I’ve been following the great work over at The Golden Sieve for a while. The site has been a constant source of inspiration with the quality and creativity of their images. It also lends a nice bit of nostalgia, reminding me of my time living outside of Chicago (oh, Portillo’s). So, imagine my joy when Justin Kern, one of the main gears at tWp, reached out and asked if I would be interested in writing a guest blog post. One of the great byproducts of writing my guest post was that I got to know Justin. Through various conversations and emails, Justin showed a sense of care and rationale with his words and it is reflected in his images. It was by virtue of these traits that I threw his name into the running to join me as one of the editors over at HDR Spotting, and he has done a great job at that, as well. I consider myself very fortunate to have Justin contribute to this series.
You can follow Justin on Facebook, Twitter, and at The Golden Sieve
Value – Justin Kern
I’m a career scientist and an avid geek – my interest is in the intellectual, the ivory tower. That perspective does not combine well with a commercial interest in the photographic arts. I’ll explain.
Though I take photography very seriously and push myself to be the best I can be, I long ago decided the professional route wasn’t for me. That decision had to do with what I value about my photographs.
In lieu of writing a longer post – I decided to share some of my favorite images that I’ve created recently and to pose a few questions. Answering these questions will make you a better photographer.
What is it about your images that is valuable?
What is it about another person’s image that you value?
Do you look back at your images and wish you’d done something differently?
Did you do it differently the next time?
Will you love your images in a month? A year? If they were another person’s images, would they inspire you to run out with your camera?
If I had to draw the intersection of what I find to be intellectually-, artistically-, and commercially-valuable images, what would it look like? Is something that is commercial artistically valuable? (Note – there is no right answer but if this doesn’t help you figure out if you want to be a professional photographer, nothing will) You’ll notice that mine has little overlap between the commercial and anything else – boy I wish I could occupy the space that is shared between them all, but I stick with what I find easiest – which is the space between Intellectual and Artistic.
What are your answers? Are you looking for a gig or are you looking for the truth?
My thanks to Brian for his constant stream of beauty and his evangelizing the HDR method. I always have fun opening my Google Reader stream to see his newest creation.
