I spend my working hours making networks faster — shaving milliseconds, removing friction, automating away anything that makes a human wait. So it surprises people when they learn that my hobby is built entirely around waiting.

Film is slow on purpose. Thirty-six frames, no screen to chimp, a week before the lab sends scans back. The constraint is the point. When every frame costs something, you look harder before you press the shutter. You compose with your feet. You let moments go that you would have machine-gunned through on a phone.

There’s a lesson in it that bleeds back into the day job: the best systems, like the best photographs, come from deciding what to leave out.