Zoom In, Zoom Out - The Beauty Between the Frames
Distance, Detail, and Perspective
From far above, borders disappear.
When you fly over Europe, nations blur into one another. Forests and farmland blend like brushstrokes. The messy debates of identity and politics are invisible from 36,000 feet.
But drive from one country to the next and you feel it all: the road signs change, the coffee tastes different, the way people move, greet, park.
You notice the detail. You feel the shift.
It’s all about perspective — and how we choose to zoom.
Look at a Monet from across the room — it’s a pond of harmony, a scene of serenity.
Move closer, and the illusion dissolves into chaos: splashes of color, hurried strokes, imperfections.
Zooming out brings coherence.
Zooming in reveals construction — the labor, the thinking, the risk.
To see the truth in a Monet, you have to step in.
To feel the beauty, you need to step back.
Keep adjusting the lens.
It’s not so different from business.
“Zoom in” is a strategy expression, often thrown around in meetings.
But it’s more than jargon.
It’s a skill. The ability to shift focus — from the grand narrative to the smallest brushstroke — is what distinguishes average from excellent.
Zoom in to see the process, the people, the pain points.
Zoom out to remember the mission, the big picture, the why.
“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”
Booker T. Washington
To lead, you have to zoom out: to see the whole, to hold the horizon.
But to make anything real, you need to zoom in: to obsess over the detail, to wrestle with nuance, to honor the craft.
One of my favorite metaphors is in film: the frame within a frame.
If you keep zooming in, something new always reveals itself — a story within a story.
There’s another world.
Inception plays with this idea beautifully.
The dream inside the dream inside the dream.
It’s not just a trick of cinema.
It’s how meaning is made.
The world shifts depending on how close — or how far — you’re willing to look.
When was the last time you zoomed into something deeply enough to see something surprising?
Art, strategy, relationships — they all require both distances.
Knowing when to zoom in, and when to zoom out, is what makes a good decision... or a good life.
So this is the reminder:
Step back. See the bigger picture.
Then step in. Get your hands in the paint.
Zoom.
As needed.
Beijos,
B.
Inspirational post! Really makes us think of all aspects of life, people, relationships and society. There’s a lot of zooming out nowadays, things just look way more perfect. Let’s try to zoom in a little more.
But my mind took me to when you created your brand Letter B. From the outside we see brand, beauty and art. Zoom in and you see a scent, a story, a memory.. and if you zoom in enough you see the hard work of building a dream.
Let’s zoom in and out just the way Babi teaches us. An instigating gift for our professional and personal daily lives.