Thursday, August 27, 2009

Through the fish-eye lens


The fish-eye lens of a camera can create a wonderful image. The center of the image is highlighted and all other objects begin to fall away from the center to eventually fade away. It is an interesting way to look at the world.
When we look at what we remember, it is always from our perspective. That is not a bad thing. We cannot stop what is unique about us. The key is to look beyond what the memory sees. If you were to move the lens just a small direction either way then whole picture would change. All of a sudden the items in the faded portion of the picture start to come into focus.
When we start to research our personal past, a subject that interest us, or just get background for a creative project, we start with the fish-eye focus. The joy comes when we start to maneuver the lens and start to see all the wonderful pieces we may have missed. Being open to the possibilities can be so wonderfully overwhelming. We soon learn that all the things we had not noticed were in fact that which helped to create what we see.
Like to photo above. The flowers in the center stand out, but they are enhanced by everything else that is surrounding them. Sometimes we have to be overwhelmed by shear numbers and facts to create the vision we wish to present. Only then is the focus that we create supported by all that is not seen. It has as we say 'legs'. There is a foundation that sustains the main picture so that as others look on they can move the focus for themselves and see so much more, but they start with the vision or picture we present. Now that is exciting!

4 comments:

Dianne Hartshorn said...

Wonderfully written and so true. We are sometimes so caught up in what we are looking at-through our narrow view of vision we can not see the truth and where we need to be focusing our intentions. Some times these are located right on the outside. We need to expand our focus and maybe use a wide angle lens!

Anonymous said...

I love the analogy. I will use it.
The picture helped picture the process.
Thanks!

Mary E. Trimble said...

This is a lovely, refreshing piece. Listening to others' viewpoints can be so enlightening, giving us perspectives we've never thought about.

Heidiwriter said...

What a wonderful comparison. Well said.
Heidi