I remember climbing a fence behind our house when I was a kid because I wanted to see what was on the other side.
Beyond the fence there was a small stretch of woodland. Nothing dramatic, just a quiet patch of trees surrounded by fields. But to me it felt like discovering somewhere completely unknown.
I spent hours exploring places like that when I was younger. Walking through fields that led to isolated forests, poking around abandoned buildings, building questionable tree houses with friends that somehow managed to survive longer than they probably should have.
I was always curious about what might be around the next corner, and the corner after that.
Looking back now, I realise that curiosity is probably one of the reasons photography appealed to me so much later in life.
Some of my favourite photographs have come from moments exactly like that. Not from carefully planned locations, but from stumbling across something unexpected that instantly sparks curiosity. A scene that makes you stop walking, take a second look, and start wondering if there might be a photograph there.
Those moments still feel the same as they did when I was younger exploring somewhere new.
I’m a millennial, which means I grew up right on the edge of two different worlds. I still remember a time before the internet was everywhere. We played outside until the street lights came on. If you wanted to see if a friend was home, you knocked on their door. If you wanted to discover somewhere new, you simply went exploring.
You didn’t know what you might find.
And that was the exciting part.
Then the internet arrived and something quietly changed. Curiosity could suddenly be satisfied in minutes. If you wanted to see a place, you didn’t need to visit it. You could search for it.
In many ways the internet is an incredible tool.
But over the years I’ve started to wonder if it has quietly taken away something important, especially when it comes to photography.
Planning the journey vs planning the photograph
This might sound strange coming from someone who runs photography tours.
Planning is a big part of what I do. Understanding locations, sunrise times, weather patterns, tides, and travel logistics is how I get people to the right place at the right time. Without that planning you could spend days wandering around and completely miss the best conditions.
But from my experience guiding tours over the years, I’ve realised there is an important difference between planning the journey and planning the photograph.
Planning the journey helps your photography. Knowing how locations work, how the weather behaves, and when the light might appear dramatically increases your chances of being somewhere interesting when conditions come together.
Planning the photograph itself is something very different. When the image is already fixed in your mind before you even arrive, it becomes much harder to notice what is actually happening in front of you.
The problem with researching photographs
These days it’s incredibly easy to research locations.
A quick search online and you can instantly see hundreds of images taken from the exact viewpoint you’re about to stand in. The composition, the focal length, the time of year, sometimes even the exact conditions someone photographed it in.
Sometimes guests arrive on my tours having already seen almost every photograph from a location. They’ve saved images, built mood boards, and have a clear idea of the photograph they want to take.
It’s completely understandable. The internet makes that incredibly easy to do.
But I’ve noticed that it can quietly change how people experience a place.
When you arrive somewhere with a photograph already in your head, you stop responding to what’s actually in front of you. Instead you start comparing reality to the image you saw online.
If the light is different, the tide is wrong, or the conditions aren’t what you imagined, the place can suddenly feel disappointing.
But the location hasn’t failed.
The expectation has.
A moment from Lofoten
One moment from a recent trip to Lofoten in Norway perfectly captures this idea.
We had just parked the van and were walking towards a viewpoint I know well. It’s a location many photographers visit, and like most places in Lofoten there’s a fairly obvious composition people usually aim for.
But before we even reached the viewpoint, something caught our attention.
To the side of the road were rows of old wooden fish drying racks stretching across the snow. The road curved gently through the scene, leading the eye towards a white building sitting quietly beneath the towering peak of Olstind disappearing into the mist.
It wasn’t a location anyone had researched beforehand. It wasn’t the photograph people travel to Lofoten expecting to take.
But almost instantly the whole group stopped.
Tripods came out. People started moving around, refining compositions and noticing how the lines of the racks worked with the curve of the road.
You could see the excitement building.
Moments like that always remind me of those childhood explorations. Discovering something interesting simply because you were curious enough to look.
What made that moment special wasn’t just the photograph itself.
It was the discovery.
Nobody had arrived with the image already in their head. We simply noticed something interesting while walking to somewhere else.
And interestingly, those moments often become the photographs people remember most from a trip.
Something I notice on my tours
Over the years I’ve noticed something interesting while guiding workshops.
Often the photographs people end up loving the most aren’t the ones they travelled for. They’re the ones that appear unexpectedly along the way.
I remember driving along the road around Horn Head in Donegal one evening while moving between locations.
As we rounded a bend in the road this small ruined cottage caught my eye sitting quietly in the landscape. Old stone walls ran across the fields creating natural layers through the scene, and the last light of the evening was beginning to move across the hillside behind it.
It wasn’t somewhere you’d find in a photography guide. It wasn’t a famous viewpoint.
But something about it made me slow the van down.
We pulled over and stepped out to take a look.
Within a few minutes people were moving around the roadside trying different compositions, using the stone walls to lead through the frame and isolating the cottage against the hillside.
It was a simple scene, but it had character.
Moments like that often end up being some of the most memorable from a trip. Not because they’re dramatic or iconic, but because they feel discovered rather than planned.
Why I rarely point out the composition
When I guide a group to a location I’ll talk about the light, how the weather is behaving, and why we’re there at that particular moment.
But one thing I rarely do is stand somewhere and say, “Put your tripod here.”
Sometimes the composition is obvious. Famous locations are famous for a reason and they absolutely deserve to be photographed.
But if all you do is take the obvious shot, you often leave with the same photograph thousands of other photographers already have.
Instead I encourage people to walk around first. Look in different directions. Notice how the light is interacting with the landscape and pay attention to the smaller scenes that might easily be missed.
Once photographers start exploring, they often begin to see things they would have overlooked if they were only trying to recreate a photograph they had already seen online.
The photographs people love the most
Interestingly, the photographs people get most excited about on a tour are often not the famous ones.
Those locations are still important. They are part of the journey and they often produce beautiful images.
But the moments that really light people up are usually the unexpected ones.
A small detail along the road.
An unusual patch of light.
A scene nobody had planned to photograph.
You can almost see the shift when it happens.
People become more animated. They start experimenting with compositions, moving around the scene and showing each other what they’ve found.
Because those photographs belong to them.
They weren’t copied from the internet.
They were discovered.
A simple approach you can try
If you want to experiment with this on your own photography trips, try a simple rule.
Research where you’re going, but try to avoid researching exactly what the photograph should look like.
When you arrive somewhere, spend ten minutes simply walking around before setting up your tripod. Look in different directions, pay attention to smaller details, and notice how the light is interacting with the landscape.
One thing I often tell people is this: if you’re walking somewhere and something makes you pause for a second, maybe you look back at it, or it sparks something that makes you say “hmmm”, that’s usually worth exploring with your camera.
Those little moments of curiosity are often where interesting photographs begin.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes you take the photo later and realise it’s absolutely nothing.
And that’s completely fine.
Photography is a lot of experimentation. Trying things, seeing what works, and slowly developing your eye over time.
From my experience, some of the most interesting photographs appear when you stop chasing the obvious one and allow yourself a bit of space to explore.
Leave space for discovery
Planning will always have a place in photography. Understanding locations, weather and light can dramatically increase your chances of capturing strong images.
But if every photograph is planned before you even arrive, you remove one of the most rewarding parts of the process.
Discovery.
Plan the journey.
Then allow the photograph to reveal itself when you get there.
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