Lens Blog * FlakPhoto * Zone Zero  

In the last couple of episodes of Camera Position, I talked about feedback on your work and the type of feedback you typically get contrasted against the type of feedback you want, which is true, genuine critique of your work. In truth, critique of any sort is based entirely on critical thinking or the objective analysis and evaluation of something in order to form an evaluation of it. Critical thinking is at the base of how we come to know something… critical thinking is the engine of learning. Play Podcast

Feedback on our work usually comes in one of two forms: Reaction and Direction. Both are simple to do but don’t give us what we really want to help move our work forward. This second podcast of two parts looks at a third and much more useful type of feedback: Critique. This form of feedback that is most helpful to us in understanding the impact of our photographs on viewers. Play Podcast * Infographic on the 4 steps of Critique as a PDF * Infographic on the 4 steps of Critique as a JPEG (or see below)  

Feedback is something that photographers always want. Regardless of their level of interest or expertise, photographers always want to hear what other people think about their work. Most of the time, though, we often get feedback that doesn’t match what we are looking for. This first episode of a two-part set of podcasts looks at the two most common types of feedback; Reaction and Direction and starts us on a path toward the best kind of feedback: Critique. Play Podcast