Excerpt 11

"Webs are so beautiful in their own right that they had kept me from examining them carefully, and especially from photographing them in a personal way. This can happen if you become so captivated by the first impressions of your favourite subject matter that you photograph only its surface appearance. . . . [Y]ou become bored and may drop it altogether. Remember to explore the subject matter and your response to it.

[Y]ou will find new ways to see your subject matter, and you will stumble upon discoveries and happy accidents. Abandon your normal premises, and go on a search for new ones. . . .
[C]onsider approaches and techniques you've never tried. . . .

Most people reason deductively much of the time and most photographers see that way. We have a premise or dominant idea, whether or not it is consciously determined, and we proceed along a line of thought that develops logically the implications of that idea. Eventually, we reach a conclusion. It's a closed process. . . . We avoid introducing new factors, technical or emotional, into our photography for fear that we won't be able to control them.

A good way to break the grip of an idea that controls the way you see and photograph is to pretend it doesn't exist. You must break the rules."

pp. 28-29