heart-to-hearts | on photography & the little moments

Hello, all! ^^ I hope life hasn’t been too hectic for any of you and that you have been able to have a wonderful start to the new year! (And that you’ve found some lovely middle-grade reads to add to your TBR! I know I most certainly have. Many thanks to NetGalley and all the authors who’ve sent in ARCs for review!! It’s been going a tad slow due to me being in Malaysia this past week — though I have returned now — but I promise I’m getting started on typing up all of these reviews!)

In the last few moments of 2025, before the clocks struck 12 and all the millions of fireworks began exploding around us, and during the past few days, I’ve found myself doing something I haven’t typically done before.

Photography.

I’m by no means any professional photographer. I don’t have a fancy camera nor any understanding of how cameras and compositions and lighting work. The best I know is a Very Basic understanding of the rule of thirds.

And yet these past few days I’ve been scrolling through Pinterest and through all of these beautiful photographs that were taken. And I’ve really just been marveling at them.

I never paid all that much attention to photographs before. But recently… looking through all of these photos… I’m really just in awe.

In awe of how these photographers manage to take such a good picture. Not just a clear one that isn’t all fuzzy and blurry (like mine often are). But one that really captures the moment. One that manages to snap a picture of just a single, little moment of life — be it a flower growing out of a sidewalk, strangers crossing a rainy street, a single raindrop falling through the air. Somehow, they manage to capture a tiny moment of life. One that makes you pause. One that takes you right to that moment and really makes you feel it.

As a writer, I so often get lost in the big story. I’ve a million plot threads to untangle and weave together. I’ve a world that’s going to get destroyed lest the heroine face her fears and stand up to this great villain who’s threatening to ruin all that she loves. I’ve a whole wide world, rich with history and songs and stories that all must get woven together to form this cohesive story.

It’s wonderful, yes, and I do think there’s nothing better than to be writing a story, one with characters as close to you as dear friends, with a world you created, with words you wrote that no one else did.

But sometimes I have a tendency to get lost in it the largeness of it all. Both in writing and in life.

And I forget to slow down. To appreciate all the little moments that make up life. The breeze as it blows through the city. A single, wispy, interesting-looking cloud that drifts by in the sky. And so on.

And I think that is what I really love about photography. The way it, again, captures all the little moments in life. The way the photographer looks through all the impossible busy-ness of life and with her camera, manages to just snap one, single moment of that impossible busy-ness.

And then it is very much like time stops.

Like it freezes just a single moment. That you can look through and see and feel.

This is a bit of a shorter post, but tis a little thought I wished to share. 🙂 So just… here’s a reminder to slow down. To appreciate the little moments. To… maybe step away from the computer for a bit and stop wrestling those plot threads to look out the window and take a deep breath of fresh air.

Do let me know down in the comments if you’ve ever noticed the same thing about photography. I love hearing from y’all! ^^

Till next time, and wishing y’all a wonderful week!

-Isabelle

P.S. Photographs here are from Pinterest. Clicking on them shall take you to its source. :))