14/09/2026
📷 **MY ART OF SEEING – THE JOURNEY FROM TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS TO MAKING PICTURES**
Over the past year, something has been changing in the way I approach photography.
I've been spending a lot of time learning about **Photography and the Art of Seeing**, and it has made me question something I had never really thought deeply about before.
**What is the difference between taking a photograph and making a picture?**
For a long time, I thought photography was about finding something interesting, composing it, getting the exposure right, focusing and pressing the shutter.
But I'm beginning to realise there is much more to it than that.
Photography starts before the shutter is pressed.
It starts with **seeing**.
I grew up in Western NSW on a sheep and cattle station, where the landscape seemed to stretch forever. As a kid, I didn't think about things like visual design, shapes, patterns, negative space or colour relationships.
I simply lived amongst the landscape.
But looking back now, I wonder whether that was where my seeing really began.
The wide-open country, the enormous skies, the changing light, the trees, the fences, the shadows and the colours were always there.
I just didn't have the words to describe what I was seeing.
As I became more involved in photography, I naturally became interested in the technical side.
Cameras.
Lenses.
Exposure.
Shutter speeds.
Aperture.
Composition.
All of these things are important.
But eventually I started asking myself a different question:
**"What am I actually trying to say with this photograph?"**
That question changed things for me.
I've started trying to look beyond the object.
A tree isn't necessarily just a tree.
It can be a shape.
A building can become lines, patterns and shadows.
The ocean can become colour, texture and movement.
A reflection can become the photograph itself.
And suddenly, the world becomes a completely different place to photograph.
I've also discovered that I don't always need the camera to behave the way I was taught it should.
This is one reason I've become fascinated with **ICM – Intentional Camera Movement**.
Instead of keeping everything perfectly still and perfectly sharp, I can move the camera.
I can experiment.
I can allow colour to stretch.
I can turn objects into shapes.
I can create movement where there was none.
And sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to create until after I've pressed the shutter.
That's part of the fun.
I'm learning to photograph with **feeling**.
Sometimes I plan.
Sometimes I think carefully.
And sometimes I simply see something, react and shoot by the seat of my pants.
Not every photograph works.
That's okay.
The failures are part of learning too.
I'm also learning that photographic rules are tools, not prisons.
Rule of thirds.
Leading lines.
Symmetry.
Balance.
Correct exposure.
Correct colour.
Sharpness.
They all have their place.
But I don't believe we should become so focused on following the rules that we forget to actually **see**.
For me, the most important part of photography is becoming more aware of what is around me.
Looking at shapes.
Looking at light.
Looking at shadows.
Looking at colour.
Looking at relationships.
Looking at patterns.
Looking at movement.
And perhaps most importantly, looking at things that other people might simply walk past.
I've started thinking of myself less as a **picture taker** and more as a **picture maker**.
The camera is only the tool.
**The photograph comes from me.**
My experiences.
My imagination.
My emotions.
My way of seeing.
Two photographers can stand in exactly the same place and make completely different photographs.
The difference isn't necessarily the camera.
It's the person behind it.
So this is where my photography is heading.
I'm still learning.
Still experimenting.
Still making mistakes.
Still discovering new ways of seeing.
But I'm enjoying the journey.
Because the more I learn to see, the more I realise just how much there is to see.
📷 **I don't just want to take photographs anymore.**
**I want to make pictures.**
And perhaps the greatest lesson photography is teaching me is this:
**Don't just look at the world. Learn to see it.**
