PoP - Auto Focus

 The Power of Perspective
by L.D. Kirklin

Auto Focus

There are days when I think I missed my calling as a magician. You see, I have an uncanny ability to make my focus disappear. All I need to do is start a project with the intent to finish it directly, and POOF, my focus is gone! What? Wait! It was just here! How did I do that? Where did it go? … and more importantly, how do I get it back?

For as long as I can remember, focus has always been a challenge for me. I remember sitting in elementary school, terrified because the teacher said we had to read along as she read aloud and be ready to read if she called on us. As a kid, I couldn’t even understand, let alone properly articulate, my inability to accomplish that task.

My brain simply could not focus and process as the teacher expected. She would start reading and my brain would hear words that made connections with other thoughts. Before I knew it, I had written an entirely different story in my head than the one the teacher was reading off the page. When she called on me, I was lost, and I got into trouble for not paying attention.

Fast forward to today, and here I am, an older version of the kid in that elementary school classroom. I’m still dealing with the inability to focus and yes, on occasion, still getting in trouble because of it. The difference between then and now – other than more years than I care to admit – is that now I have photography.

Much like in life, focus is a vital aspect when capturing images. It allows a photographer to highlight the important component of an image. Whereas a lack of focus allows a photographer to create mood and intrigue. What a photographer chooses to focus on can totally shape the story of an image.

Because focus is such an important tool in a photographer’s toolbox, most modern cameras and/or lenses have a feature called Auto focus. When in Auto focus mode, the camera tries to determine what should and shouldn’t be in focus within an image.  Often, the camera will choose what’s in the foreground and blur the background. Occasionally, the camera will choose the focus based on brightness or color. The settings within the camera can also affect the choices that Auto focus makes. What affects our choices?

I tend to have a like / dislike relationship with the Auto focus setting on my cameras. When it selects what it is supposed to, Auto focus is great, however, when it chooses the wrong thing to focus on, it is useless to me. It only takes a split second for something to change the scene, so if the camera chooses wrong, I could lose the shot. Unfortunately, Auto focus is not just a setting on a camera. We all have an Auto focus setting in our mind that can create trouble for us if we’re not careful.

In a recent conversation among friends, there was a discussion about the amount of rain we’d received in recent weeks. One friend lamented, “it’s always raining.” While I realized that my friend was merely exaggerating for effect, I couldn’t help but think that she was on Auto focus. She knew it had not been raining 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – I mean, we have assurance that Noah’s Ark was a once and done type thing. Still, all she saw through her mental lens was rain.

You know, life can be hard enough without focusing on the struggles of it. Yes, struggles come along, and yes, we need to deal with them when they do, but if those struggles are all we ever choose to see, life will always be hard. I’ve heard it said that no day is so bad that it doesn’t have a bit of good in it … there’s a lot of power in that.

Everyone is going through or dealing with something. No one is immune to the struggles of life, but everyone has the choice of where to place their focus. Negative or Positive? Down or Up? Struggles or Blessings? We get to decide!

I will likely always have my magician days with my amazing vanishing focus act, but I know those days are not as frequent as they used to be. The same can be true for our Auto focus. The more we shut it off and make a conscious effort to focus on the things that are true, noble, right, pure, and lovely, the fewer struggles we will see.

If you only notice when it rains, it will always be raining, but the more you focus on the sunshine, the brighter each day will be.

Never Underestimate the Power of Perspective.