My office is in the Grohmann Museum on the campus of Milwaukee School of Engineering, and many of the photos featured in my blog posts are of places in this building. When your daily routine puts you into proximity with the same locations continually over time, you begin to notice the little differences that vantage point (distance, angles, etc.) and light (time of day and angle of the sun, overcast sky and diffused light, etc.) can make in their appearance.

On a sunny day a week ago, for example, I noticed these shadows at the base of the staircase on the second floor. Took this picture at 5:34 PM on September 9, 2026.

I was instantly reminded of this photo taken years ago, similar yet quite different in terms of aesthetics. I found it in my camera roll; the photo below was taken at 4:19 PM on October 5, 2016.

The time of year and time of day are fairly similar, but I like the older photo so much better. More contrast in the shadows, a more intense quality of light, and the angle of the sun is slightly lower. Even though I’m taking the picture from farther away, you can line up the darker, thicker lines of the columns (as opposed to the thin lines of the railing) to realize that the sun is lower in the sky.

Anyway, I enjoy figuring out why one photo “works” better for me than another one, especially when they are so similar.

I’ve written a few other blog posts about this, and since this is at least the fifth time I’ve felt compelled to do it and share my thoughts here, apparently that is a thing I do. There are more posts than the ones I list below, but this gives you an idea.

• “Making a Picture” (April 9, 2016)
• “The impact of ‘small’ differences” (October 26, 2018)
• “Balanced, calm composition (veering slightly toward hysteria)” (January 8, 2020)
• “THE ONE” (November 26, 2025)

The real point of today’s post was supposed to be sharing some of the photo backlog that I’ve built up on my camera roll of “atrium staircase” pictures. But now I’ve run out of the time I had allotted today for updating my blog, so I’ll have to do that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, hopefully you can at least enjoy today’s two pictures and my photo-editing “diaries” of other images I’ve featured on my blog.

Which I realize might not be interesting unless you also enjoy either capturing and “making” images or thinking about creativity and why one photo “works” and another doesn’t. So apologies in advance if not 🙂