my view through my lens
my assumption what I see
same through your lens, but …

I remember a story in a book on photography.

The author, who I cannot recall, described a scene at a park where he was walking with a friend.

The were some distance behind another feller who had a camera.

This feller would stop and stare and now and then, move around in one spot, and take a photo.

Then the feller would move on.

Our author and his friend would arrive at the same spot and they would stop.

The author’s friend would look.

And look and look.

And say, “What did that feller see here? I don’t see anything. What was he taking a picture of?”

In the 1981 film, Ansel Adams, photographer, Mr. Adams describes what went into the photograph Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.

I feel the most important of the story is Mr. Adams saying, “I observed a fantastic scene.”

From the get-go he recognized that what he was looking at was special and that a special photograph just might capture the scene.

Mr. Adams has written about this moment and the upheaval as he pulled over and starting setting up his camera.

You have to love the part where he cannot find his light meter but remembered that moonlight was 250 candles per square foot.

He writes that he got all set and snapped the photo and “I knew it was special when I released the shutter.”

Would I have recognized the scene?

I would not have remembered the luminosity of the moon in foot candles.

Would I have had the same view in my lens?

Doubt it.

As I walk though my day today I will see many things.

But I will make the assumption that what I see and the way I see it is the way every one sees it.

Coronavirus.

Stay at home.

Wear a mask.

President Trump.

Governors.

Sentators.

They way I see these things is the way everyone sees them.

Right?

Obviously not.

The views are different and all over the place.

A short walk down the information super highway with a crowd from social media should convince me of that.

Though, I still have to stop at the same spots and I have to ask.

What did those people who come away with different views see here?

What do you see here?

confusing, waiting
for potential future that
might never return

Potential future?

Potential future that may never return?

Is that tautologic?

Or pleonasmistic?

A Yogi Berraism, in other words?

Coach Berra was famous for saying things that he claimed he never said.

Most of his sayings, mis-remembered or not, were kinda goofy.

Coach Berra said he would have his pizza cut into 4 slices because he couldn’t eat 8.

Stuff like that.

I remember once talking with my brother Tim and I quoted Coach Berra’s, “It gets late early out there.”

He was talking about deep left field in Yankee Stadium.

I don’t remember what the point was that I was making to my brother.

But Tim looked at me and said, “I know just what you mean.”

Potential Future?

Potential future that may never return?

I just read that this morning in the article, “US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?”

According to wikipedia. “In literary criticism and rhetoric, a tautology is a statement which repeats an idea, using near-synonymous morphemes, words or phrases, “saying the same thing twice”.

Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature.

Like pleonasm, tautology is often considered a fault of style when unintentional. Intentional repetition may emphasize a thought or help the listener or reader understand a point.”

Well, there it is.

Potential future.

Saying the same thing twice.

Or is it.

I would argue that potential future is not that same as future potential.

But that is not what was written in the article.

“Potential future that might never return.”

If you said that to me, would I bit confused?

A little bit.

On the other hand.

I know just you mean.