"Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph."

Carrying a camera opens up your mind to true perception. With a camera in hand, a walk stops being the motion from point A to point B - it becomes a visual journey full of colors and compositions. A building that you walk by every day could seem bland or stale to you since you've passed it hundreds of times, but have you ever stopped and really looked at it? Have you ever taken a few steps in a new direction to see it in a different way? Keeping a camera with you can make you do that. Considering the composition of a photograph the entire time you are outside allows you to really enjoy the outside world in a different way.

There are few things related to photography that have really changed the way I think about photos. My first SLR was one, my iphone another - but while both were great tools, neither forced me to look for a different style of shooting. This is where VSCO came into play. My photographic style was always realistic - modern colors, simple compositions and stark contrasts between light and dark. VSCO, however, was a completely different direction. The filters in the VSCO iOS Camera app brought down the saturation and contrast in photos, brought colors to a more deep and understated level. This pushed me to create stronger compositions. Without the crutch of saturated blues and reds, heavy contrasts of skin tones and shadows, something felt missing from my photos. That is, until I started looking at the world through the understated colors and faded exposure of the VSCO app. It has been a new experience to completely change the way I shoot and the way I look for photos in every day life.

Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow.

– Imogen Cunningham