’ve often wondered why I stop to photograph one thing and walk straight past another.
It isn't always the grand view.
More often, it's something smaller — light falling in an unexpected place, a reflection changing something familiar, a person appearing briefly within a much larger scene, or a detail that suddenly separates itself from everything around it.
Look beyond the obvious
When I started taking photographs, I probably looked for photographs.
These days, I think I simply look.
The difference matters.
A beautiful landscape may be right in front of me, but my attention might be caught by a solitary tree at its edge. In a remarkable building, it could be the repetition of a few lines or the way someone moves through a patch of light.
Sometimes the interesting photograph isn't the obvious one.
Pay attention to what makes you pause
I've also learned not to dismiss that first moment of curiosity.
If something makes me stop, there's usually a reason — even if I can't immediately explain it.
Light. Space. Stillness. Scale. Colour. Movement.
Those little responses have become a kind of visual vocabulary for me. They appear in very different photographs, taken in very different places, but the instinct behind them is often the same.
Perhaps that is also why certain photographs work in a space.
Before we understand them, they make us pause.
And sometimes that's enough.
Two things to take away:
Look beyond the obvious. Pay attention to what makes you pause.