PERSPECTIVE

When I first met Jon at Camp Starlight he shared that for awhile he had worked as a wedding photographer.  I was intrigued not only because he was willing to work with Bridezillas but because I wanted to learn more about photography and the opportunity was presenting itself in the form of a very hot young man with a cute butt.   

Every summer Camp Starlight would have what they called Parents’ Day.  On Parents’ Day the parents would all drive up from New York City to, in theory, see their kids. In reality they came up to play tennis, go sailing and swimming and complain to as many of the staff as they could.  Many of the parents of this particular camp came from old money.  The rest of the parents were stockbrokers and CEOs, business owners and traders.   Thus, the parking lot slowly filled with some of the fanciest cars I had ever seen.  It was the Corniche Rolls Royce that caught my eye.   All Corniches are completely hand built, thus the high price.  The one Jon and I found in the parking lot that day was a white convertible polished to a bright shine.  The interior was high quality leather with wool carpets, chrome gauges and exotic wood trim.  

I jumped in front of the car and did my best “this is not a big deal” pose.  Jon raised the camera and shot my picture.  I then told him to stand in front of the car and I would take a picture of him.  I raised my camera.  

Some of you may remember the day when we used this thing called film.  We would shoot a roll of film, send it in to be developed and four weeks later we would get our photos in the mail. Archaic, right??

I had actually forgotten about the photos so it was a nice surprise when they arrived.  When I looked at the two photos we had taken in the parking lot that day I felt like I had just gotten hit by a falling boulder.  That was the day I learned about composition and perspective.  You can see why his is the better photo. Instead of centering me, he centered the car.  The car was of course the reason for the photo.  

From then on I looked at everything differently.  I didn’t just raise my camera and shoot, I looked at things at different angles.  I moved around my subject and imagined what the photo would look like from a different perspective.   Maybe the most obvious subject of the photo wasn’t the most important part of the photo.  How I looked at it determined how I saw it.  I would sometimes take a step back and look and then move in as close as I could and look again to see it in a whole different light.  

It’s all about perspective.  How I look at something is how I see it.  Maybe I need to start looking at things from a different perspective.  Maybe I just need to change the composition of the situation so I get a new understanding of it.  Maybe I need for even just a few minutes to step back and get a wider view or look at it more closely and see something I didn’t see the first time and then maybe just maybe I won’t be so damn opinionated and I will see the other person’s side. 

One can only hope.