Point of view

I have a bag full of lenses and know perfectly well which one to use for which purpose, but sometimes it's important to break the rules. Sometimes I like to go outside with only one lens, knowing that the choice will restrict what I see, and the restriction will force me to see differently. So this picture was made with a wide angle lens, precisely what you don't use for flowers, and I quite like it because of that.

In a creative writing class I once took, an exercise was to write a short story with certain self imposed restrictions: in my case it was that the story would

be exactly 1000 words long;
Contain a discovery that leads to conflict;
Mention 7 objects that all start with 'S' - (I chose sleeping bag, soap, sack, satin ribbon, stove, saucepan and soup);
Have a question in every piece of dialogue;
Mention every colour of the rainbow plus black and white, once and only once.

The result is here. The point of the exercise is not to produce great literature, but rather, in the act of restriction, to force me out of my accustomed world view, and then see what might follow. I was surprised and pleased with the results, but that's not the point. There is a big principle at stake here: changing our accustomed ways of seeing the world.

Leaving our accustomed world view. It's what Jesus meant by the word metanoiete, which we translate "repent" and then habitually misinterpret. Taking a new stance: its the starting point for that transformation which the Christian Gospel is all about.

Photo: Nikon D7100; Tokina 12-24 F4 @14mm; 1/200 f22. I went for as small an aperture as the lens would allow to maximise depth of field and keep focus through all the shot. I post processed with Corel PSP

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