For this, the first post on my new website, I want to say welcome and pose a big question: once you have become proficient at your medium, how do you evolve as an artist? Put another way, how can I learn to see differently and better? My aspiration for this blog is to explore that question in all its facets, and connect with others who have also found that simply learning new techniques or taking their fundamentals to the “master class” level doesn’t produce more compelling images.

Of course, making your own images and spending time looking at those of others is central, but there is a wall you hit, or, at least I feel like I did, where I can’t get much further, except perhaps very slowly. This was an odd realization for me, and it seems for others—photographers tend to work in isolation, to assume that’s how one should work. Indeed, some of my favorite times in life are the days and half-days I spend out by myself hiking and making photographs, ideally in complete solitude, except for my two dogs. I’m thoroughly convinced this is good for the soul, and I feel the most fully engaged with image-making when I’m free from distractions, but I’m less convinced these days that what I need to improve my craft is just more of that. In between, it seems, some engagement is needed that allows us to bring the new and refined to our next outing.

In that spirit, I intend to post “musings” of the imperfect, the failed, and the unsure. So much of the content about photography (once you exclude gear reviews) comes in the form of accomplishment—the finished, the great achievements, victories posted proudly. I wish more photographers would post about the struggle that preceded the product. Personally, I’m much more interested in questions than answers, so expect wanderings and retractions.