This idea is complicated and it might be completely wrong but I think it contains one of my brilliant insights. When we go codger diving a lot of guys take a lot of pictures. Most of the codgers don’t take many photos when they are above water but underwater they are snapping away like there is no tomorrow. Are thing more beautiful underwater? I think our photography habits are because we have not trained ourselves to see the beauty of close ups and narrow focus in our daily milieu. The underwater world was new to most of us as adults so we see it with eyes still filled with wonder. We see new beauty. But in the above water world where we have always lived we have become inured to the beauty around us and have stopped seeing it. I suggest trying some close-up photography of ordinary things in your above water world to solve this paradox.
These pictures taken in my back yard and juxtaposed with some underwater photos from Curacao will illustrate what I’m talking about:
Bottle Brush Close-up
Coral close-up
Sea anemonea
Calla lily
Calla lily close-up
Moray eel
Yellow birds
Pond fish
A sea horse
So I’ve made the best case I can with the pictures I have available. You can see more pictures that I use to try to make my case for Backyard Scuba on flickr .
Perhaps there is another reason for this photography paradox. If so let me know. It is a puzzle I’d like to understand.
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Simon, I agree with your observation in general but, I’m not disturbed by it for two reasons.
First, I’m of the opinion that people take pictures of what interests them whether beautiful, or not. That includes the world of professional photography where there is lots of specialization. A few people are interested in almost everything. Think of them as having expansive peripheral vision. But, most people have tunnel vision and most clearly see the things that they are already interested in looking at.
Second, sometimes people consider something they do to be special, or unusual, and worthy of recording. All of us can see the flowers in our garden every day but not undersea coral gardens that we only visit occasionally. I have an acquaintance that is a birdwatcher and that’s all he photographs. I’m never close enough to a bird to see the details I find in his photographs. And, he’s been gracious in his comments about my Curacao images.
There is so much beauty to see in the world that it can be easier for a person to put a frame around a particular vignette. This brings the beauty they are looking at into focus but has the secondary effect of blurring everything outside the frame. I guess it’s up to those with the cameras to find the bit of beauty in the frame so the rest of us can see it, too.
Joel
I agree. The question is why can we see and frame beauty we see only occasionally but don’t even notice it in our daily lives?
I expect the fish, etc look at everything around them underwater in their familiar daily lives….probably more as a threat than for it’s beauty. Do they also look outside the water for birds of prey? While we’re higher on the food chain, is sealife more aware and attentive to surroundings? Do the needs for survival elevate awareness in general? As we go up Maslow’s scale into art and beauty appreciation do we become less capable in our daily awarenesses? Exploring the “novelty” of underwater life may help us appreciate more our daily environment……and improve us from becoming bottom feeders.