As I wrote last time, one of my personal challenges is trying to find something new to say when I take a photograph, especially if it's a landscape or tourist-type shot. Indeed, I'll often skip taking a photo if I feel like I can find it already on Flickr.
Cleveland and Sky
Here's an example. A shot of Downtown Cleveland, a skyline that's been captured over and over again.
What sets this apart, for me? It's definitely the crack in the sky, the sunlight blazing through, like some kind of science-fiction space-time rift. That's the only reason I even considered taking the shot, let alone posting it online.
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It comes down to having an absolutely unique take on something that’s already been done, and portraying that in the finished image.
Not in technical terms, not necessarily. Sticking a bunch of personalized presets on a RAW file (or an Instagram filter) isn’t what I mean by a unique take, though that can be a part of a unique personal style.
What I mean is the actual composition of the image, the thing that drew my eye in the first place.
I’m still figuring this part out. I’m trusting to my subconscious because I often don’t see "it" until the image is open in Lightroom, but there’s the sense of having taken the shot because it felt like something was there.
I have a lot to learn.
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 Accidental Heart
Here's an example of something that I noticed, but didn't notice that I'd noticed. I was attracted by the dappled light playing across this window, but I didn't see the heart until I was processing it later. But I *did* see the heart when I took the shot, just subconsciously.
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