Autopator’s Secret

Posted: July 27, 2009 
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This is a shot of a small section of the famous fall foliage of Gatineau Provincial Park (http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/bins/ncc_web_content_page.asp?cid=16297-16299-10170&lang=1&bhcp=1).  I took it using my Sigma 70-300mm zoom lens at 90mm focal length, 1/60 shutter speed, and f/8 aperture.

Autopator, as defined by Gustav Davidson in his A Dictionary of Angels, “one of the 3 powers established by the Virgin (Pistis Sophia?) of the lower world and entrusted with the hidden things reserved for the perfect” (Davidson 62).  Please note, by titling this picture as I have, in no way do I mean it is perfect or that I am: it is referring to the hidden quality of the subject and subject matter.

The human mind only has a certain amount of conscious cognitive capacity.  Due to this, we have what is called selective attention: we focus on, or take conscious notice of only certain elements of a scene, and using heuristics, mental shortcuts, we categorize and store such information (this is speaking in a very general way, and is not to be taken as rule for every situation).  Because of our proneness to cognitive overload, we tend to miss much of what is around us.  The taste of the coffee in our mouths hinders our ability to notice the baby deer suckling at its mother on the drive into work; the radio or CD keeps us from spotting the wood duck hiding in the ditchwater; the person on the other end of the cell phone keeps us from seeing all the cars on the road.  Thus, instead of wide angle shot that would have incorporated the entirety of the section of forest of which this is a photograph, I took the portrait of one single tree, a unique survivor amongst the group, young and weakened but surviving, in its place amongst all the other yellowed trees.  In the woods, our senses are clear: we hear, see, smell, and sense the world around us without distractions.  Because of this clarity, I could distinguish an individual story among a myriad of them, each tree wearing the scars and battles of its life.  This one suffered greatly, but continued to strive for the sky.

For more information on selective attention, visit http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/students/arousal.htm