We all like a donut now and then. Two donuts on occasion. Three donuts? Might be entering the realm of excess. A dozen? Impossible without getting sick of donuts. Enough is enough and more than that leaves us overwhelmed, repulsed, ill. This comes to mind because I recently received a 400-page monograph of photographs. Roughly 40 pages in and I started feeling numb. At page 100, I gave up, realizing I hadn't really seen the last 60 images at all — and there were 300 more pages left to go! Too much of a good thing finds us racing for the exit door.
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HT2550 - The Best Way to Add Value to Your Photographic Artwork
03.03.2026 | 2 Min.
HT2550 - The Best Way to Add Value to Your Photographic Artwork
Not everyone is pursuing the sale of their photographic artwork, but it's also not uncommon. The foundation of this pursuit is to try to build value into your artwork. If history teaches us anything, there are two keys to building value in your artwork: produce your prints prior to 1975; be sure you died in the 20th century. Both are difficult tasks here in 2026, but at the very least, announce you are not feeling well and you fear your art producing days are limited.
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LW1495 - Ten Lesser-Known Masters You Should Study
02.03.2026 | 12 Min.
LW1495 - Ten Lesser-Known Masters You Should Study
Have you heard me talk about the "airport test?" Name for me 10 famous painters, 10 musicians, 10 novelists. I'll bet you can. Ask 100 people at random at the airport to name 10 fine art photographers. Everybody is familiar with Ansel Adams, and a few might know of Edward Weston. Here are 10 lesser known masters of photography you should study precisely because they brought something to photography that has made a greater impact than their reputation would indicate.
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You might also be interested in. . .
Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com.
and...
"How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.
HT2548 - Exposure Tones vs Exposure Textures
01.03.2026 | 2 Min.
HT2548 - Exposure Tones vs Exposure Textures
The so-called "exposure triangle" is usually thought of as a means of controlling the lightness and darkness of an image, and that's obviously true. But we old timers learned in studying the Zone System that tones are related to textures, particularly in combination with the angle of illumination. Human vision almost never sees tones without textures. Even the absence of texture is a form of texture.
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HT2547 - Ten Is the Perfect Default
28.02.2026 | 2 Min.
HT2547 - Ten Is the Perfect Default
All media have a comfort zone within a common range of sizes, plus or minus. Novels are typically a couple of hundred pages, popular songs 4 minutes, statues are commonly life-size. Exceptions are not uncommon, but it seems as though every medium has its default size. I've always felt that the default size for photography is 10 inches. We might see more detail in a larger print, but do we need to?
This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.
Über 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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