LOOK TWICE: STARTING NOTES
Original authored example for CodexWork, 25 October 2026

The commission
Make a small, friendly phone-photo workshop that a knowledgeable hobbyist could host for neighbours, colleagues or a community group. It should feel like a reason to get together, not a sales funnel for a course.

This is an illustrative commission, not notes from a real host, a class transcript, a customer case or a record of a particular AI product completing the job. The brief, teaching notes, illustrations and finished materials were authored for this example. No attendee learning has been tested.

What the host already knows
A host must already be comfortable making ordinary phone photographs and demonstrating three visible decisions: where the light falls, which subject gets attention, and what the frame leaves out. They can explain their preference without presenting taste as a universal rule. These are the knowledge assumptions of the example, not credentials we have verified for any reader.

Rough teaching notes
- Don't start with camera menus. Start with an ordinary thing and a first photograph.
- Make a pair of pictures, not a pile. Put two versions beside each other on the phone and say what changed.
- Light: notice the lit side and the shadow side. Try two safe viewpoints. If the light looks flat, say so rather than pretending the exercise worked.
- Subject: one thing gets the lead. Try a step sideways to remove an overlap or a quieter background. Prefer changing position to adding effects.
- Frame: inspect the four edges. Exclude one distracting thing; notice what useful context disappears too.
- Final choice should belong to the photographer. A partner describes what their eye finds first; they do not award marks.
- The first picture stays. A learner can prefer it after trying the alternatives.

Session constraints
- 60 minutes including transitions, welcome, demonstration, return and reflection.
- 4-6 adults with 2-3 pairs and one host. Shared phones are welcome.
- Ordinary phone Photo mode. No paid software, accounts, internet, uploads, projector or specialist camera equipment.
- A short, step-free pedestrian loop with three stopping places, each at most two minutes from the next and from the return point. The host must select and check the actual route locally. No invented venue or permission claim.
- Still, non-personal subjects only. No photographing strangers, private interiors, addresses, vehicle plates, screens or documents. No public sharing is required.
- Each participant should finish with one chosen comparison and a sentence about a decision, not a claim of photographic mastery.
- Treat composition advice as a starting judgment to test, not as objective scoring.

Change request
Rain closes the outdoor option and the room is available for only 30 minutes. Keep the same light/subject/frame goal and the same small adult group. Nobody goes outside. Replace the walk with a tabletop sequence, budget the demonstration and discussion, and supply the changed participant card as well as the host plan.

Indoor practical decisions
- One dry still-life object, a second plain object, two sheets of plain paper and a usable light source per pair.
- A broad window with usable daylight or a host-set cool LED desk lamp. The host checks each work area beforehand. If there is no visible light difference, use the host's prepared paper-shadow comparison; if no safe lit work areas exist, rearrange or postpone rather than claiming this version is ready.
- Phones and objects move; people can remain seated. The host handles lamps and cables before participants arrive. No balancing lamps, hot bulbs or liquid props.
- Three five-minute activities, seven minutes for the final comparison, two minutes to close. No unbudgeted gallery walk or upload task.

Boundaries of the material
All diagrams are original SVG drawings of invented still-life scenes. They are illustrations, not photographs or measured before/after results. No external images, people, proprietary workshop material or model-run claims are used. The package needs a host's real subject knowledge, local route/room decisions and practice demonstration before use. It does not make an arbitrary topic safe or teachable.