Looking vs. Seeing

--- Most people look. Photographers see. I've said this enough times that it's started to feel like a slogan, which means I should probably explain what I actually mean by it — because the difference isn't about having a camera, or knowing about f-stops, or spending years in a darkroom. It's about the quality of attention you bring to the world. And that quality is something you can develop, or neglect, regardless of whether you ever pick up a camera at all. --- Looking is what we do by default. It's efficient. Necessary, even. You scan the environment for what matters — threats, familiar faces, the things you already know how to categorize — and you move on. Your brain is doing you a favor. It's filtering out the noise so you can function. Most of what you see in a day, you don't actually register. It passes through without…