The Exact Same Moment
I read an incredible story of two photographers who unknowingly captured the exact same moment on film. They were standing far enough apart that they didn’t know the other person was there, and they snapped a picture of waves hitting a lighthouse at the exact same millisecond. You can see the two shots side-by-side in the article.
It drove home this thought of how few moments in my day someone sees the exact same way at the exact same time. Forget about the fact that I spend most of my day alone so no one is seeing what I see. (Except Linus. But Linus doesn’t care unless it involves hay or alfalfa cookies.) When I’m not alone, it comes down to milliseconds: I blink during one part of a second while Josh blinks in a different part of a second, and because of that, we don’t see the exact same thing.
It’s just a reminder of how important each individual is in this world. Who else will see the world through your eyes?
6 comments
Wow! My mind freaks out a bit when I think of the intersections of of place and time.
I think I’m less blown away by the fact that the two pictures exist than I am that the photographers actually discovered each other. It’s like the odds must have multiplied exponentially for them to come together… It almost feels like it has to mean something…
Those photos are incredible. And it got me thinking too about how the same moment can be captured and interpreted differently.
That was so fascinating! I love how Ron said “different choices in the lightroom” — I can imagine the post-production stuff can make a difference (and I liked the colors and contrast in his better). So wild that they could CSI-style figure out where they each were when they were taking the photos, totally unaware of the other person. It is weird to think that we never really see everything quite the same way. I’m always struck by how different Bryce’s perspective is from mine when we’re in the car just by nature of our height difference — I can see the moon and he can’t sometimes, and vice versa. Neat thing to think about! Where do you find these things?
I saw that article, and was also amazed that they clicked the shutter at exactly the same time, from the same perspective. Mind you, last night my friend who lives at the end of the same valley put an almost (though not quite) identical photo of a stunning sunset on Fb to the one I had taken, and I liked thinking we were both on our decks at exactly the same time, marvelling at nature. So yes, we’re all unique, but we’re brought together at places and moments, and that is comforting.
just.. wow!