Two Visual Illusions

Posted on 2020-01-03 by Mellow Curmudgeon

Follow the photons. The backstory of one illusion begins far away and ends on a window pane. The backstory of another illusion turns day into night, but not in the same way as the challenge that inspired this post.

(BTW, the [Menu] button atop the vertical black bar reveals the widgets.)

A ghostly translucent squid seems to hover in midair between the viewer and nesting herons. No, I did not combine a heron image with a squid image in my photo editor.

HeronSquid_581x684
The photo is of a page from National Wildlife magazine, taped to window glass and lit from the outside. (The page blocks a reflection of the sun from a neighbor’s window.) The squid looks a good deal closer than the herons despite being farther away, but only by the thickness of the page. The illusion in real life is just like the illusion in the photo.

The photo below illustrates a haiku about a bright full moon shining thru autumn leaves. Is it really the moon or just a flood light? Neither.

Chiaroscuro_moon_443x449

The photo was taken by daylight. The sun was above and behind me, but the light was dappled by unseen leaves (between me and the sun) before reaching the leaves I photographed. I was hoping for some chiaroscuro and got more than expected by sheer dumb luck. Most of the photographed leaves were in shade. Thanks to some unusually reflective green leaves that were in bright sun behind the colored ones, those colored leaves seem to be transmitting light from behind them when they are actually reflecting light from in front of them (and behind me).

The photos displayed above were chosen from among several exposure settings, then edited only by cropping. More extensive editing may be needed to create other illusions or to compensate for differences between how cameras and eyes see things. In particular, consider the challenge that inspired this post:

Illusions ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #213

Here are smaller versions of the images displayed in the challenge:

day-for-night-topaz-lake-and-clouds_420x280

Desaturating a deliberately underexposed photo turned day into night. At any single exposure setting, a photo of the contrasty daylight scene would be either washed out in light areas or blacked out in dark areas. (Maybe both.) Editing merged several exposures to approximate how the scene looked to human eyes. Visit the challenge for more details on HDR editing and a fine haiku with no technical prerequisites.

(reblog), humor, music, photography

Cathedral & Lighthouse & Xmas Carol

Posted on 2019-12-12 by Mellow Curmudgeon

Claude Monet’s paintings of the cathedral at Rouen illustrate the principle that what U see depends on when U look. Patrick Jennings’ photos of the lighthouse at Amphitrite Point illustrate the same principle. The prose poem posted with one of them has also inspired new lyrics for a classic Xmas carol.

(BTW, the [Menu] button atop the vertical black bar reveals the widgets.)

RouenCathedral_Monet_1894_559x874

Claude Monet’s paintings of Rouen Cathedral are well-known. Tho built for utilitarian rather than devotional purposes, the lighthouse at Amphitrite Point (on the coast of British Columbia) has much in common with the Rouen Cathedral. Each tries to guide the viewer to some form of safety. Each looks different at various times (and from various vantage points). Each has had its beautiful variety captured by a great artist.

amphitrite-point-lighthouse

Click on the image credit for access to Patrick Jennings’ other photos of the Amphitrite Lighthouse. Each image is accompanied by poetry. The prose poem posted with this image is an evocative dialog between the “Great Light” of the setting sun and the “little light at Amphitrite” (who gets the last word). Hmmm. “Little light at Amphitrite” could have a nice rhythm and an internal rhyme.

While the name of the eponymous Greek goddess is pronounced like [am-fi-tright-ee], it is OK to pronounce the place name like [am-fi-tright]. (Amid wind and waves, saying the [-ee] would sound rather twee.) Why do I care? Consider the tune of the Xmas carol O little town of Bethlehem. As with Greensleaves or Glorious things of thee are spoken, a great musical foundation can support many lyrical superstructures.

(reblog), haiku, photography, tanka

Dawn Can Endure

Posted on 2017-07-072019-12-12 by Mellow Curmudgeon

Tho originally written in response to a challenge on a blog other than CDHK, the tanka here can also respond to Carpe Diem #1214 dawn because it uses the word dawn and has fragment/phrase structure on 2 levels: between the haiku and the rest of the tanka as well as within the haiku itself.

My tanka responding to a challenge posted by Patrick Jennings is a riff on the splendid photo he provided, with hills that seem to go on forever in both time and space.

Originally posted by Patrick Jennings in
[Evanescent ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #89]:

himalayan-foothills-sunrise-kunjapuri-devi-temple-rishikesh-uttarakhand-india-copy

View original

Seize the Sunrise
Evanescent dawn.
Do hills endure forever?
No, but long enough.
~ ~ ~ ~
Art subverts time with pixels;
the moment also endures.