YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Develop your ability to observe movement and anticipate decisive moments. For this exercise, you will focus on reading patterns — in light, in people’s behaviour, and in the flow of the Medina.
Create 6–10 images that rely not on luck, but on prediction: seeing something happen twice, recognizing it as a pattern, and being ready for the third time.
Your task is to:
• Carefully study how light behaves in a chosen space
• Observe how people move through that light
• Identify repeating actions or rhythms
• Position yourself deliberately and wait for the moment you want
• Capture a scene where you anticipated the outcome — not reacted randomly
Examples include:
• A pedestrian triggering pigeons to fly as they walk past
• People repeatedly crossing a beam of light
• A vendor performing the same gesture
• A cyclist passing the same corner every few minutes
This is about training your eyes and mind to see the photo before it happens.
ENCOURAGING CONSIDERATION
– Slow down and observe first. Before lifting the camera, watch what’s happening. Where does the light fall? Who walks where? What repeats? Photographers often miss great moments because they are shooting instead of looking.
– If it happens twice, it will likely happen a third time. This is your cue. Prepare your framing, exposure, and focus so that when the moment returns, you are ready.
– Light has behaviour too. A moving shadow on a wall, a flicker through leaves, a narrow sunbeam shifting with time — these patterns can be as predictable as people. Use them.
– Choose your spot with intention. Sit in a café, lean against a wall, or stand at a corner. Pick a location where behaviour repeats — a doorway, a crossing point, a patch of sun. Let the moment come to you.
– Work on timing. A person needs to step exactly through your chosen spot of light, or your pigeons need to fly exactly when your subject is in frame. This is where anticipation becomes active creation.
– Pre-frame your composition. Before anything happens, compose the picture as if the subject were already there. Then simply wait for the right character to step into your scene.
– Patience is part of the craft. Anticipation is not guessing — it is reading the world like a rhythm. Allow yourself time to catch that rhythm.
– Reward yourself with the satisfying shot. When the predicted moment finally aligns — the person, the light, the timing — you’ll feel the power of seeing before you shoot.