Early in 2020, before the pandemic had taken over our lives, I took a short course in iPhone photography.

It was an online course lasting no more than three hours or so, purchased on the Udemy site for less than £20. It wasn’t particularly technical; the stated aim of the course by the facilitator, Dale McManus, was to help learners understand that photography, in his words, is 1% gear and 99% ‘what’s up here’ ie, your thinking.

It was transformative. I found that having taken the course, I started to really pause and look at things in a different way. A short, ten minute walk could quickly become an almost meditative experience as I entered a state of flow, eyes sharpened by looking for things of interest to capture. I noticed beautiful things, noticed the changing light. I noticed the wonderful designs of nature. I saw that they could look very different if I looked up at them or down at them, or if I moved around them so the light shone from a different direction.

As we train ourselves to notice the world around us, we can deepen this awareness to notice our feelings. We can marvel at their complexity and range. We can see that just as the seasons and the light change, so do our feelings. And we can notice that sometimes, how we feel about things can vary if we tweak our perspective and the lens through which we see events.

So, get your phone out. Look at the world. Capture the insignificant moments as well as the significant ones. Lose yourself, just for a few seconds. Then when you next notice your feelings and emotions, reflect on the fact that they too can change as fast as the scene you have captured.