Tools to make the workday more productive

The five-item desk: everything else went in a drawer and stayed there.

Notes from the field

I keep coming back to the same lesson: the good things rarely announce themselves. They sit quietly at the edge of the frame until you slow down enough to notice — and then you can't unsee them.

Style is what you keep when the trend has left the room.

What I'd do differently

Less planning, more looking. Half the photos in this piece were taken on the walk I almost skipped, with the lens I almost left at home. Take that as the only advice in here worth keeping.

• Go earlier than feels reasonable — the light forgives everything before eight.
• Talk to the person behind the counter; they know the spot.
• Buy the flowers. It's research.