It's what you see...

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."  Henry David Thoreau

Someone on my Instagram feed shared an image with this quote on the other day (I can’t remember who now...) and for some reason I started to think about these two photos...

The first one is from 2012 taken with my Superheadz Wide and Slim whilst the second is only a few weeks old and taken with my Canon EOS 750.  I always stop and admire this house at pretty much the same point along the canal and whilst usually I try not to take a photo of the same thing twice (unless its flowers - they're an exception) for some reason this time I decided to try another shot of this house.

Now I've put the two photos together you can really see* that they are not the same at all. 

The lens is different with the Superheadz Wide and Slim, it's taken with black and white film, the sky is cloudier, the path is muddy. In the second photo there's a new bench, there are swans on the water, the grass is longer and there's colour and dare I say it, sunlight!

I've always been a bit wary of repeating myself with photos - like I'm trying not to 'say' the same thing over and over by showing the same photos of Leeds or the canal - but one - I'm pretty sure that the only person who remembers the photos I've taken is me and two - no photo is ever the same to repeat yourself with - everything is different from moment to moment - the light, the film, the camera is older and I - I am very different from the person who took that first photo - even if no one really knows that apart from me.

So I guess this is me trying to break another of my self imposed rules and encourage myself to take the photo even if I think I've taken it before - there's always something new within the frame, even if you don't think so.

* See what I did there - linking the photos to the quote. Top notch blogging there.

p.s. If you've read my FAQ's - you might be interested to know that this post has sat in the blog ether for over a week and I scheduled it rather than hitting publish - just in case I changed my mind about publishing...