Welcome back! It's great to have you here for another edition of Notes On Seeing. The Main Frame: Photography is meant to be simple. Not easy. Simple. There's a difference, and it matters. Because somewhere along the way, a lot of us picked up the idea that getting better meant adding more. More technique. More rules. More equipment. More post-processing steps. More things to remember before we press the shutter. And the weight of all that "more" is quietly crushing the thing that drew us to...
14 days ago • 5 min read
Right. I need to make a confession. For years — and I mean a long time — I avoided harsh light. Or at the very least, I struggled with it. Growing up in South Africa, the sun was usually high and the shadows usually hard. So more often than not, the camera went back in the bag. And I think I know why. I'd learned photography on a diet of magazines — that was my education. Beautiful soft light, golden tones, everything looking effortless. So when I was standing in the midday sun with nowhere...
21 days ago • 4 min read
A quick word before we begin. It's been a little while since I wrote. I wanted to say thank you for still being here — and to tell you where I've been. I've been building something. A primer called The Language of Photography: Learning to See. It's the distilled version of the thing I've been circling around in videos and newsletters for years — what photographers are actually doing when they make a picture that stops someone, and how you learn to do it by choice rather than by accident. It's...
28 days ago • 4 min read
Howzit everyone! Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend. I recently spoke with some people from the TPE community, and we discussed the idea of light in our photos. How people often complain about 'Bad' light, or fantasise about 'Great' light.For a long time, I felt trapped by those concepts - being told, for example, never to take a photo in the harsh midday African sun. The truth is, there isn't good or bad light, but there are good and bad ways to shoot in it. I'd like to share with...
6 months ago • 3 min read
Howzit all!Hope you're having a great day The Main Frame: Earlier this year, I was visiting a friend. One morning, she was making pancakes for her daughter, and I watched with complete fascination. She took out a recipe, a set of measuring cups, and all the ingredients. I watched her carefully scoop the flour into the cup, level it off with the back of a knife, measure the milk precisely, crack the egg, and then mix everything for exactly the amount of time the recipe told her to. For her,...
6 months ago • 3 min read
Howzit!I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been busy behind the scenes working on something exciting for the TPE Tribe — but before I share that, I wanted to ask you a quick question. If you want to take your photography to the next level in 2026 — to become more creative, more confident, and more intentional with your images — keep reading. I’ve been putting together a brand-new Photography Success Path (starting in December) specifically for members of the TPE Tribe.This Saturday, I'll share...
6 months ago • 1 min read
Howzit all! I’ve just returned from a fortnight in the U.S., spending most of my time exploring photography and catching up with a few people from the TPE Tribe in D.C. Those conversations, plus a lot of walking with a camera, clarified something about my own work: over the last decade, I’ve been quietly shaping a style. Not in a lab coat, not with a grand plan, but just by trying to make photographs that feel right. The Main Frame: Composition sits at the heart of that. When we’re learning,...
7 months ago • 2 min read
Howzit everyone! Have you ever stood next to another photographer, shooting the same scene, and got two radically different results? Often, when you look at their image and wonder how they created something special, your photo seems just 'o.k.'? The Main Frame: Not long ago, a member of the TPE Tribe asked for feedback on his photos. Again and again, people told him: “Your images need more focus.” At first, he thought they meant sharpness. You know — the technical kind of focus. But the...
9 months ago • 3 min read
Howzit to everyone!There are now 4649 amazing photographers here.. The Main Frame: Photography is a bizarre beast. It reveals a world hiding right in front of us—things we can only truly see through a camera. It can also capture, with unerring clarity, people and places from our past, pulling us straight back into the very moments we once photographed. Yesterday, I was at a funeral service, and—as often happens at times like these—I found myself thinking about my family, the moments of my...
9 months ago • 2 min read