See the world like a photographer

Have you ever walked past something beautiful without even noticing it?

If you have, you’re not alone, and this is a skill that separates great photographers from the people who take snapshots.

Great photographers really look and see what is there. And it goes beyond simply seeing something. They take  it further and apply the important elements that make up a great photograph:

They’re looking at the light, perhaps how it changes, where it is coming from, lines, emotions and which compositions would bring out the most impactful image.

So does it really matter? In my opinion, it does. Because the more we can get into the habit of really seeing what is there, the more we will see when it matters, those once-in-a-lifetime experiences where the photographs are the only lasting record.

So, to build your observation muscles, I suggest you try the following exercise:

• Firstly, slow down. 
• Look for the light; notice where it falls and how it changes.
• Take a deep breath and let go of distractions. Allow yourself to be fully in the environment and then look around.

One exercise you can do right now is to simply take a look around. Notice:

• One source of light
• One colour contrast
• One emotion on a person’s face.

Another exercise is to challenge yourself to notice “5 things today” and keep working those muscles!

And you can share your photographs on my Facebook page: Graham Elliott Photography.

It's time for another podcast...

Please take a look at the 2026 Wildlife Calendar. It's available now.

Transcript

>> Graham: 0:08

Foreign and welcome to another podcast. My name is Graeme Elliott and I'm going to ask you to join me on something of an experiment. So this is likely to be a short sequence of podcasts and they're basically looking at how do you think like a photographer. So what I want to do in these podcasts is to get you thinking about how a photographer sees the world and what's different about that. And the reason for doing this simply is that I think if you start thinking this way and you change how you observe things, this is where you start to shift and you started to. Your work moves into a place where you start to produce work as good as the people who are inspiring you at the moment. So hopefully that made some sense. So please remember to like and subscribe this podcast. And here we go. So the first thing I've thought about with this is something that I've certainly done a lot and that's. Have you ever walked past something that's actually quite amazing, very beautiful, without even noticing it? And once I stopped to think about that, I realized there are an awful lot of things I just walked past and I think we do that day to day. the, one of the I guess triggers for me when this happened was when I was in Circular Quay with we're observers when I first started getting involved with Shane and Colin, who you may know through other podcasts. And we were down at Circular Quay in Sydney, which if you don't know is kind of tourist central. You've got the Harbour Bridge on one side, the Opera House on the other. And it's also a major ferry port for the the ferries that serve Sydney. So we were actually meeting near one of the ferry quays where everybody gets a ticket and goes through the barriers and jumps on a ferry. And in the railings there are these little details. There are very small dolphins in there and there are lots of them. And I don't know how many times I've been through Circular Quay. I don't tend to commute on it, but I do use it with reasonably regularly for one thing and another. And I'd never noticed these dolphins. And to me that really underlined the power of observation. And to me that's what separates a photographer, a really good photographer, from people who take snapshots, if that's making sense. And to give full credit to Shane and full credit to Colin, this is where certainly Shane's Weir observers idea comes from. I think it's Shane's and the whole point is that we're all observers or good photographers or observers. You don't actually need a camera to be a good observer, but the best photographers really see what's going on around them. So I'm, I'm going to just cover a few things in this particular podcast. One of them is the difference between looking and seeing. I mean we all, if you think about it, even if you think about what you do every day, maybe your journey to work or to school or whatever it might be, there are lots of things around and we can, we can sort of really have a look at what's there. But do we really see what's there? Are we stopping and looking at, ah, what's really there? And one of my favorite things, and I used to do this a lot when I went to London, was to rather than just walk around these very historical places. Actually even the just ordinary streets have got a huge history. Most of them certainly compared to a lot of other places, like for example, Australia, where I've lived for a long time. And I would just look up a little bit, just elevate my head, just change my view, and all of a sudden I can see lots of other things. So one of my things, I like to look at the details in buildings because they give you a clue to the story of that particular building. So, often it's where there was a door or a window and it's been bricked in at some stage. And perhaps that's because the function of the building has changed. It could have been a warehouse, for example. Now it's a hotel or an office block. if you go, if you are in Sydney and you go down to the rocks with some of the office buildings, if you go back a street or two, these buildings were originally warehouses because the rocks is where a lot of the, ships used to come in and unload, before they got bigger. And the nature of that area changed. So those buildings were at one stage, use of storage. And you can actually see it in the brickwork. You can see where lintels with no window or no door. But there are in places they've left some pulleys. And these pulleys would be generally in the center of a m. Big window if you like, or a doorway one, or two floors up. And there would be rope running through it. And that's how you would haul goods, whatever they were up into the warehouse. So the clues are there if you look around. So this to me is the difference between Just I guess, casually looking at what's around and then really seeing what's there. So taking that a step further, what are we doing as, photographers? So we're also looking at things like the lines, we're looking at shapes, we're looking at lights. and also there can be an emotional aspect to it, to what's going on. So that might be, generally where you've got living things, whether it's people, animals or something else. But there's some sort of a connection with what's going on. And obviously composition is a big part of it too. So a good thing to think about is when you look at something, how does it look as you would see it? So I'm assuming most of you see in color, and how does it look when it's in black and white? Because black and white is a very different way of looking at something. And if you've never tried it, I do recommend you take a photograph of something, maybe a wall or, something with windows in it. but anything, anything really, and look at it in color, which is how we normally see things. And then just use Photoshop or something else, Lightroom, to just take the color out, make it a monochrome, make it black and white. And what happens is that, that shape, rather than being about things. So you might see a person, so you know that's a person. You might see an animal, a dog, you know that's a dog. you might see a building because it's got walls and windows and things. But when you switch it to black and white, it becomes all about shapes and textures. So suddenly what you're seeing is quite different. You saw. You're starting to see how smooth something is or how coarse. there might be fine patterns that you hadn't noticed before when you switch to black and white. people's skin is actually an interesting one. It's one to think about if you do black and white portraits. Because black and white will often pull out imperfections in the skin. m. So perhaps not flattering, but it's definitely something to be aware of. So when we switch to black and white, you're looking at shapes and textures. And this is a great thing to sort of swing back again when you're just walking around really looking and seeing what's there. And start looking in terms of shapes, textures, the lighting. I've mentioned lighting already, but lighting at different times of day, particularly when the sun is low or the sun is kind of edge on to something thing. That's when it really brings out shadows. And, for example, an, example of using that. Going back a bit now, but with the moon landings, they deliberately aimed to land at a certain time of the lunar day because the shadows were much easier to see. And that made it easier to see the edges of craters and things like that. So you've got a clearer relief view of whatever it is. And it might be a wall or something else. So start looking around and start looking at what's really there. And obviously, the key thing about this is you don't need a camera to do this. So you could be just on your way to work or on your way to school or whatever it is you're doing. And the thing to do, though, there are three very simple things to do. The first is to slow down. And when you slow down, just look for shapes, lines, shadows, reflections, how you might photograph that scene but have a look at what's there. so that's very first thing. Look at the light, look at where it falls, how it changes. Look at shadows. How does the angle of the light interact with whatever it is you're looking at? if you're in a golden hour, what's the difference in the colors? how do reflections change the light? How can you. If you were to photograph that scene, how would you make use of reflections? Is there a time of day that gives you a more impactful image? And the final thing is to just practice being there. So it's actually to just let go, of distractions. I always find a good thing to do there is to just stop and take a good deep breath, let it out slowly, and then have a good look around. Because that way you're really there. You're not thinking about what just happened the way you've got to be in five minutes. You're just giving yourself that, gift of time, which is something I think a lot of us don't do because we lead very busy lives. So even without the photography aspect, it's a great thing to do every now and again. But just stop, take a deep breath, and then slowly have a look around. Really look and see what's there. And maybe you'll see things as I did that you've walked past maybe dozens or hundreds of times and you'd never even noticed. So this is something that really good photographers will do. They'll take in a scene, and this is the kind of thing they're looking at. They're looking for light, they're looking for the shadows. I was, in a hide photographing. Bears in Finland a few weeks ago. And one of the things I noticed, I was photographing this bear and it was gradually walking away. It actually been scared off a meal by a bigger bear that had kind of seemed to be a bit of a bully, actually gone off, chased the other one away a bit, and then he just wandered off and left everything. So the bear that had been chased off, it had gone towards some trees. There's fine pine trees. It's like a forest there. And the sun was behind me and I just became aware of these bands of light on the trees. There was at the top of the trees, there was a very bright sort of orangey band where that sun going down. And being Finland in the summer, it didn't go down all the way. So that was me sitting on my chair. but there was this. We're definitely in the golden hour period. So there's a golden band of light and then there's a variation of shadow as you go down the trees and then more towards the. The bear walls. And I just thought how amazing that looked. It was just the bands of the color. And so things like this are good things to stop and look at. Now, you may or may not want to do anything with it, but the fact is, once you know they're there, you have the choice. So think about doing that, think about just stopping. And a great place to start is where you live and your daily walk or your daily routine, because you're there anyway. And, also it's. You don't have to go anywhere to do it. You can just go ahead and do it and maybe take a camera with you, maybe see what you can get. So I'm going to suggest, an exercise that you can do. And it is a good way of just building up this, this muscle, if you like, of observation. So there's a couple of things I'm going to suggest you do. So the first one is just right now to just take a look around you. If you're driving, obviously look at the car in front and everything else you need to be aware of. But, just have a look around you and look for a few things. So the first one to notice is one source of light. So is there just one source of light or do you have multiples? If you're during the day, it might be the sun. If it's bright, sunny day, if it's at night, there'll be other things. So just look around though. What are the sources of light, what's driving the light? And then look for one color contrast. So take a look around and look for one colored contrast. And then the third thing to look for is just one emotion on a person's face. So if you're hopefully with people somewhere where you're listening to this, but just, I mean, you know, have a look around, but don't be too. Don't be on a train or something and upset someone because you're looking at them, that kind of thing. But have a look around and just look at an emotion on, look for one emotion on a person's face. And you can take that a step further with the visual storyteller idea and just, you know, what's the story there? And the great thing about photography and the great thing about people is that when you present an image that has someone with an emotion, what we tend to do is we'll create a story if we don't know what it is. So it's just one of the things we do, but it's, just another thing to play with. Okay, and then another challenge for you is just pick five things to notice today. Just do that as a challenge. So what do I mean by that? It's just on your, Whatever you're doing each day, maybe do it for a week, just to start working the muscle. But for each day, just set yourself the task of noticing five things that are there and maybe have been there every day, that you've gone past this place or walked through this place, but you hadn't actually noticed before. Obviously you also might have a situation where something new happens, so hopefully you would notice that. But the key about this is to get you really having a very good look and really seeing what is fair. Okay, so I'm gonna wind this one up. So it's a little bit short, but I'm thinking I might do these as sort of smaller chunks of, podcasts, but with these little challenges in. So what do we want to do? What's the purpose of this? Well, as I've said at the start, for me, the, the secret to really good photographs is to really see what's there, but see it through the eyes of a photographer, not just, you know, and seeing. Well, there's a dog, you know, or there's a little dolphin in the railing. But, that's a kind of first level observation, if you like. But what I want you to start thinking about if, you want to challenge yourself is to think of it from the perspective of a photographer. So what would you do? What are the, what are the aspects of what you're looking at that you could use in a. To make it an interesting photograph. Because this is what really good photographers do. They're looking at light, they're looking at shapes, they're looking at other aspects that could form part of a composition that might be reflections, leading lines, all those sorts of things. what can you see in that scene? And if there are people or even animals, is there an emotional context to it? Or can you create the space in an image for emotion to be there? So what I mean by that is you can take a photograph of the person or an animal and they'll have an expression, but it doesn't have to be an obvious one. It could be more subtle. So Mona Lisa is a great example of that. people argue about what the expression is because what you're doing when you look at an image like that, you're looking at it through the lens of your own life experience. So what you see actually becomes something of a reflection of you. And, that's kind of where these things become art, in my opinion and the way I teach photography. So that's the idea to get really good. But looking at what's around and really seeing the world through the eyes of a photographer and how a photographer would see it and just do exercises at. Just practice doing it. You don't, as I say, you don't need a camera. You can do it while you're doing your everyday. Whatever you do every day, if it's going to the shops, going to school, going to work, just have a start having a good look around, really see what's there, what are the details? What have you been missing? Look up what's above you, what's on the upper floors of a building. you might be surprised. Look down. I. One of the things I love about photographing around my home is I see all sorts of things that I hadn't particularly noticed because I just walked past them and this is exactly what I'm talking about. And one, day I have, the gates at the front of the house where I live in France. And I was walking out to close them one evening and there was a little beetle there. And I nipped back in and grabbed a camera, because this little beetle, it looked like I'd been in a fight, actually. It's a bit dented, but it was just walking over the gravel on the drive and working its way through the, just whatever weeds were growing there. But these little dramas are going on all around us and whatever drives you in your Photography. For me, it's about story, it's about, sharing experience visually. I'm a very visual person anyway, so that helps. And the more you look, I think the more you find because you start to see there are all these little dramas going around you all the time. And most of the time we're completely unaware of pretty much all of them. So that's really the suggestion from this podcast. I hope that's something you found useful, thought provoking. If you did, please like subscribe all of that. you're welcome to jump onto the website. There are challenges on there as well, like 14 day challenge. And of course there, there's also downloads. I think there's one maybe at the moment on how to improve your photography straight away. And obviously there are the online courses and you're very welcome to check those out and become a student with me. And they're online so you can do it in your own time. They're small lessons, short chunks where I like to work, and lots and lots of practical exercises with them. Okay, so that's it from me. I hope you found that useful. I shall speak to you again in the next podcast. Bye for now. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Now, I just want to say thank you for tuning in and joining me in the, Wildlife and Adventure Photography podcast. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please give me a, like a subscribe, maybe tell your friends, and by all means leave a comment. And if there is a subject you would like me to cover in the future, please let me know and I'll, be very happy to do my best. So thanks again for, joining me and I look forward to seeing you again. Next podcast. Bye for now.