This past week a few things have happened to help me put perspective in perspective.
- My DSL connection stopped working which is always helpful in seeing the world strictly in an off-line fashion. It’s quite refreshing so make sure you reserve time to unplug and embrace the moments where perhaps that is forced upon you.
- One of my dogs has been suffering from deteriorating health. Moe my 15 year old Jack Russell Terrier has always had some weird neurological issues, but nothing pressing. Lately he’s been experiencing atypical seizures at a frequency that has been nothing short of alarming. We’re hoping his new medications keep things in check and he can grace us with his very own brand of insanity for several more years to come.
- I was recently a member of a jury deliberating a criminal case. To date I’ve never been on a jury and often tried my hardest to avoid being on a jury. My attitude about jury duty is quite different now. It was an amazing experience that really makes you appreciate the U.S. legal system. It may very well be flawed in some ways, but the process of being judged by a group of your peers rather than one individual under the precept of innocence is amazing. To come to any conclusion all 12 jurors needed to be unanimous. To get 12 people to agree to the same thing is incredibly difficult and as a result finding a person guilty of a crime takes a lot of solid evidence and discussion.
How does this all piece together? This past week has left me feeling free to see the world beyond an LCD screen with fresh eyes. It’s been a reminder that many of the precious things under your nose require careful attention that shouldn’t be lost in distraction. It’s shown me that no one person sees the circumstances of every day life the same way. While I see each of these things individually as great reminders in how to live, photographically its also a reminder that what you see and document with your camera (even the most mundane of subjects) is an extension of your perspective on the world around you.
All these events made me rethink my perspective on perspective. Perspective isn’t just how you frame what you see, but how you interpret what you see, how you emphasize what you see, how you lead your viewers to interpret what you see and how you piece multiple things together to provide a perspective to something larger and more meaningful. Something to consider the next time you reach for your camera.
Bellevue des Alpes Hotel at Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland
[tags]photography, philosophy, travel, Switzerland, Kleine Scheidegg, tilt-shift, toy effect[/tags]