Impulse

Lenswork is an excel­lent pho­tog­ra­phy mag­a­zine. Not a pho­tog­ra­phy gear mag­a­zine nor a pho­tog­ra­phy tech­nique mag­a­zine, Lenswork is a mag­a­zine exclu­sively about pho­tographs and the expe­ri­ence of mak­ing pho­tos. Their repro­duc­tions are fab­u­lous, with 2 – 3 port­fo­lios in each issue to peruse. Brooks Jensen’s edi­to­ri­als are often inspir­ing or thought pro­vok­ing (his lat­est on pric­ing pho­tos ignited a two week dis­cus­sion in my photo group). Every issue includes either an inter­view with, or essay about a pho­tog­ra­pher — again focus­ing more on the artis­tic moti­va­tions of the pho­tog­ra­pher than his favorite but­ton in Photoshop. If you’re a pho­tog­ra­pher, it’s worth check­ing out.
But that’s not what I want to tell you about. What’s cool is that they’ve got a pod­cast. (I know: trendy). I’ve plugged their pod­cast into blog­lines and found that it’s well worth the time. Like the mag­a­zine, it’s more about the process than the tools. Here are some of my favorites:

• Immersion in Composition — Re-iterates the need to do some­thing pho­to­graphic every day to keep you sharp.
• 1000 Photographs — Instead of pric­ing your pho­tos really high and only hav­ing a few peo­ple get to enjoy your work, price it really low (i.e. $20) and let many peo­ple savor your style. This is the idea that started the lively dis­cus­sion I men­tioned above.
• October Seas Folio, parts 1 & 3 — This is a fas­ci­nat­ing descrip­tion of the process of edit­ing a photo essay — choos­ing what stays, what goes and how things fit. Cool obser­va­tion in part 3: work­ing on an image as part of a group can make those images bet­ter than if you had worked on them in isolation.

[Sadly, the Lenswork folks have not to leave all pod­casts online for pos­ter­ity as most blogs & pod­casts do, but instead archive them every once in a while to CD col­lec­tions. You can still order them; you just can’t stream them. OK, I’ll be hon­est: I hate that they pull them offline, hope they stop doing this, and emailed them accordingly].

Related posts:

1. Lenswork mag­a­zine
2. Guilty admis­sions
3. Old work made new
4. CoolArt: Flickr roundup
5. Video vs still pho­tog­ra­phy, pt 3