I recently found an old Canon camera lens my late grandpa used in the 1980s. It was a pretty decent one by all accounts – or at least that’s what my online search told me – so I thought I would buy an adapter ring and try it out on my Nikon DSLR. What I didn’t know was that to use the lens properly I needed to have purchased a higher-end adapter with a built in correction lens. I could, however, use it for macro shots which led to some surprisingly good results.

Through being forced to look at the world in extreme close up, I gained a different perspective. The picture above resembles a Japanese pine tree clinging on by its roots to the edge of a cliff as the sea crashes into the rocks below. The plants in the picture are actually weeds: petty spurge, moss on a brick and purple-leaved oxalis corniculata in the background. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought before ripping them out of the ground but thanks to an inherited lens and an under-researched purchase I was able to capture this delightful scene.

It’s the same in our lives. Too often we tread a familiar path, stick to a routine, pass by without noticing and in doing so miss out on small moments of beauty that make it all worthwhile. I’m not saying go out and buy a camera and an old lens. Just try looking at something or someone from a new angle or with a different focal length.

You might be surprised with what you discover.