“The best part of us is not what we see, it’s what we feel. We are what we see, we are not what we look at. We are not our eyeballs, we’re our mind. People believe their eyeballs, and they’re totally wrong. … That’s why I consider most photographs extremely boring–just like Muzak: inoffensive, charming, another waterfall, another sunset. This time, colors have been added to protect the innocent. It’s just boring. But that whole arena of one’s experience–grief, loneliness–how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these things? This is what you are, not what you see. It’s all sitting up here. I could do all my work sitting in my room. I don’t have to go anywhere.”

I could not agree more with that middle section. I see lots of photos that show an excellent grasp on the technical aspects of photography or experience in post processing or, what I have before called, just another pretty picture. I look at it and think, “hm, that’s nice”, but the photo does not say anything, does not mean anything, does not emote, does not express, has no story.

And I am not just talking about art photography either. Documentary photography, my primary focus, is just the same. Open your local newspaper, and more than likely, you will find a wide variety of photographs that say absolutely nothing. “Well, this was my assignment, and there is the shot. Done.”

And as for me, sure, I take boring photos all the time. We all do. But I still strive to tell stories, to catch emotion in action, and to let life speak through my photos.

I guess there is a lot more to it than just “shoot a lot”, though that is a huge component. In that interview, Chase even said that (taking a lot of pictures) is the most under discussed aspect of our development. We have to know what works, and for the most part, that is learned through looking at hundreds of your own photos that just did not accomplish what you wanted and then going back out and figuring out how to make it work.

One of the first questions I had after thinking that through for a few minutes was this: “if we need to be shooting a lot, are we prepared with the tools necessary to actually go through those photos?”

Basically, the more photos you shoot, the more you will feel the need for a streamlined workflow, which probably involves software made for that purpose. If you are “one at a timing” it, you will kill yourself and probably just quit shooting so much because you do not have the time to process the photos…I have been there. And maybe, your solution is just to try a lot and junk most of them simply from viewing on the camera’s LCD screen. That works. Most folks are not gutsy enough to just delete it, though.

For me, RAWstudio has been a great help in this area. This free (open source) RAW workflow software makes it so much easier to run through dozens or hundreds of photos from the day’s shooting. I love it. Most folks out there use the more mainstream (and costly) workflow programs like Adobe’s Lightroom or Apple’s Aperture, though. Those are more powerful, but the point is that we have to find the software tools that allow us to shoot a lot, which allows us to close that “creative gap” in our photographic development, and even though I am limited by money (i.e. I cannot pay hundreds for the big guns), that does not mean I cannot have a great workflow program at my disposal.

Anyway, who is Chase Jarvis? Well, in brief, I would describe him as a GenX, self-trained, highly creative photographer who does not seem to function by the normal rules of the photo game…in a refreshing way. I keep up with him because I get a very clear feeling he does what he does because of a deeper passion and love. Check out his portfolio and you will get a very good idea of what I am talking about.