A common exercise that photography schools use to teach students to "see" is to photograph shapes that form letters. For example the bough of a tree might look

A common exercise that photography schools use to teach students to "see" is to photograph shapes that form letters. For example the bough of a tree might look like the letter "Y". The idea is to collect the entire alphabet. It helps people separate the visual form of something from its literal interpretation as an object. Good photographs are often not just a documentation of an object, but a nice visual composition that is also compelling when viewed upside-down or on its side. Being able to set aside the label of an object and focus on the visual elements helps create these compositions.