I have been thinking a lot lately about how truly amazing our senses are and what a powerful communication channel they have with our brain. I am also amazed at how little of this amazingness we have access to and also how much of this small portion we shove aside and don’t use. We have an amazing array of sensory inputs that work, almost flawlessly, in conjunction with each other. My current projects have me focusing primarily on those two amazing interpreters of light located just above and to either side of our nose.
In my reading, I was reminded that different animals have eyes that are adapted for their specific needs. The predators of the world (lions, tigers, bears and corporate hatchet-men) have eyes that face forward because they HAVE to be able to focus and track their prey. This gives them a narrow, concentric field of view and focus. The ‘victims’ of the world (deer, elk, cows, pugs and the little guy on the playground) have eyes that focus outwardly because they HAVE to be aware of the predators of the world before they get clobbered. This gives them a wide, or peripheral, field of vision and focus (sometimes as wide as 350 degrees).
We, as humans, have the rather unique advantage of being able to CHOOSE our primary focus. Personally, I have never seen myself as a predator (I’m poor enough to prove that point) and I refuse to see myself as a victim, which puts me somewhere in the middle. I think this is a good place to be. I also believe that, with practice, we can move from being someone standing somewhere in the middle, to someone with a firm grasp on both viewpoints.
Developing this skill of broadening our field of view has direct ties to 4,327 ‘life’ lessons (give or take) but I want to apply it to my desire to become a better photographer. If we want to experience and capture more of the BAM (Beautifully Awesome Moments) in life, we have to open our eyes a little wider.
Broadening our normal ‘predator’ vision to include the much wider peripheral field of view is a discipline that is new to most of us and, like any new discipline, requires a focused effort and a lot of practice. This broadened field of view is especially important to the first step of capturing a meaningful image (truly BE-ing someplace). Once we’ve acquired our subject we can narrow our focus a little bit.
So many aspects of photographic composition require us to retrain the brain a bit and this is no exception. Instead of listening to a noise or looking at an object, we have to listen to the silence and look at the nothing. If we can do this we can look at the whole and be aware of anything that breaks or stands out from that whole. Think of it as looking out across a flat lake as a rock is skipped across its surface. If we are focused on the contact point of the rock on the lake’s surface, we lose our awareness of the rest of the lake. If we can spread our focus across the lake, we can be aware of the rock contacting the lake’s surface, the ripple spreading away from that contact point, any additional contact points and ripples and still have the rest of the lake in our field of view. We may even find that we are aware of the clouds rolling over the mountains on our left, how high the sun is in the sky, the one red rock sitting between the two grey ones and the fact that your daughter is stealing your Coke.
If we can master this broadened visual awareness, we can focus on the ducks we are trying to put ‘the sneak’ on and still be aware of the trees, contrasts, colors and movements that are breaking the surface of the lake around us. I think we will be surprised at the numbers of BAMs that are around us at any given moment. Beautifully Awesome Moments we would have missed if our focus was to narrow.
I will always be grateful to photography for the expanded focus it has given me and look forward to broadening it even further. It is a skill that has enhanced nearly every aspect of my life. Here’s hoping you can see, experience and capture an ever increasing number of BAM’s in your life. Don’t forget to share.
That was really neat. Love it when you write =) I think it’s incredably valuable to strive to improve how we see the world. Noticing the small and the large makes it such a magical place! ….where pugs are prey animals, teehee!