Spotting the bright bits

It's not easy finding shards of sunlight when everything seems gloomy – but we can if we keep looking hard enough

This is about finding optimism in hard times. The way the world is right now, that can be really challenging.

This is one thing I always loved about photography from my teens onwards - recognising the little details with beauty in them, from clouds to abstract shapes and architecture - I guess it was sort of mindfulness, before I was even aware of that term. It translated into the darkroom too, with hours spent focused on (literally) bringing out detail and summoning images.

The last few years I’ve lost that ‘joy in little things’ through my photography, through a combination of personal circumstances and challenges, inconsistency taking photos, and personal motivation with regarding to image creation. But I only actually realised it recently as I considered how to get back to a more enjoyable creative practice. If I can’t treasure the small things, the bigger challenges will struggle.

A small start…

January in the UK is gloomy with the shorter days and overcast skies, and this one is extremely wet too. But it seemed to be an appropriate backdrop to start looking out for bright spots in the grey and mundane - and a trip to London on a rainy day seemed just the moment.

More to come over the next few weeks, but let’s try to celebrate the details we see, the design that’s around us, and the culture that surrounds us and gives the context for meaning.

A rainy day in front of the National Portrait Gallery, London

As the lights switch on at dusk

Repeating lights and reflections

A truly British pavement

Rainy days

Travelling across the city