Beauty in Taking It Slow

The amazing thing about photography is its ability to capture a single infinitesimal moment and allow us to analyze and appreciate that moment for an infinite amount of time. In our daily lives, we rarely experience stimuli that are magnitudes different than normal. We live within a small temperature and pressure ban, our perception of time is virtually constant (even when we’re having fun), and our five senses are rarely bombarded with true extremes.

One of the few stimuli ranges that biology still surpasses technology on is amplitude of light. The human eye and brain have an ability to distinguish detail and contrast in situations where even the most expensive cameras can’t hope to compete. Silhouette is a beautiful effect, but it’s also evidence of the camera’s inability to capture detail in light and dark areas at the same time. Shallow depth of field is a beautiful effect to blur out the background and bring notice to specific areas like the eyes of a portrait, but it too is evidence of the limitation of technology. The human eye can actively distort the lens allowing us to see both near and far with high detail and focus at the same time.

One element of vision that we can’t compete with, however, is high speed and slow speed photography. Both offer some of the most amazing photos and allow us to see patterns that we wouldn’t recognize or appreciate otherwise.

Here is a video which demonstrates a new advancement in ultra high speed photography, allowing us to take it slow and see amazing beauty. Enjoy:

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