Don’t sweat the small stuff, don’t lose the forest for the trees–great advice, generally. But little things sometimes make all the difference, as I’ve learned in both my profession and my passion.
My day job is radiology. I sit before a bank of flat screens and look at x-rays, ultrasounds, CTs, and MRIs—thousands of images a day. Each must be evaluated carefully, on its own and with its fellows, for every case. Often there’s just one that shows the crucial finding—an errant lymph node, a wedge of fluid where none belongs, a wayward spot in an unsuspecting brain. Sometimes it’s what we call a ‘corner shot,’ a flicker at the edge of vision. Far from the center of attention, like a kidney mass on the last image of a chest CT, these may be overlooked. Every detail, though, is created equal in my world, and as such must be respected. Of course, that doesn’t mean losing sight of the patient. Getting these details right is a necessary first step to seeing the whole picture.
Photography, my other occupation, is no different. Here too every detail counts, from gear to composition. Did I set the aperture right for the depth of field I wanted? What about the exposure comp? Did I remember to charge my spare batteries? Will this scene look better as a vertical, or a horizontal? And do I want a fast shutter, a slow one, or something in between? The crucial question is this: what image do I hold in my head, what am I striving to create? Sure, some things can be tweaked in Photoshop, but the fundamentals must be right before the shutter snaps.
Though I love the vastness of the forest, I recognize the value of each tree—not to lose myself in, but as pieces of that prized larger picture. That small stuff can be pretty big.
No comments:
Post a Comment