Picture of the Day

If you're ever in Memphis TN, and have a couple of hours, take the Memphis Mojo Tour. If you're lucky, Memphis Jones will be your guide to the fun and funky realm of Beale Street and beyond. Even the bus is a trip. If you don't have a couple of hours, make the time. Seriously.

Occam's Razor

I first became aware of Occam's Razor as a method of scientific research (bored already? Hang with me here. It does have something to do with photography, I promise). The idea is that an answer to a question is always the most simple of all possible solutions. Sherlock Holmes used Occam's Razor: "Eliminate all impossibilities and what remains, however improbable, is the solution".

In photography, I use Mr. Occam's Gillette to help me make better pictures. It goes something like this:

Every photograph tells a story or elicits a feeling or reaction. I look at an image and determine what story it tells. If it does not tell a story I delete it. If it does, I begin to crop it. As I crop I ask myself, "does it still tell the story? Does it tell the story better? Have I cut too far and made the story incomplete? I keep cropping. As long as the story is still there, I keep going. When the image no longer provides enough information to tell its story, I know I've gone too far. I reverse one step and my picture is complete. (I'm talking electronic croping of course. If you're using scissors and crop too far, you're pretty much screwed).

Simple is better, less is more, minimalism, call it whatever you like, I think it works.

Above is an example, albeit an extreme one. I feel the cropped image of the model holding the teapot against her vintage dress tells the story I originally intended. As far as I was concerned, the rest of the image was distracting and, quite literally, clutter. You may or may not agree, but I bet you'll find it a worthwhile exercise for your images. It works for writing too. Eliminate that which is not necessary to make your point, and your point is made.

Simple things are the most profound.

Model: Elise

Picture of the Day

Street performance in the Latin Quarter, Paris, France. August 2007.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween greetings from my Little Photoshop of Horrors. And don't forget that Nov 2 is the Day of the Dead. And don't forget to turn your clocks back on that day. An hour and a half should do it. And don't forget my lovely wife's birthday is Nov 2nd as well. Wait...I need to remember her birthday, you don't.

The Eggistential Scream photo is the first in my series of eggsperiments in eggsamining the faceless nature of post-modern society. If anyone knows what any of that means, please write!

Hard Boiled

This is the second in my series of eggsperimental images. No eggs were harmed in the production of this image. What happened to the egg afterwards is a different story. You know what they say about making omlettes?

Model: Gregg Anderson. I kid you not. OK, I added the extra "g" to his name, but still.

Where I Spent Last Week

Northern Minnesota. No computers, no phones or TV. No blogs. Didn't even listen to the radio. No politics. What a relief. We split firewood and hunted grouse during the day. In the evening we sat around a fire, cooked dinner and sampled fine scotch.

One Republican, one Independent, and one Democrat. No politics were spoken, no debates or tired rhetoric.

I wish more than one week a year could be spent this way. I wish more people would spend time this way. The world would be a better place, no matter who sits in the oval office.

Now it's back to the "real" world. Jobs to be done, wages to be earned, votes to be cast, taxes to be paid.

Life is short, but deep. Go deep.