Early in my experience looking through cameras I was deeply influenced by photographer Sam Abell. He teaches what his father taught him, “compose and wait.” That is, frame your shot but wait to release the shutter until just the right moment, gesture, expression, action, or light.

My foray into this discipline of attention has been sustained by a career in commercial art, wherein one is inevitably confronted by graphic designer Milton Glaser.

In a Steven Heller short film called Just Enough Is More, Glaser said, “I’m convinced that it is only through drawing that I actually look at things carefully. The act of drawing makes me conscious of what I’m looking at. If I wasn’t drawing, I sense that I would not be seeing.”

Here, I see in Glaser’s observation the patience of Abell, and I apply it hopefully to the habit of making pictures.

More to come. Correspondence may be sent to irvine@hey.com.