Jay Maisel quotes:

If you're not your own severest critic, you are your own worst enemy.

I'm a New Yorker. I don't believe in air unless I can see it.

I take pictures, and they are there for the taking. I'll tell you a quote that I have always thought about. Arthur Miller said, I try to create the poem from the evidence.

... there's one of the great lies of all times, that computers save time. They don't. They're time suckers. So, I'm trying not to get involved in the Photoshop.

If the light is great in front of you, you should turn around and see what it is doing behind you.

Always carry a camera, it's tough to shoot a picture without one.

First, perseverance trumps talent. Second, do what you want to do, otherwise why bother? Third, be ethical; it might rub off on others. Fourth, don't give up.

Photography is an act of love.

Failing is not a problem. Not trying is a problem.

Some have said that if you take a great picture in color and take away the color, you'll have a great black-and-white picture. But if you're shooting something about color and you take away the color, you'll have nothing.

If you're not shooting in the right direction, it doesn't matter how well you're shooting.

I love when pictures ask questions or make others ask questions.

Gesture will survive whatever kind of light you have. Gesture can triumph over anything because of its narrative content.

If you can capture the element of surprise, you're way ahead of the game.

Money and fame that photography can bring you are wonderful, but nothing can compare to the joy of seeing something new.

If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you're not out there, you'll only hear about it.

Try to go out empty and let your images fill you up.

If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person.

The drama of light exists not only in what is in the light, but also in what is left dark. If the light is everywhere, the drama is gone.

Always shoot it now. It won't be the same when you go back.

I try not to tell students where to shoot, when to shoot, or what to shoot. I feel finding the picture is the most important part of being a photographer. The actual shooting is of lesser importance.

It's always around. You just don't see it.

You find that you have to do many things, more than just lift up the camera and shoot, and so you get involved in it in a very physical way. You may find that the picture you want to do can only be made from a certain place, and you're not there, so you have to physically go there. And that participation may spur you on to work harder on the thing, . . . because in the physical change of position you start seeing a whole different relationship.

You are responsible for every part of your image, even the parts you're not interested in.

You always end up with too many pictures to edit and too few that you feel 'got it'.

If you're just going to meet consumer or clients' demands, you might as well be a plumber - the work will be more frequently available.

Light gesture and color of the key compliments of any photograph. Light and color are obvious, but it is just her that is the most important. There is gesture in everything. It's up to you to find a gesture that is most telling.

Don't overthink things in front of you. I fit moves you, shoot it. If it's fun, shoot it. If you've never seen it before, shoot it.

The composition is already there, you just need to crop it

I don't see light as something that falls, but as a positive force.

Never say you're going back - SHOOT IT NOW!

A photographer's art is more in his perceptions than his execution. In a painter, I think the perception is only the first step, and then you have a kind of hard road of execution.

Always wait for the trigger. The trigger is the final part of the puzzle, the reason you want to shoot.

Color really doesn't have interaction if it's full of colors. It's the interaction or relationship among or between colors that makes a color image. This usually happens with a few colors, not a glut of them.

The best camera is the one you have with you.

I want to go out as unprepared as possible so I can get filled up with what the world has to offer.

It's a lot easier to take pictures if you always have the camera with you.

It's not just when you shoot, or what you shot, or where you shoot, it's the combination of the three.

The more light you have in an image, the less drama you get. The details start taking over; the mystery is all gone.

'Color' is quite different from 'colors.' In an image with many colors, we find that all the colors compete with each other rather than interacting with each other. The results" colors.

If you don't have a camera, the best thing you can do is describe how great it looked.

We don't experience light, color, and gesture in a vacuum. We experience it in contexts.

One color alone means nothing. I acts as in a vacuum, with no other colors to relate to. It is only when colors relate to other colors that the fun begins.

You have to have a lot of 'overage' so that your failures aren't the only thing you come home with. You've got to have a lot of things that were magnificent failures, but you want some magnificent successes.

Color is seductive. It changes as it interacts with other colors, it changes because of the light falling upon it, and it changes as it becomes larger in size.

You see shape, and how the light hits things, how the color changes from one end of the photo to the other, and how movement affects the mood of the photo.

Pain is not a conduit to art or joy

Each picture you take has power as long as it brings experience to the person who's looking at it.

Every picture should have a place you can go, a home, a climax.

You will, in time, see and show others not just the superficial, but the details, the meanings, and the implications of all that you look at ...

As people, we love pattern. But interrupted pattern is more interesting.

There are rules about perception, but not about photography.

You must not think of yourself as looking at the stage from the audience. You must think of it as theatre in the round and look at it from all sides.

What you're shooting at doesn't matter, the real question is: 'Does it give you joy?'

There really isn't anything that you could call 'bad' color. It all has to do with the amount of color you use and in what context it appears.

You cannot accurately remember color ...

Keep your mind open. You may very well learn something new about yourself and your pictures.

You can't just turn on when something happens, you have to be turned on all the time. Then things happen.

When you shoot, that is opportunity number one to make a statement. When you edit, you have opportunity number two to make your statement. It could be an affirmation of your first choice or could go off in another direction.

It's important to realize that the images are everywhere, not just where you want or expect them to be.

The whole world is there for you. Gifts will happen, but only if you are patient with life itself, the shooting process, and your own limitations.

There is no one solution to all problems. It's the problem itself that can lead to the solution.

When finding the right angle for a shot...'Move your ass.'

Allow yourself to lose your way.

Never put lettering in your photos unless you want it read.

Be aware of every square millimeter of your frame.

You sort of have to be always aware, even when you're not thinking of shooting. That's when the best stuff happens.

All these factors are only valuable if you're curious. But in any case, the more knowledge you have, the more things are open and available to you.

It's my obligation to take out all the 'wrong' pictures.

You must be open to what otherwise may seem to be a detriment to your 'plans'.

Gesture is not always action.

Remember that most people (those who are not photographers) don't even see the things that you missed. Many don't even look. Ergo, you are way ahead of the game.

Since the background is as important as the subject, you mustn't let it default by chance. You must control not only vertical and horizontal, you must be aware of the depth of field (or lack of it) that you want in the background.

As you see something that yo want to shot and it's bearing down on you, it's important to start framing long before the subject gets close to you. The light will reveal itself possibly long before you want to take the image, but you have to wait until the picture comes to you, and if you've been anticipating carefully when the subject will be in position, the background will have been figured out in advance.

You have to pick the right tool for the point you're trying to make and there is no one solution.

The problem suggests the solution.

We have always wanted to find the 'it-ness' of anything we shoot. We want to get as deep into the subject as we can.

The pictures are everywhere. If you're open, they will find you.

Sometimes without shooting a picture germinates in your head. Other times, you keep taking pictures of the same thing and watch the images mature and grow.

Sometimes as you work, you find that you are learning things about your own perceptions and motivations that are way below you consciousness. If you get lucky, you recognize what you are doing, but all too often we don't find the connection between our work and our own motivations.

The awareness of the quality of space in out photos is akin to our awareness of the very air in our photos, the atmosphere that pervades every square inch of our image and yet is often invisible to the photographer.

When we are given gifts, we must be quick and able to accept them.

Forget what it was. Look at what it is.

You have to learn not only from your failures. You must also learn from your successes.

You have to let the past successes go, or you'll never be able to see anew.

You need minimum color for maximum effect.

There is no bad light. There is spectacular light and difficult light. It's up to you to use the light you have.

Had I not been told to look, I would have quite, ignorant of what was really there, because I had 'made plans' and was wearing visual and emotional blinders that limited my perceptions and my vision.