The Flaw of Pictures

 

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting several of my dear Venus friends in person, actually it's my third time meeting different friends in person. 

We have developed relationships over the past year or two. As crazy as this sounds, I feel like I know them as well as a friend who lives in my own city- I know about their families, jobs, struggles, and victories. I have seen their pictures- selfies to professional photos. So you would think meeting them would mean no surprises. 

 

You can recognize everyone, almost instantly. Some take a bit longer to process than others, and women's hair is usually the most recognizable feature.

Everyone looks smaller in person. (I hear this about celebrities too, which makes sense). But I am not just talking about height. I am talking about the perception of circumference. In 3D- the bodies' circumferences look smaller. The rippling muscles are there- but you do not study them like you do a still picture. Also, muscles just do not look as pronounced as the camera lens sees, and part of that is because we do not walk around water depleted in daily life. 

 

 

Everyone looks younger. They are not just an image. There are people in there with heart and humor and brains. The personality behind the look just makes it even better. They are not just a body, void and meaningless. 

 

So this is the flaw with pictures: Everyone looks better in 3D. Everyone I have ever met. 

We know that the scale can not tell the whole story at times. Especially the closer you get to golden or "the look". We know, that at a certain point close to goal, that even metrics are meaningless. 

I will tell you that there is a point where the mirror is even an issue. It's actually mostly your very own head that is the real problem.  We all are our biggest critics. What we focus on once we are "there"- nobody else sees.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a point where pictures are useless too. The human eye in real life (looking at another physique, not your own) can detect minutia. Details that just go unseen in pictures.  Finding someone with a trained eye, whose opinion you trust and who understands your goals, can be invaluable to your personal journey. I know it is in mine.