Spontaneous Photography: Why Our Best Shots Are Unplanned
From a hotel terrace in the Dolomites to a sunrise in Sydney, our best work comes from spontaneous, unplanned moments. A field note on the power of serendipity.
If you plan everything, you leave no room for luck. We’ve learned that the hard way over the years, usually after spending weeks drawing up meticulous shot lists for a trip, only to find the best photo came from a moment we never could have put on an itinerary.
It’s a recurring theme. The photos that end up being our favourites, the ones that sell the most, are almost always the result of a wrong turn, a change in the weather, or a last-minute decision to just go and have a look. It’s the happy accidents, the found beauty, that you can’t schedule.
The View We Weren't Looking For
Take our last road trip through Italy. We had a whole list of famous mountain passes and viewpoints in the Dolomites we wanted to hit for sunrise or sunset. We spent days driving switchbacks, hiking to specific coordinates, and waiting for the light. We got some good stuff, sure, but the one that really felt like the trip wasn't on any list.
We’d just checked into our hotel near Cortina after a long day. The gear was mostly packed away, and the plan was dinner. But the sky started doing something interesting. I walked out onto the terrace behind the hotel, and there it was. This whole scene of mist and cloud pouring through the peaks as the last light hit them. It was a five-minute walk from our room. No hike, no plan, just pure serendipity.
That shot says more about the Dolomites to me than any of the ones we spent hours planning for. It’s a reminder that sometimes you just have to be there and be ready.
Serendipity at Home
This opportunistic shooting isn't just for big trips, either. It happens all the time at home in Sydney. You can’t exactly plan for a perfect sunrise; you can only show up and see what you get. One morning, one of us had just finished up at the gym. The forecast was average, but the high cloud looked promising. Instead of heading home for coffee, it was a quick decision to grab the camera and drive down to the Georges River.
The punt paid off. The sky lit up in this mad golden colour, and the water was perfectly still. It was a twenty-minute window of magic that started with a gym session.
It’s the same story with the drone. You go down to the coast to get a general feel for the place, and suddenly a scene unfolds right under you. We were flying over the water off Bondi one afternoon, not looking for anything in particular, and spotted a group of surf ski paddlers absolutely going for it. They were carving through the dark water and it just created this perfect moment of action and colour. We never would have known they were going to be there.
So much of this comes down to just keeping your eyes open and being willing to ditch the plan. The best light waits for no one, and it rarely checks your schedule. It’s a good reminder to just be there and be ready.