Photography, Slowed Down
A Reflection from the Road
Photography doesn’t make us chase more places. It often makes us stay longer in places we’ve already discovered.
Living on the road means you’re surrounded by potential photos all the time. Early on, we tried to capture everything. Sunsets. Streets. Roadside stops. The result was a lot of images that looked fine but didn’t really say much. They were taken quickly, before moving on.
Slowing down changed that.
Taking time to craft a visual story became part of how we travelled.
One of the simplest shifts was staying put long enough for the light to repeat itself. Learning where the sun falls in a town in the morning, then checking the same spot again in the afternoon. You start to notice that the best light often arrives when you’ve stopped looking for it, or when you return the next day to see how it’s changed.
We also stopped walking and shooting at the same time. Pausing for a moment, framing the scene, and tapping to lock exposure made a bigger difference than any edit later. If the sky is bright, we expose for it and let the foreground fall darker. If the shot is about texture or colour, we let the highlights go. Making that choice deliberately slows the whole process.
Staying longer helps with composition too. Familiarity removes pressure. When you’ve walked same street twice, you stop photographing it as a novelty and start noticing smaller things instead. Reflections in windows. Repeating shapes. The way shadows land against a wall at a certain hour. These details are easier to see once a place starts to feel ordinary.
We rely on simple techniques rather than gear. Most of our photos are taken on an iPhone. Keeping the phone level. Stepping back instead of zooming in. Letting negative space do some of the work. If an image doesn’t feel right, we leave it and come back later rather than force it.
Photography became less about collecting images and more about paying attention. Giving ourselves permission to take fewer photos. To miss some moments entirely. To trust that staying longer would offer better ones.
That said, some of our favourite photographs are taken on a whim. Noticing a small detail, capturing it quickly, then returning to it later to see what reveals itself in the image.
In the end, slowing down doesn’t mean photographing less. It means photographing with more intention.
The places didn’t change. Our pace did.
Some of our other thoughts
Photography slowed our travel down. By staying longer, noticing light, and relying on simple techniques, we learnt to photograph with more intention. Sometimes the best images arrive quietly, once a place feels familiar.