Cinderella Castle / Differences

Cinderella Castle

I always enjoy seeing this scene of Cinderella Castle and the Central Plaza (sometimes known as the Hub) at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. It always looks like a fun place to be. And if you are seeing it in person instead of in a picture, it really is a fun place to be.

You may know that I don’t usually crop my pictures. Sure, I process them like crazy sometimes, but I usually leave everything there that the camera saw. But for this one, I felt that a crop was in order. There was a lot of dead space in the sky at the top, and some unnecessary benches at the bottom, so you really aren’t missing anything important here. And besides that, I really like the “widescreen” view that the cropped wide angle photo gives here. Looks even better if you go to the large view. Cool stuff.

Photo location: Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida
A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Differences

One thing I have noticed is that no two people see things the same way. Even though we are all looking at the same thing. Even though we are all looking at something, each person’s brain processes it differently.

I really didn’t realize this until I got more deeply into photography. If you have two people photograph the same thing, it will come out two different ways. If you have 100 people photograph the same thing, it will come out 100 different ways. If you have 10,000 people… well, you get the idea.

Part of that is our camera technique. We all have different kinds of cameras, which produce different results. And then on top of that digital SLR cameras give us the ability to have different lenses. So even though we may have the same camera, my wide angle lens will see things much differently than your zoom lens, or whatever other lens someone might choose to use.

For example, if we were photographing Cinderella Castle in the spot that I used for the picture above, I like the wide vista with all the people and the trees in the foreground and the light clouds in the sky. But someone else might choose to use their high power zoom to get more details of the castle, cutting out all of the foreground elements.

And that doesn’t even take into account the processing of the picture after it is taken. Obviously, I like the vivid, colorful look that HDR processing brings. Someone else might choose a black and white look, or even just something with much less color saturation. Selective color – leaving only one or two colors in an otherwise colorless photo – is also an option. Just to name a few.

If we all are that different just in photography, imagine how different we are in the way we think, or the things that we like, or any other number of ways.

All those differences are what make us diverse. And interesting.

The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. - Psalm 145:8-9