One photo. One story.
This photo was taken in 2017.
On a phone.
A Xiaomi Mi 2, if I remember correctly.
There was no camera with me, no plan to take a photograph, and certainly no thought that this image would ever become anything more than another picture stored somewhere on my phone.
I simply picked up a leaf, held it against the sun and took a photo.
That was it.
Looking at it today, I can see everything that is technically wrong with it. The composition isn’t perfect. The light is harsh. Parts of the image disappear into shadow. If I took it today, I would probably do many things differently.
But maybe that isn’t the point.
Because somehow, this imperfect little photograph became the first photograph of mine that someone actually bought.
I remember how strange that felt.
Something that had taken only a few seconds. Something I hadn’t planned or carefully created. Just a moment when I happened to notice the light coming through an old leaf — and decided to stop.
Maybe that’s why I still like it.
Not because I think it’s a particularly good photograph.
But because it reminds me that photography doesn’t always have to start with a camera, a destination or an idea.
Sometimes you just take your phone out of your pocket because something catches your eye.
A shadow.
A reflection.
A leaf against the sun.
You take the picture and keep walking.
Most of those photographs will never become anything.
And that’s perfectly fine.
But once in a while, one of them holds onto the atmosphere of that particular moment better than a technically perfect photograph ever could.
This one did.
At least for me.
And apparently, once, for someone else too.