Follow one colour

Choose a generous colour

Pick a colour family rather than a precise swatch. Moss, bottle green and the pale underside of a leaf can belong to the same walk. A broad choice leaves room for surprise; an exact match can turn the exercise into a search for something that may not be there. Start with what is already around you.

Change the scale

Make one picture in which the colour fills most of the frame, one in which it is a small accent, and one where it sits between two competing colours. This gives the sequence a rhythm. Keep the pictures together while reviewing them so that a beautiful individual frame does not overwhelm the relationship between the three.

Let the light disagree

The same surface may look warmer in reflected light and cooler under open sky. Photograph both without trying to make them identical immediately. The difference is useful information. If you adjust white balance later, keep a copy of the original and ask whether the adjustment clarifies the observation or merely makes the set tidier.

Keep a small palette

Finish with three to five pictures. Write a plain description beside each: faded paint, wet leaf, shaded glass. A palette becomes more memorable when it is attached to a surface and a condition. On another walk, choose a contrasting colour and see whether it leads you towards different parts of the same place.