perspective

There is something about aerial shots that I thoroughly enjoy.

Even more enjoyable though, is the opportunity for me to be the photographer!

Some years ago, I bought myself a diary that had an aerial shot for each week. All the images were shot in this country , and we have such a range of different terrains that it was never repetitive.

I used to imagine that I had either been a bird in another lifetime, or was meant to fly a lot in this one. Who knows what the truth of the matter is, anyway? And who would care, other than me?

There is not as much opportunity as I would like for me to take aerial shots - it involves aeroplanes, and they really don't come cheaply.

This particular shot was taken from my amphibious plane in Sydney, Australia. I say my plane, because for 30 minutes, I owned the plane - along with a young Irish couple. That may be stretching the reality a bit much, but the young couple and I really enjoyed the fantasy of being wealthy movie stars who did this kind of thing regularly!

There is something magical about being aloft, up there with the birds and the clouds. And looking down at ant-sized people. And teeny tiny skyscrapers. And pocket handkerchief farms.

I have come to understand why it is that I love the shots from the air. It is the perspective one gets from up there. So completely different from what we see at ground level. Still looking at the same thing, but having to make adjustments to accommodate the different view. Having to shift from preconceived notions of what we think we should see - it just never looks quite like I imagined.

This different vantage point reminds me of the ability I have to see things from many sides. What may seem like an enormous building to some, is merely a speck from the sky. And yet the building remains the same. All the time. Big to some. Little to others.

Many years ago, when South Africa was in the midst of all it's troubled times, I flew across the country to visit family. And as I looked down on the land below me, the beautiful mountains, the semi-desert, the green pastures and tiny villages, it was hard to imagine that on the ground there was such division and anger and separation. Tears welled up in my eyes as I came to realise that separation is an illusion. We are all one.

We are all one - with strengths and weaknesses. Wealth and poverty. Heath and disease. We perform a dance that weaves all the possible computations throughout humanity. So much suffering. So much joy. Lots of beauty. Lots of pain. No matter our differences, we are all one. We are, because we are.

Ubuntu. Loosely translated, it means that a person is a person, because of other people. We are who we are, because of those around us. The good, the bad and the ugly - all parts of the glorious mass of humans.

And we can choose to see each other from one perspective. Or from many perspectives. Because for as many people there are on the planet, there are that many different perspectives on issues. Each one of us has our unique perspective. There is no right or wrong. It all just IS.

Who would want it any other way?