Before the Click

Before the Click explores the decisions that shape a photograph before the shutter is pressed. It explores observation, visual awareness, composition, and the creative choices photographers make in the field — long before editing begins.

Most photography advice focuses on what happens just before and after the shutter is pressed — camera settings, editing techniques, and gear.

But the most important decisions in photography happen long before the click.

This short book gathers twenty-five practical ideas drawn from more than four decades of photographing, teaching, and working with students. Each idea explores a simple yet powerful principle: how we observe, interpret, and shape the scene in front of us before pressing the shutter.

Inside you’ll find thoughts on:

✔ observation and visual awareness
✔ intention and creative decision-making
✔ composition and visual design
✔ working with light
✔ developing a thoughtful photographic process

None of these ideas requires new gear or technical complexity. Instead, they encourage a quieter and more deliberate approach to photography — one that places vision, curiosity, and craft ahead of equipment.

Before the Click is written for photographers who want to move beyond simply recording what they see and begin shaping photographs with greater intention. Each of the 25 essays in the book is deliberately short — each can be read in just a few minutes, and they don’t have to be read in order

A few pages from this 100-page book