Photo of the Week - #53 9/19/22

[samstevens]

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[Wayne Melia]

successful example of looking at something a different way and making the viewer look at something differently ... (to paraphrase Jay Maisel)

[je ne regrette rien]

I have the feeling, as if I was looking at the yeti. A large brown nose among thick fur to hide in the snow and ice. Edited September 19, 2022 by je ne regrette rien

[Ricochetrider]

Interesting and quite curious at the same time! No earthly idea what we’re seeing but it’s a fun photo. Edit: looking closely there’s more color than first meets the eye Edited September 19, 2022 by Ricochetrider

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

It's different but doesn't do anything for me. Not because I don't have an identifiable subject, I enjoy abstract art, but because it looks like it's basically a photoshop action. Look forward to see what the artist has to say.

[Robin Smith]

Doesn't work for me in any way. It looks like a slowish exposure of a sudden mass of water falling (but not a waterfall per se), with the sun making very intense highlights on the spray. It interesting in the sense of I want to know what it is, but as a photo to me it is a miss.

[Edwin Barkdoll]

I really like the animalistic and dynamic quality of this photo. Makes me think of a giant beast that is staring pointedly at me. The only very minor thing I would change is to crop the "eye" off center a bit, perhaps up and to left.

[Glenn McCreery]

I think that the photo is of water cascading down and over a rock, with the shutter speed chosen to provide suitable streak lines for individual drops (perhaps illuminated by flash from the top?). I really like the photo. The pattern of black negative spaces and the rock, which looks to me like a rodent peering out from within the water flow, really helps create an interesting composition.

[Leslie Reid]

Many thanks to all who commented!

 

First, I can assure you that no pixels were harmed in the processing of this image—It’s pretty much how it came out of the camera (though I did slightly modify one anomalously straight line by cloning a few light trails into a gap), with modified contrast and clarity. Robin and Glenn were on the right track in figuring out how it was made: I used a relatively long shutter speed so that bright bubbles would form light trails.

 

We’re looking almost straight down on a pebble in the backwash of a wave. The light trails are formed by individual bubbles in the foam, and the occasional vibrant colors are from the iridescence that some bubbles show. The strong illumination is from the rising sun. I’d had an idea of the image I wanted to make, but it took a week of experimenting (there aren’t a lot of fogless sunrises here) to figure out how to actually accomplish it, since the sun angle had to be as low as I could get it for the illumination to work out (bubbles light, sand dark), and it doesn’t stay that low for long. I used a compromise shutter speed of 1/10 sec—I would have liked it to be longer, but this is the limit of what I could hand-hold. Actually, it’s slightly beyond the limit—I had a lot of blurred images at this speed.

 

I was curious about how strong the pareidolia effect might be with this image. I’d first thought about rotating the image 90 degrees (which was how it was exposed) to help defeat it, but I decided I liked the vertical light trails more. The answer is in: Pareidolia strikes deep. Here’s the image in the original orientation:

 

 

And here’s the image with Edwin’s suggestion of a modified crop:

 

Any opinions on the alternatives?

 

BTW, I realize I never id’d myself on my prior POTW; the open door with the hidden tennis shoe was also mine—#38: Photo of the Week - #38 6/6/22

 

Now I’m going to be humming Buffalo Springfield all day.

[Robin Smith]

I think if it had been shown in the "right" orientation, then more of us would have understood the image a bit better. I was wondering how a burst of water like that could have fallen vertically just when you were ready to photograph it. Now you explain it it makes it easier to comprehend. I think it is an interesting image, but it doesn't ultimately appeal to me, but I am just one person so what do I know.

[Sanford]

I thought that was a sea otter!

[Glenn McCreery]

I like the composition as originally presented the best, since I am attracted to the pattern of black negative spaces as much as the streak lines.

 

Sanford - It's not surprising that someone who lives in Monterey sees a sea otters in the photo. Someone who lives in North Dakota might see a prairie dog.

[Wayne Melia]

I thought that was a sea otter!

me too. makes two of us. got her outvoted!

[samstevens]

The combined sense of movement, abstraction, and nature grab me. It’s one I can look at and get lost in, not leading me to clarify. As an aside, I like the pre-crop spaciousness and scale as well as the pre-rotated up and down energy.

[mickeysimpson]

Many thanks to all who commented!

 

First, I can assure you that no pixels were harmed in the processing of this image—It’s pretty much how it came out of the camera (though I did slightly modify one anomalously straight line by cloning a few light trails into a gap), with modified contrast and clarity. Robin and Glenn were on the right track in figuring out how it was made: I used a relatively long shutter speed so that bright bubbles would form light trails.

 

Now I’m going to be humming Buffalo Springfield all day.

 

Well done Leslie! A defined goal combined with perseverance and skill.

[Edwin Barkdoll]

I prefer the cropped, vertical version - more powerful to me, almost muscular.

[Leslie Reid]

I thought that was a sea otter!

me too. makes two of us. got her outvoted!

It does indeed look like I’m out-voted, and I can even see the whiskers. I'm thinking of entitling it “Odder,” since it’s an odder otter than it ought to be.

[samstevens]

It does indeed look like I’m out-voted, and I can even see the whiskers. I'm thinking of entitling it “Odder,” since it’s an odder otter than it ought to be.

I think you … oughtta.

[Leslie Reid]

I think you … oughtta

I may need to concede on the word-play, too, because after this I'm utterly outta other "otter" ideas.

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

Thanks forth background Leslie. I'm glad no pixels suffered :). It's interesting how the image anthromorphises the rock into lo0oking like a nose.

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

Sort of reminds me of Minor White and his mystical approach of using his photos to transform then objective world into abstractions. In short, the rock looks like nose :)