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I remember when I first realized that my natujre photography was actually a mostly passive process, and that the quality of light striking an object, like a piece of driftwood on a beach,
was the main factor in a good photo. Compostion was important , of course, but the light came first.
The passive part was just wandering around with my camera and casually observing the landscape until the combination of subject and light seemed right.Then I would release the shutter. In a way, the photos took themselves.

Before this I spent a lot of time trying to "make" photos, thinking of what the right composition might be. It was too intellectual of a process, I found out years later, and my photos were mediocre at best.
The "scales" fell off my eyes when I realized that a good image sort of tells you it is worth taking. So nature photography(and I mean mostly landscape/seascape and close-up photography-not wildlife) for me took on a more instinctive approach, more sensory/emotional than intellectual.

I was doing nature photography for about seven years before this transition took place.
It was the turning point in my photography.

Note: Year given by narrator in first two videos is incorrect: should have said 2022 , not 2023.

CORRECTION: dogwood blossoms were open on this date(May 5,2022) but perhaps not fully open

OK, yet another advance-of-spring video:

Here is a poem by Michael Chanteur about photography and life.
Being There

“F8 and be there”; now I understand
Being there is the goal of life
We photograph to capture a moment
But really we want to “be there”

We want to merge with existential bliss
Into the fabric of nature
We want to be a part, be a whole,
Somehow participate in it all.

It is our basic drive, which drives the rest
If we could only embrace forever
The essence of life, the fount of knowledge,
Drink it all in without ever stopping.

So we toil and labor
Often at the mundane and meaningless
In the hopes that one day we shall
Finally succeed, and finally be
There