Look at this cute guy, giving me the eye from across the room.
Of all the pictures I take–and there are a few–accidental faces are among the trickiest to frame. Sometimes, zooming/cropping lets another viewer find a face that might be lost in extraneous detail. Sometimes, zooming-in actually makes the face harder to see.
Here’s the shot I started with, which is the closest to the view that caught my attention. For me, I see the face faster in this shot, but there’s that annoying yellow bag pulling focus.
I haven’t taken the trouble to understand the complex perceptual factors that might be in play here–field/background? subject/context?–but as long as I remember to take photos from different distances, I can get by without understanding it.
I wonder if every situation or problem has its own sweet spot: an ideal distance (or degree of detachment) that makes it easiest to see. It could be the Goldilocks zone for public policy as well as for personal problems: Don’t stand too close or too far away. And do try to ignore the yellow bags. They’re not important to what we’re looking at, or for.
I am amazed at how you are able take a “simple” photo of a suitcase and turn it into a life lesson.
Thanks, Jim.
Your photos do lead to the contemplative mind set. I am reminded of the speech in favour of the pastoral life in As You Like It (II.1) “And this our life exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” Set smack-dab in the midst of fields, woods, and streams I, nonetheless, too easily forget the value inherent in that setting. A touch of pareidolia can spark the mind set.
Laurna – I suspect it might be the viewer who lends *herself* to contemplation, but we could call it a draw. 🙂 And yes, finding “good in everything” is a happy way to be in the world.