It’s all about ‘seeing’

I make no excuses in that the featured image on this post was not taken by me. It was actually taken by my wife on her way to work, using her iPhone. I posted in on social media, and it has accumulated more ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ than my last 10 social media posts when added together. But why?

The simple answer: it is a stunning photograph, taken at the right time, and which would probably be difficult to reproduce. My wife hasn’t had any training in photography, doesn’t own a camera (apart from the one on her phone), and doesn’t even have an interest in photography as a hobby. She just takes shots as she sees them.

And it is the ‘seeing’ that is the difference. I am the first to admit that even having spent the last 40+ years taking photographs ‘seriously’, I am hopeless in ‘seeing’ a good photograph when it appears in front of me and have to plan every shot in advance. Why is that? I have no idea, and it is probably too late to worry about it now. I doubt that I can retrain my brain to be more receptive to the world around me and will just have to get used to the fact that ‘reactive’ photography isn’t my strong point.

What about yo? Do you take photographs ‘on-the fly’ or do you need time to plan and think about every shot before you take it?