THE MOMENT WASN’T GONE. IT JUST HADN’T HAPPENED YET.

I used to see something interesting, take the photo, and before anything could change, I was already gone.

I saw it.

I photographed it.

Kept moving.

Then later I’d go back through the images expecting to feel something.

And sometimes I just… didn’t.

Not because the moment wasn’t real.

I just never stayed long enough to let it become anything.

I think for a long time I treated photography like the moment was either there or it wasn’t.

Either I saw it in time.

Or I missed it.

So if I took the photo and it didn’t work, I’d just move on.

But eventually I started realizing that sometimes nothing was wrong with the place.

Nothing was wrong with the light.

Nothing was even wrong with what I saw.

I was just early.

There was something there.

I could feel it.

I just didn’t know what it was yet.

And that changed the way I thought about missing a photograph.

Because I used to think if I didn’t see the moment immediately, I had already lost it.

But sometimes I started seeing the possibility of a photo before I actually saw the photo.

So I’d wait.

Not because I knew something was going to happen.

I didn’t.

I just knew there might be something there worth staying for.

The moment wasn’t gone.

It just hadn’t happened yet.

So instead of taking the photo and immediately leaving, I started staying a little longer.

Watching.

Waiting.

Seeing what changed.

Sometimes somebody would walk into the frame.

Sometimes the light would hit differently.

Sometimes something that felt completely unimportant five seconds ago suddenly became the entire photograph.

And sometimes nothing happened at all.

That’s part of it too.

Then I started to feel like maybe it wasn’t always about finding these moments.

Sometimes it was just letting them transpire.

STAY CURIOUS

A note every now and then about photography, filmmaking, and learning to see.

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