Filters Of Perception
Here we see the progress of my bonsai, some five weeks or so after planting. It’s fast growing really, though I only say that because I was expecting it to be slower. The blue firs on the left are doing their evolutionary best, engaging in a battle of survival of the fittest. There’s already been a few casualties (you can see the patch of mould where less advanced seeds are now decomposing), and those that come out victorious will show it in their interesting shapes, just as those who have been through battles in life tend to show it compared with those who’ve had little struggle or challenge. Of course, to battle it out for resources, they need enough to go around to prevent them all from dying, so I’ll be putting them in a bigger pot shortly.
For a change of pace, I’ve put this photo through a sepia filter during editing, using the wonder program that is Picasa2, and it’s led to some interesting thoughts.
Can we ever be sure that we are seeing things as we really are? When we take photographs, we do so as if to take a snapshot of the moment, as real and objective as can be. But how often have you taken a photo and been disappointed with what came out in print? Invariably they often fail to capture the moment, partly because they are one sense compared to the whole array of senses that we have, and partly because of the difference in equipment a camera offers compared to our eyes. But that difference is neither good nor bad. Photography can be a real art, from capturing something as we want to capture it, to filtering it during capture, and editing the image afterwards. The real skill of photography, like in life, is in knowing that what we see isn’t reality. When we know it is an illusion, we can deal with it appropriately. We need not deny illusion or image, only stop mistaking it for something real.