Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but attention is not automatic.

That is something I think about more and more when it comes to photography. We can make the photograph. We can print it, post it, frame it, share it, and send it out into the world. But none of that means anyone is required to stop and look.

The viewer still has a choice...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/earning-the-viewers-eye-in-photography/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

Every now and then, I look back through old photographs and wonder why I kept certain ones.

Not the obvious ones. Not the family photographs, birthdays, holidays, faces, or moments that clearly belong in the archive. Those explain themselves. I understand why they are there.

I am thinking more about the quiet images.

A road.

A tree.

A field.

A lake.

A building I passed once.

A patch of light on an ordinary afternoon.

At first, some of those photographs do not seem to say very much. They may not be strong enough for a print. They may not belong in a portfolio. They may not be something I would show to anyone else and expect them to understand why I made them.

But I kept them.

That alone makes me stop and think...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/why-we-keep-photographs/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com

There is a strange point in learning photography when instruction begins to work against you.

At first, advice is useful. You learn how aperture changes depth of field, how shutter speed affects motion, and how light shapes a subject. You begin to understand the camera instead of merely hoping it gives you something usable.

Then the advice keeps coming.

Every image should have a clear subject. The shadows should be opened. The highlights should be protected. The background should be simplified. The colors should be corrected. The horizon should be straight. The eyes should be sharp. The crop should follow one rule or another.

None of that is useless.

The problem begins when you stop looking at the photograph and start checking whether it obeys everything you have been told.

I have caught myself doing this...

Podcast Notes: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/why-we-keep-photographs/

Photography Clips Podcast: https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/

Music From the Doctor's Office: https://musicfromthedoctorsoffice.com