The Photograph You Nearly Didn't Take
Not every photograph needs perfect light, expensive equipment or careful planning. Sometimes the important thing is simply noticing the moment before it disappears.
Some photographs announce themselves.
The light is perfect. The location is obvious. You already know roughly what you want the picture to look like before you lift the camera.
Others last a couple of seconds.
Just noticing
Photography has made me pay more attention.
Light hitting something differently. A reflection. Someone laughing when they don't realise you're watching. An ordinary place briefly looking anything but ordinary.
None of it waits while you work out the perfect settings.
Sometimes you take the picture anyway.
Technically imperfect
It might be slightly noisy.
The composition might not be exactly what you'd choose if you could recreate the moment.
Maybe the only camera available is the phone in your pocket.
But years later, you probably won't care what ISO it was shot at.
You'll care about what was happening.
That's increasingly what I want from photography: not a collection of technically perfect images, but a record of things worth remembering.
The photograph you nearly didn't take might eventually be the one that matters most.
