Do you ever have one of those days when everything just seems to neatly click into place? Where you enter that ‘flow state’, and things feel effortless?

That was my experience yesterday afternoon and evening with my camera. I took a walk on the northern fringes of Dartmoor with the dog, and brought my camera gear along. I had an image of a specific tor at sunset in mind that I wanted to try and create, but otherwise it was all just freedom to explore and create.

The conditions, my mood, my gear, and the dog’s patience all aligned perfectly. Ok, that last part is a lie… he barked quite a bit when I had my tripod set up, somewhat shattering the illusion of peace and solitude for a little while. Eventually he settled, and everything did genuinely fall neatly together.

There’s no secret to what I did, I just showed up at the right time, with an idea in mind that I knew would work, and an mindset open to experimenting and creating images without expecting perfection. In other words, just enjoying some outdoor time with the dog and my camera.

So there’s no profound message here, other than if you’re exploring photography as a hobby, part of it is being prepared, and then just showing up. Do your homework, learn how your equipment works, have some ideas of images you’d like to create so that when the conditions appear you have some loose ideas whilst staying flexible.

Go and try shooting images whenever you feel the urge, have a camera you can take with you, and then you'll be all the more prepared for when things fall into place. And they’ll also be more likely to fall into place as you become more skilled and more experienced.

Yesterday was a lovely experience, here are some of the images I created, I hope you enjoy them.