There’s an axiom in landscape photography:  look behind you.  The point of this recommendation is clear:  if you’re focusing intently on one thing you may be oblivious to something with plenty of appeal outside of your immediate field of view.  The most obvious application of this principle is to look over your shoulder when photographing at sunrise or sunset.  Many is the time that I’ve been treated to something remarkable by directly applying this advice.

But the point here is much larger than simply looking in the other direction at sunrise and sunset or even about landscape photography in general.  It’s really about keeping your mind open to the possibilities that a scene or set of circumstances may provide for you, regardless of the photographic genre.

If you’re like me—and even if you aren’t—you’ve probably headed out with your camera with some kind of image in mind:  something that you expect to capture on your outing.  There’s nothing really wrong with this; it’s often what motivates us to get out in the field in the first place.

The potential problem is being too single-minded in your approach and, thus, missing great images that you weren’t expecting to capture.  This is a delicate balance to keep, but it’s a worthwhile exercise, I think, because it forces you to engage in the exercise of seeing.  In other words, you’re pushing yourself to spend time interacting with the real world in a way that challenges your preconceptions and pushes you to keep enough of an open mind to recognize the value in something that you’d otherwise pass by without even noticing.  (In a sense, this might be a decent prescription for every facet of life, but I digress.)

Give this exercise a try; let your mind wander a bit.  And see if you aren’t able to notice something that you might otherwise have missed.  You’ll find yourself viewing the world in a whole new light.

Thursday Tips is written by Kerry Mark Leibowitz, a guest blogger on 1001 Scribbles, and appears every other Thursday.  To read more of his thoughts on photography, please visit his blog:  Lightscapes Nature Photography.