Part of developing your mind for photography is paying attention to the little things in the world around us. It’s especially difficult when you’re photographing in new places, your bombarded with sensory overload. The trick to taking it all in is standing still… You heard me, standing in one place and looking around.
Our immediate knee-jerk reaction when visiting new places is to walk swiftly from place to place in order to see as much as we can in what little time we may have. You can see why this isn’t such an issue when you’re close to home or in a familiar city, you could just revisit the next day and catch something you may have missed the day before. Ignore your guy instinct next time you visit a new place and stand completely still and just look around, then move slowly and stop again. Stop, move, repeat… Stop, move, repeat.
You’ll amaze yourself at the tiny details you’ll pick up if you give your brain a chance to process everything. If you’re looking for interesting photography then try to find things that stand out, things that break from the norm. The only way you can do this is by looking closely and taking your time.
The lion/man water fountain is located in a bustling little park in New York City and if I hadn’t stopped for a moment to check out the detail I would have missed the sunglasses someone had placed on its face for what I can only presume was to save its little cement eyes from the bright, retina burning, sun rays.
