“Is it straight?”, was the first question I asked, looking at the printed photos at the desk of the Photoshop, the days of film and days of waiting.
A nonstraight horizon was one of “the worst things” you got wrong in making a picture. You would need a hand, from someone in a photo-lab
to manually print it and make it straight.
It was mostly not noticed afterward, the alterations, but getting a compliment over that picture; only was saying “thank you” but I knew the whole story…
OK, to be striving for the perfect picture to make, but it can hold you back and question your judgment, ending up making no pictures at all.
This happened because we all agreed on what was straight,
what’s up or down?
Even to question this is absurd but you can and, in my opinion, must be allowed to ask, therefore you will and have to get an answer and if it doesn’t suit your way, be surprised, maybe.
True answers come with straight answers, just to be clear.
Paris, the Louvre, there is a glass box with a piece of wood in it, preserved for centuries under constant environment to prevent it from changing; The Meter, our (European) basis for everything built after that.
That also makes the 1.01mtr or the 0.99 clear to us.
Architect Gaudy’s famous arches are constructed with straight lines,
placed over a center point, and with a basis to start from.
By acknowledging the same “truth” men still can build it according to their idea or liking, finding freedom in adapting a system.
For safety reasons my father told me to sometimes measure twice, just to be sure, because it had to fit, perfectly smooth, as a certified carpenter with an eye for it, he was “precise”, so to speak…
So recounting all the coins from the big glass jar you saved over time can be rewarding, finding that extra $76 and 45-cent, there will be an end to the miscalculations and you will know, and feel it.
I’d like a bridge to be safe or not too short on the other end, if the road signs, signal it’s safe, I will cross over and drive on. Have to trust the builders, whom I don’t know, that they got it all right.
Not every outcome can be perfect like the Man said:
“It is what it is”, 1mtr. is 1mtr.
So there are good reasons to agree on it, by all, for all, preventing dangerous precedents.
Luc van de Steeg / Amsterdam-Weesp NL