Alain Briot

Hi Stan, Thank you for your comments. Moderation has to be exercised in all things, including critique! This is part 2 of a 4 parts essay. I have more to say about all this in the next 2 parts. Alain

Hi Paul, Thank you for your comments. This is part 1 of a 4 parts series. Make sure to read the other 3 installments also on NPN. Best regards, Alain

Hi Robert, Thank you for your comments. I am pleased you enjoyed these 2 essays. Best regards, ALain

Stan and Mohsen, Thank you for your comments. I am pleased you enjoyed this essay. Audience is a particular interest of mine, one, as you say, that is too often ignored. Yet, it is very important. ALain

Hi Bill, Thank you for your comments. There's one more installment to come next month: Achieving your personal style. Stay tuned. Incidentally, this series of 4 essays are part of my upcoming book: Mastering Composition, Inspiration and Personal Style. Detailed information on the book as well as a pre-announcement list are available on my web site. The book will be available in August of this year. Alain

Hi Mark, Thank you very much for your compliments. I am pleased you enjoyed this series of essays. Alain

Thanks David :-)

Hi Richard, These are great points. I also recommend looking at the photography and teaching style of the instructor as well as his/her personality. I do all I can to help prospective students learn who I am and how I teach by writing essays, publishing books and showing photographs of myself and Natalie (my wife) "at work" as well as photos of students taken during workshops. The last thing you want is find yourself in a workshop realizing you do not like the instructor's style or personality!

After writing this essay I created a wallpaper version to use on your computer. It is free and you can download it at this link: http://beautiful-landscape.com/P-Wallpaper/index.html

Hi Ed, Great. Thank you for your comments. Also, this essay is chapter 7 in my third book, Marketing Fine Art Photography. The book will be available later this year (2010). You can download the table of contents and cover when you subscribe to my newsletter on my site at http://www.beautiful-landscape.com

Hi Sue, Yes, you are welcome to use this for your presentation provided you mention that I am the author (Alain Briot) and that you provide a link to my website (www.beautiful-landscape.com). You can confirm by posting here or by emailing me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com Glad you enjoyed the essay. Best regards, Alain

Sue, Thank you. I use this list (and other materials) during my workshops. I also add comment and show examples for each of the 15 points. Best regards, Alain

Hi Stan, Well, art does bring people together, but since opinions greatly differ in regard to what is (or isn't) art, opinions about art are polarized by nature. Just look at who attends a specific concert and you will see that you do not have the entire demographics present. The same is true for art exhibitions. Not everyone likes Mapplethorpe, or Picasso, or (place the artist of your choice here)... Alain

Hi Richard, I'm with you. While I did participate in contests a long time ago, I stopped participation when I realized that photography, and by extension art, is not a competitive 'sport' (read 'endeavor'). I also refuse to be a judge in photo competitions, something I was asked to do several times. If I want competition, I can take my cars on the track! Much more fun and there's an infaillible way of knowing who's the winner: it's whoever crossed the finish line first. Not so easy with art, as you very effectively pointed out. Alain Briot

Rodney, No problem. Yes, the cost of materials is recovered through adequate pricing. In fact, in fine art pricing, the cost of the materials is negligible. Even though high quality materials are used, they amount to a very small percentage of the selling price.

Hi Rodney, This essay is part of my book on Marketing Fine Art Photography. The jest of the book is to focus on quality, rather than quantity, in order to sell your work at a profitable price point. In a quality-based marketing model, quality comes first and cost is secondary. The increase in production costs will be more than accounted for with the higher prices you will be able to set for your work. Plus, you built a reputation for high quality work and this reputation, in turn, increases your leverage (pricing in a quality-based model is primarily leverage-based, while in a quantity mo

Stan, You made your goal to represent nature faithfully so that your work stands as a record of nature as it really is. That's great and that is your artistic license. However, you can't ask everyone who photographs nature to do the same. There are many reasons why one creates images of nature, nature conservation being only one of them. Alain

Stan, I'm not talking only about landscape photography. I may need to add this to the essay so there's no misunderstanding. You say it yourself: "When I look out my window i see smoke stacks, power lines, roads, etc. That's what most of us see. " This is partly why I say reality is boring, even if for me it goes way beyond seeing something that's unpleasing. "If it's not real, why should they care?" For the same reasons people care about art movements that do not represent reality. Surrealism, Cubism, Fauvism, etc. are popular movements

Thank you Bill. Yes, purpose defines the direction you take for your photography. Glad you enjoyed the essay. Alain

Guy, Fair use is fine and doesn't justify defensive action. However, it is still necessary for the user to ask permission and to give credit to the author, none of which was done in the instance I describe here. In fact, lack of author credit, removal of copyright notice and comparable actions are sure indicators that the use isn't fair. Wikipedia makes use of a lot of image under the creative commons and other free users, but they are very clear about who the author is. ALain

Hi Guy, I assume you mean 'principles' not 'principals', as in "I have principles' and not 'the school principal will see you now.' Also the link (HP Robinson) does not work. Neither does your link work in the response you posted to my essay. Other than that I enjoyed your responses. Best regards, Alain

No problem. You are ahead of me regarding Java. I'm not even sure how to use html in these posts to get double spacing!

Hi Paul, Very informative reviews, short and to the point. There's just a typo in regards to Plateaus and Canyons, the 3rd book in this review. The book is published by Rocky Nook, not newriders. The publisher is actually on the front cover plus I am one of their authors, so I couldn't help but notice it. Great reviews nevertheless. Thank you. Alain

Ed and Marylynne, You are welcome. It feels good to get rid of guilt, especially since it has no place in art. There is absolutely no reason to feel guilty because you are creating images that express how you feel. It is those who make you feel guilty --the nasty critics--who need to be ashamed of themselves. If they bug you, tell them this: Tss tss, shame on you nasty critics! Go back to your work and create interesting images that express how you feel instead of giving a hard time to those who are doing what they love! If you don't like it, then look for an artist whose work you like in

Hi Bill, I completely agree with everything you say. To answer your question as to why some criticize others, I personally believe, based on my experience, that they are unhappy with their own work, and often with their own lives. They can also be jealous. Some are frustrated, and some want to gain attention that way, because they feel they are not getting any attention through their work. The best is to leave them alone. As a general rule, I leave negative-thinking people alone as soon as I find out that they are negative. I refuse to engage in any sort of interaction with them. I

" can you explain why you chose photography as an art form as opposed to painting? -- Pete Rose " Hi Pete, You know, I think that after studying painting full time for 6 solid years, doing nothing else, I was ready for a change.  That's when I learned photography.  As I learned, I enjoyed the combination of art and science that photography offers.  There were lots of things in photography that painting did not offer, and I believe this was a big factor in choosing one over the other.  That being said, I continue to do pain

Hi Harry, Perhaps my artist statement, which you can read at this link : http://beautiful-landscape.com/Artist-Statement.html will help you familiarize yourself with what I do in my work. Personal style is often confused with art movement. While art movements generate noticeable differences between artists, such as between Impressionists and Surrealists artists for example, differences between the personal style of artists working in the same movement are much more low key. If you compare your work to mine, you will see that there are noticeable differences. This is because we each have a diff

hi Kory, Great article. I mountain biked the White Rim a few years back, taking 5 days, with support vehicles. That was in the Spring and we had a snowstorm one night with howling winds. Cold but beautiful scenery in the morning. I have great memories of the trip. I couldn't climb the last bit of the Sheaffer trail either, not because it was muddy but because my technical and physical skills wouldn't allow it! Thank you again for the memories and writing. Alain

Using a single lens is a technique that can foster creativity and possibly reinforce, or initiate, vision. It is based on one of the fundamental art concept: 'less is more.' However, sometimes 'more is more', meaning that using this technique by itself is not enough. Instead, learning the fundamental art concepts is much more effective. In the 70's and 80's just about every SLR was sold with a 50mm lens and for many photographers this remained their only lens. Still, we did not see an increase in creativity or vision during that time. In some ways there was a low