A few weeks ago I sent a message to Jay Maisel, who (as you will know if you've read this blog over time) I consider one of the most important photographers in any time period, and he was kind enough to reply. Photographically speaking I can't ask for much more than that! (I've actually sent personal messages to two other great photographers and they were both nice enough to reply). Anyway, I bring this up because one of the things that Jay talks about a lot is the idea of a "trigger", meaning - as I understand it - that which prompts you to take a photograph; that without which there's no point in hitting the shutter button.

So for this set of photos, I'm going to diverge from my usual policy of "don't explain the picture, because if you have to, it's not a good picture" and mention what I consider the "trigger" for each shot. Hope you like these!

This wasn't set up; the pink flower was sitting there on the rock. The contrast of flower / rock / earth, and pink with duller tones, was the reason to shoot.

While I was looking around this area, I noticed this mirror. I liked the idea of showing the scene from a different angle, so that was the trigger here.

The green beams and perspective make an interesting enough picture on their own, but the cyclist coming through was the clincher.

Without the light on its face, this statue would have blended rather boringly into the background. Thus the reason to shoot was that patch of light.

Initially I thought the man walking on the right was going to be the trigger, but he doesn't really stand out. If anything is a trigger here, it's the sky and in particular the cloud.

Fairly clear: the red in the midst of all the blues was the main reason to shoot this. Looking back at it now, I should probably have tried to get three lamps on each side for more symmetry.

Essentially the trigger here was "light" of various kinds, in particular the shadow starting at the bottom left and the beams on the right wall.

This one's all about perspective, but I was also attracted by the red colour of the building in the front, which goes well with the sky. So maybe this one has two triggers: perspective and colour.

This was definitely a "needs a person" shot. The lines of the kerb and wall all point the same way, so I just had to wait around for someone to come along in that direction. And Tokyo being Tokyo, I didn't have to wait long.

This one also has more than one trigger: the light, the pattern of the beams, and the person walking through. However in this case I consider the person the main trigger, as without her this picture would be a nice backdrop but nothing else.

With this one, on the other hand, I felt that the pattern was a strong enough trigger that it didn't need anything else.

Black and white, so colour is obviously not the trigger. In this case it was the guy's stride and the strong contrast, especially between the lights in his face and sleeve, and the darks of his waistcoat and trousers/shoes.

In total contrast (pardon the pun)  to the previous picture, this one is all about colour, specifically the red of the lady's coat which stands out among all the green.

Another "colour" one - in this case, "colours": red and blue. The yellow is a backdrop. More specifically, the actual trigger was the light on the "no entry" sign.

Finally, echoing the first picture (and, as far as I recall, taken in the same place), we have the same principle: a bright colour standing out among dull colours and the contrast of soft (the flower) and hard (the stone).

Still have quite a few pictures to come, so keep an eye open.

Thanks for looking!