YOU DON’T TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH, YOU MAKE IT

I was reluctant to use “Published Works” as a photo category since nearly everything I’ve shot over my 50-year career has been for publication in some media.  I’ve rarely dealt in anything consumer-related, such as weddings and portraits, and  the images I create have nearly always been “rights managed” in that the end user is paying for the use of a specific image in a specific media, and the image ownership and copyright always stays with me.  I’ve never been a “content creator”—if that’s what you need plenty of AI programs can do that for you.  

Similarly, I rarely do more than the basic adjustments all digital images require.  Lightroom is my primary program for processing and storing my images, and I’ve usually considered that if the original image is not strong enough to be free-standing on its own then I failed to make the image correctly in the first place.

When I began the intense training required to be a USCG Photo-Journalist, my Chief Photographer was unforgiving in critiquing each photo assignment.  If the photo was weak, if any element was not strong, if anything appeared in the frame that did not belong there, it was considered a failure—I had simply not put in the effort required to make it ‘right.”  I learned to shoot “tight” and that habit has stayed with me my whole career.  

Working in large format, 4×5 and 8×10 transparency film, accelerated that habit of “tight” shooting.  I did location photography, where everything had to be done precisely and efficiently and usually very quickly, and a “redo” was almost never an option.  Have to say that the immediacy of the digital image has been a major innovation, and has allowed me to “loosen up” a little at times, but mostly I’m still intent on producing the image to be used “as shot.”