Point of View

Welcome back to another episode of A'lil Hoohaa's monthly photo blogging challenge. 

Our prompt for the month of April was "Point of View".

Point of view is nothing new. It has been a writing tool to describe the perspective from which a story is told:

First or third person?

Third personPOV: When a narrator is a voice outside the story. An omniscient narrator knows everything. He knows what all the characters are thinking and feeling, even in the future.. 

Limited person POV: A narrator outside the story, knows what the characters know. If the character doesn't know who's hiding behind the corner, the narrator won't either. 

Objective POV: The third person narrator describes what's happening, but doesn't know what anyone is thinking, not even the main character. Like a video camera that records the events, but only sees the surface of the events, and lets you, the reader / watcher guess what's going on beneath that surface. It allows no opinions from the narrator or insights into why characters do what they do. 

And then there's social media. 

POV is often (over)used to indicate a video or post where the creator shares content from a specific perspective. For example, someone might create a POV video pretending to be a character like their childhood self or an alien, in a certain situation, giving viewers a glimpse into that character's thoughts and experiences

Mentioning "POV" is a way for creators to package their content and make it more engaging, understandable, and relatable for their audience.

Maybe it's a generation thing, but I think there are no benefits in labelling your posts with POV. If your audience is too dumb to understand your content, you don't need them. Boom, my POV ;-)

Now enough of the talking, bring on the pictures already! I'm doing this POV thing my way:

I was on my way to a business network lunch meeting in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Literally outside the main station, where almost half a million commuters pass every work day, I looked down (geographical / physical POV)  to the canal and spotted this gray heron. I've never seen this bird in my life, much less in such an urban setting and up close. He was on his way to lunch, as was I, and I think it's safe to say, he scored before I did. 

Speaking of food. Colin and I have been sharing a new favorite dinner: veggie enchiladas. Everything except the cheese is vegan, and we like to think (opinion POV) that's pretty balanced, hence the yin and yang sweet corn and black beans.

In German we have a saying that goes "der April macht, was er will", April does (weatherwise) whatever it wants: One minute the sun is shining, and it's nice and warm, the next minute temperatures drop and rain sets in, only to disappear and leave a gorgeous rainbow. At least that's April as we knew it.

In order to take this picture I may or may not have been standing sort of in the middle of the street and therefore have embarrassed my teenage son. Social POV.

These days, don't be surprised if April wants to throw down a bunch of snow!! Weather POV. Consider this your bonus picture. 

In light of these unpredictable weather conditions it's totally OK to visit not one but three bucket list destinations in one day, right? (Opinion POV) My theme for this year's A - Z Blogging Challenge was "things to do or see in spring that make me happy", and well, that's what I was doing. 

These cute alpacas live on the same premises as glamping guests who sleep in upcycled wine barrels. 

Another opinion (or opportunity) POV: The early bird catches the worm. In my case I tried to be in the city among the first visitors to admire the rose fountains. 

During the pandemic, the reformed church in Zurich started this initiative. People were told to stay at home, and you had to because literally everything was closed anyway. At least you were allowed to take a walk, and this walk would take you to a handful of fountains they filled with these wonderful roses. 

Apparently people enjoyed it so much that it was decided to carry on with this lovely custom that happens during the Easter week. 

Of course, this being social media I'm only showing the nice aspect, the roses. I was patient and caught the millisecond nobody else was around. Usually, the fountains are surrounded by posing and picture taking visitors, which is OK, if they eventually leave, but they monopolize their spot, and they're wearing a bright neon green jacket, spoiling everyone's pictures, and  then there's  the people that think it's OK to remove a rose or seven or to spray each other and innocent bystanders. Some people suck. Personal POV.

That was it from me. Hope you had fun with my five six. Don't forget to visit my fellow blogger's posts.