Same thing. Different view.

Tallness
Grand Bend, ON
July 2012
Click here for more angled Thematic

Just because you have a picture of something doesn't necessarily mean you've told its story. And even then, you can never be sure.

Sometimes it takes a lot of pictures, from a lot of different angles, to really get a sense of whatever it is that you're trying to record. That's kind of what I was thinking as I walked up to the automated beacon at the end of the breakwater on the souther edge of Grand Bench beach.

I had already taken a photo of it that day (see here) and didn't expect to learn much more by walking right up to its base. But as I got closer, the thing that had looked so upright, flat and routine from a distance seemed to take on an entirely different life.

First, it stank. I mean, really. I didn't want to know what had gone on here, but I knew I had about 2 minutes before I had to bail. Or hurl. Second, it had texture. I guess standing way out in a Great Lake will do that to you after a while.

In the end, I stuck around for 3 minutes before my nose called uncle. But I'm glad I did, because otherwise this seemingly undifferentiated structure would have remained just that, undifferentiated. Instead, it became something real, with a dimension that distance and 90-degree angles simply couldn't reflect. Sometimes, you have to move around to see the same thing in different ways.

Your turn: Seeing the same thing from a different perspective. Please discuss.