It is 11:00 pm as I am writing this. Next week I fly back to Singapore.

I think a turning point in a photographer’s career is finding their vision. What I mean by that is that the photographer has reached the level to which they are able to find the optimal angles and settings to frame anything - finding beauty in the ordinary. As a novice photographer, I would say I have found my sense of the vision to an extent that I am able to make an otherwise ordinary shot to an extraordinary one. Finding the vision also includes the post-production process - not just the decisions you make in camera. In this installment I will teach you readers how to find beauty in everything.

Finding the vision takes time. You need experience in shooting things everyday - constantly seeing whether some shots look better than the rest, and with each iteration you slowly improve and you also will have found your vision. I will share my recent experiences in my latest trip to Italy. As only being the second time I have visited Milan, the city was still very new to me and I had little time to figure out the spots that were cool and what I needed to shoot. This was where my vision really started to help me. I would say that this is a photographer’s third-eye, the beauty finder that autocomposes shots that my brain will follow up on. It was around the third day into my trip to Milan, I was just walking around the streets trying to find some cool shots for still photography. It was difficult, as it was around 6 pm in the evening and some streets lacked golden rays of sunlight due to the height of the buildings surrounding the streets. This was until I stumbled across one street that I realised was perfect - the vision had found it and I understood immediately why it was.

Dear readers, do you see the vision? The potential of this composition? Let me explain.

The golden sun rays peaking perfectly down onto the street. The tram tracks, the variety of diagonals that stretch across the image. This would make a great shot.

“Wait for the tram - shoot from the shadow side - behind people” the potential of the scene was huge. I just had to wait for a tram to come by and it would be great. That was when I took it.

I’ve done it. I went back to the tram station - waited for one to come, took it as it decelerated towards the station and got the glow of the sun around all the people and the tram itself. It had a great potential to be a good shot - just needed some post production touch up. I raced back to my flat, downloaded the RAW, and went to work isolating the subjects of the shot - nuancing the golden glow that was present in this time of the day.

The mist filter on my lens made it even better. I am proud of this one.

Readers if you are still reading - thank you. I believe for discussions like these, images speak louder than words. Please do take some time to see how I shot the photo - the composition, lighting etc.

A tip, always shoot from the shadow side.

Grace, lets go to Italy together. Love you lots.

Once again, thanks for reading.

How to find the vision in everything.

How sound affects a film.