The text came in from my friend and fellow iPhone photographer, 'Segun, along with a snapshot of a photo he had taken through a downtown window on a rainy afternoon in Winnipeg:

Sometimes we walk by and see something spectacular in the ordinary, and we can't not share it with someone else.

Have you ever experienced this yourself?

This is what I love so much about phone photography: our camera is always on us, so it gives us the freedom to look, observe, capture, document and create art without restrictions.

Walking around with that freedom is good for the soul. It encourages curiosity. It promotes discovery. It makes us flex our creative muscle more often.

We become more aware of the beauty around us. And we grow.

Curiosity Leads to Connection

Curiosity, when done with respect and integrity, can lead to deeper connection, empathy and understanding. To me, photography is a perfect way of developing curiosity.

Not only does taking photos help develop our creativity, it also helps develop our connections to the people and stories around us. The more we are curious, the more we will create connections.

And connection is something we all need a bit more of these days (and always).

Aside from all these philosophical thoughts, I also just love it when friends randomly send me good photos they took. It's fun to see what they're working on and to get excited about their photos!

But 'Segun took it a step further. He continued with:

Challenge accepted!

I took his photo and edited it in Lightroom Mobile. A fun collaborative photo project!

And while I'm at it (because I know 'Segun will be reading this e-mail) here is some feedback on his photo.

The four reasons why this is a great photo:

1. There is perfect balance between the visual weight of the two principal subjects in the photo. The droplets on the window is subject #1 and the city scene is subject #2. I love how he intentionally focused on the water droplets so they would become more noticeable in the photo, and I love that the "heavier" subject (the cityscape) was made blurry to remove some attention from it. This allowed for both subjects to be balanced equally (yay! harmony!). If the droplets had been left blurry, the focus would be too much on the cityscape and the rain droplets would not get the attention it deserves.
2. Rule of thirds is well used. The church steeple is aligned in the third column of the photo, giving it good visual balance.
3. An appropriate amount of empty sky was added to the photo. If there weren't any droplets, I would say that the sky is taking up too much space in this composition. But because the empty sky allows us to see more of the droplets, its use of space is completely justified.
4. The angle of the camera is creating a lovely stretching of the droplets in the top left corner. Instead of taking the photo straight on to the window, the angle allows the droplets on the left side to look larger and more stretched than the smaller droplets in the top right corner. This distortion is adding movement to the water droplets, giving us a feel for the energy in this scene. (Which is true to the weather event we had on Monday - we experienced a lot of rain and wind that afternoon!)

The Story Behind the Photo

After I asked 'Segun if he would give me permission to share his photo in my newsletter, I also thought it'd be nice to get him to share with us the story behind his photo. So I asked, and he sent this:

"It was a wet day. The rain just kept going. Not that I was bored, but from time to time I'd go to the window to look outside. And of course I'd take a shot or two. My focus turned to St. Mary’s Church, which gave the avenue its name. First, the sheen on the steeple caught my attention. As I moved closer to the window, it was clear I had to shoot through the rain on the glass, which I love doing.

I selected one shot and deleted the ones that were out of focus. Satisfied, I put the camera away, but felt a nudge to share the shot. I could post it on social media, but then I thought, 'I wonder what kind of magic Gabrielle would do to a shot like this?' So I sent the photo to Gabrielle. When she sent it back, I was wowed. She made the photo truly magical."

To see more of 'Segun's photography adventures and stories:

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Hi I'm Gabrielle. I run a full time photography business in Winnipeg, specializing in portrait and commercial photography. This newsletter started with my passion for helping everyday people realize their full photography potential. With a bit of technical and creative help, you too can take better photos with the phone camera you already have.

Find more of my resources here:

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Gabrielle Touchette Photography

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