Following on from this one, and probably due to the interminable state of lockdown and my reduced expectations for my photography, here’s another stream of recent photographic consciousness.

1. Always take a camera with you, even to the supermarket.
2. A camera gives you a license to see.
3. As a photographer you deal in things which are vanishing. When they are gone nothing can make them come back again.
4. Reading a good photography book is like entering someone else’s dream, you experience what they have seen, felt and thought.
5. Life is precious, photograph it.
6. Simplicity always trumps complexity and overthinking. Always.
7. Photography tears a fraction of a second out of the great flow of time and freezes it for ever.
8. Take time out for your photography, the most unlikely of days can often yield one or two memorable images.
9. Making just one memorable photo a month is not a bad goal.
10. With a camera you not only discover the external world but also the internal world – this has to be the key to a meaningful life.
11. Photographs are all around us, all you have to do is go out and find them.
12. You don’t have to go on an expensive flight to a faraway place to make images – sometimes they can be just around the corner.
13. You cannot expect a big event to fall from the sky every time you go out with your camera. Just be patient and pay attention to detail.
14. Your camera is saying “take me out somewhere, let’s go on an adventure”.
15. Life is really precious, keep photographing it!
16. If buying a new piece of kit will get you out there, making images then buy it. If it won’t, then spend your money more wisely.
17. Photography happens fast, right in front of your eyes. Be ready to capture that fleeting moment.
18. Like the fish that got away, the image you didn’t make will continue to haunt you.
19. There is beauty in ordinary things if you just observe, think and look.
20. Create images that show the bitter-sweet moments of everyday life.

With thanks to the following for their inspiration: Joel Mayerowititz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Philip Jones Griffiths, Sean Tucker and Deanna Dikeman.

ansel adams henri cartier bresson joel meyerowitz sean tucker