Real vs Ideal

February 04, 2014 • 1 Comment

Real Vs Ideal

I am preparing to take my PSIA Child Specialist I exam at the end of this month. I am concentrating on Piaget's CAP Model which is composed of three parts: Cognitive, Affective, and Physical. Don't worry I am not going to write about the model, else you would close this window quickly. One aspect of the Physical is Real vs Ideal. I am studying how it relates to skiing, but then I got to thinking (Uh-Oh!) and I realized that Real vs Ideal occurs not only in skiing but it also to everything in general. So today I would like to run with this topic.

First, how Real vs Ideal relates to skiing. Don't worry, I am not going to get too technical. If you have ever watched children ski you will notice that a 4 year old skies quite differently than a 7 year old, an 11 year old skies differently than a 7 year old, and a teen skies differently than an 11 year old. In each of these stages there is a Real vs Ideal way of skiing. For each age group, Ideal would be correct stance over the skis, and correct execution of turns. For my fellow ski instructors, I am over simplyfing for the sake of brevity. But we don't live in an Ideal world. Children, and adults too for that matter, may not stand correctly over their skies, and may not turn correctly either -- which is why I have a job. So let's take this concept of Real vs Ideal out of skiing

For those of you who are nerds like me, remember the wonderful days of chemistry and physics? In chemistry we learned about Ideal gasses, and in physics objects always slid down a ramp with no friction, objects always fell in a vacuum, and beams never deflected. But alas, we do not live an Ideal world. In the Real world, we have to contend with friction (even on skis), objects do not fall in a vacuum because our planet has an atmosphere (lucky for us) so objects will reach a terminal velocity rather than continually increase, and beams do deflect.

In my photography profession, an Ideal photograph would be tack sharp because the camera lens has no flaws, would be exposed properly so that it has a good balance of shadows and highlights, and would have good color balance. Again, we do not live in an Ideal world. Lenses have flaws. A photograph may not have the correct exposure either due to incorrect setting, or the dynamic range of the camera photo sensor may be exceeded. Finally, the color of the photograph may be off due to an incorrect white balance setting.

Let's take this concept of Real vs Ideal even further. In Ideal world, we would never have to stop for a red light, we would be the only car on the road so we would not have to deal with traffic (like the I495 Beltway around Washington DC or the George Washington Bridge), our car would never break down, the pipes in our homes would never freeze, children would always behave and do what they are told, and WE WOULD NEVER HAVE TO PAY TAXES! Sadly, we don't live in an Ideal world.

This week's photograph is a classic example of Real vs Ideal. Every year towards the end of the snow sports season Wintergreen has its annual pond skimming contest. The goal is to ski or snowboard across a pond (filled with water at 45 degrees) and not get wet. Alas, as the photographs shows, we do not live in an Ideal world.

Thank you for reading my streams of consciousness about Real vs Ideal. Have a great week!

Until next time,

Paul

Comments

Cathy Margiotta(non-registered)

Only god makes perfect turns. Everyone else only gets to come close.

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