Spotted Photo Theme May: Finding Repeating patterns everywhere

When ever I am out on a photo walk or out on any excursion where I’m bringing my camera and have my “camera eyes” open, I stop and take a photo when I see something that is repeating to create a pattern of sorts. It could be a pile of books in someone’s home, or a building with repeating shapes that together creates a new whole, a pattern that feels interesting to me as an artist. I don’t know anyone else who does this except me, but I’m sure other artists do this too, in different ways and for their own reasons. Random photography is a way of seeing, being and living I think. It’s glorious.

In this post I’ll show you a few photos that I’ve spotted in my collection of photos from the past years, to demonstrate what I mean when I say “repeating”. But of course, you could interpret this prompt to be about something else. I also love patterned fabrics and papers and repeating patterns found in the natural world, like similar looking trees or flowers on the ground. But for the word “repating”, this is what I think about when it comes to photography.

This post lacks the bright happy of yellow and pink collected together, but these are still some of my favorite photos. I like how random piles and collections can become a repeating pattern in the eye of the photographer. How they could inspire art journaling or quilting, or simply elevate the ugly to something, if not beautiful so at least interesting, as they are.

I like these first couple of photos because they’re a little series of photos from a building site I walked past many years ago, one that I had to get into because there were so many repeats everywhere. And I like all the colors, even grays and browns.

Many years later, on another walk, I spotted these high stacks, and loved how they were sorted after color:

White on white is also beautiful, and I love looking into cupboards or photographing stacks of porcelain or glass at restaurants or cafeterias:

To not make this a neutral photography blog, let’s throw in some bright red as well. This is a photo from a church where I was working as a wedding photographer:

These photos are meaningful to me because they represent the way I see the world. If you’re out walking by my side, you will be the first to notice that I want to stop and document a lot. I will photograph the strange piles of debris next to the beautiful building that everyone else snaps a photo of when I’m a tourist. I will bend over to document the broken bottle, the rotting wood, the wilting flowers, the repeating pattern created by a pile of logs or shoes.

I just find repetition interesting. I think it has influenced my art as well, and the way I sometimes document what’s on my desk before I throw out the cut-offs of creativity.

I could probably find a lot of repeating patterns that I have spotted in photography beyond these few picks, but in a try not to be too repetitive (ha!) I’ll end here. I hope you enjoyed these photos and that the idea of looking for repeating patterns around you will inspire your next excursion with a camera. Or maybe you’ll find that you already look for repeats if you go through what you’ve photographed in the past couple of years (which is a bit of the point of this blog challenge)?

I think of this kind of photography as “collecting inspiration” and it’s the best kind of inspiration you’ll ever find – because it’s personal, only yours and free. Let us know your thoughts below.

If you haven’t jumped in and shared your own spotted photo theme, please do! We want to see what’s repeating in your life/head!

PS: If your creativity needs a boost, sign up for the DIY Postcard Swap today.

This is iHanna’s Spotted Photo Theme Blog challenge. 2025 themes are, January: shadow (selfies | bonus) | February: pair | March: round | April: Yellow | May: Repeating (pattern) | June: Treassures | July: Toys | August: Vintage | Sept – Dec: to be announced, suggestions welcome.