Random Photos

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

 

[jack action]

The same picture of spilled water, one right side up, the other upside down.

The funny thing is that the "carved" effect only appears when the two images are shown side-by-side.

 

[berkeman]

The same picture of spilled water, one right side up, the other upside down.

View attachment 338481View attachment 338482​

The funny thing is that the "carved" effect only appears when the two images are shown side-by-side.

You mean "mirrored vertically", not "upside down". What happens if you rotate the original image 180 degrees to make it "upside down"? Does it still show the same illusion?

 

[BillTre]

I think it is rotated 180, not just flipped vertically.

This rotation, combined with the assumption of the same direction of illumination for both produces an altered impression of its relief.
Covering one half or the other should make that effect go away, but that didn't work for me. Maybe the established impression of the direction of illumination sticks around a while.
Switching which is on the left might be interesting.

 

[berkeman]

I think it is rotated 180, not just flipped vertically.

I'm only seeing the vertical mirroring, not a rotation, but I could be wrong. I do agree that the illumination seems to be what is causing the illusion for the right image.

 

[phinds]

The rotated 180 is the same as flipped BOTH horizontally and vertically

 

[BillTre]

To me, both the flipped vertical and rotated 180 look the same, engraved not raised in relief.
However, if I hold my laptop rotated 90˚ counter-clockwise then the rotated 180 and the flippped horizontal look raised.
If I rotate 90˚ clockwise, the normal and flipped vertical look raised.
It I look at it in normal orientation and look at it as I rotate it the impression of the different pictures takes a while to change. It takes a visual scan or two over the group of pictures for me to see them differently.

 

[jack action]

You mean "mirrored vertically", not "upside down". What happens if you rotate the original image 180 degrees to make it "upside down"? Does it still show the same illusion?

The right image is the left image rotated 180° only. (Look at the darker bottom-right corner becoming the top-left corner to convince yourself.)

I saved the image on my computer from Facebook thinking both shots were on that image. When I uploaded it here, I noticed there was only the right-side image so I had to rotate it myself to recreate the right-side image. So I can assure you this is the same image only rotated 180°.

Covering one half or the other should make that effect go away, but that didn't work for me. Maybe the established impression of the direction of illumination sticks around a while.

When I rotated the image by itself, this is when I noticed that I couldn't see the illusion and I was kind of deceived: Maybe the original I saw was a trick shot? But when I put it side-by-side with the original on the post, it appeared immediately. And when I went back to look at the rotated image by itself on my computer, the illusion was still there!

With a brain like that, who needs drugs, right?

 

[Islandgirl]

Special effects: flashlight on foto Jomtien beach about 3 years ago, unfortunately - So far...View attachment 320219

Love these photos…..amazing & artistic….

 

[morrobay]

Well Thanks Girl

 

[berkeman]

And you think you had a rough day at work...

https://www.firehouse.com/operation...-worth-firefighter-bails-out-at-tx-house-fire

 

[nsaspook]

 

[Flyboy]

When it’s -30°F with wind chill factored in, and you have to clear the driveway because the HOA-contracted snow removal folks do a terrible job…

 

[berkeman]

Yikes!

 

[phinds]

When it’s -30°F with wind chill factored in, and you have to clear the driveway because the HOA-contracted snow removal folks do a terrible j

BRRRRR ... close that door, dammit !

 

[Flyboy]

BRRRRR ... close that door, dammit !

There’s actually a glass outer door there that’s keeping the worst of it out.

It’s also why we didn’t dig out until Sunday… there was a meter tall snow drift against it that I couldn’t push the outer door through. There’s a garage door, but we were hesitant to open that too because we couldn’t tell how much weight was on it and didn’t want to risk damaging it.

 

[nsaspook]

A few days later.

 

[nsaspook]

Rear ended his car!

 

[fresh_42]

Rear ended his car!

 

[BillTre]

A few days later.
View attachment 338843

One of my neighbors (in Eugene) has a metal roof. Ice started melting under it and it slide off and took her gutter with it.

 

[fresh_42]

 

[jtbell]

The temperature dropped to 18F (-8C) in Greenville SC last night. This was the result the following afternoon. It doesn't often get this cold here.

The NC mountains had snow, but none down here.

 

[collinsmark]

View attachment 338930

Having clear skies for 28 nights in a row is the really impressive part.

The caption can't be right though, in that it's not possible to take that picture at the "same time" each day, even if it is the same location and camera orientation/setup. A photo of a thin crescent can be taken at some particular time of day, but wait 2 weeks for a full moon, and it will be in roughly the opposite side of the sky (roughly 180 deg difference) at that particular time of day. And you can tell by the foreground that the image is not a >180 deg panorama.

In most latitudes, photos of waxing crescents must be taken in the evening and waning crescents in the morning, because any other time the moon is below the horizon. There is an exception to this in extreme arctic/antarctic regions where in the summertime, the sun just goes around near the horizon in a circle all day and night. So I assume this photo might have been taken from a location with an extreme latitude. But still, the roughly "opposite side of the sky" problem would remain in order for the "same time" claim to be true.

Something doesn't add up with this photo and its caption (it might just be a problem with the caption).

 

[jtbell]

Another pic from our visit to Greenville on Sunday.

Note the last item on the menu. Main Street usually sees a lot of dogs promenading with their owners on weekends. Last weekend, not as many because of the cold temperatures.

 

[DennisN]

It's absolutely fine to process your photos. It's not cheating, it's doing your due diligence.

And I agree with @collinsmark.

(and so does the AI bot I used to create all those images you thought were photos taken by me )

 

[DennisN]

Yep, flash. Thanks.
A lucky one:

An 'usual' one:

What flash does is, that the background is lighter, overexposed. The cat is the same - black

Yes, the first one is pretty good. And personally I don't think the background is too bright there, but that's me.

Regarding the second one, judging from the picture I think that the ambient light was not bright enough.

So there I would try using more supporting lights if possible (e.g. lights in the house, spotlights, flashlights etc).

The best, I think, would be to photograph the cat outside in broad daylight, but maybe it's an indoor only cat, I don't know?

If it's an indoor only cat, you could try photographing the cat when it is close to a window (e.g. on a window sill) on a sunny day (or maybe even put the cat there).

What I would be striving for with this is to try to maximise the dynamic range of the shot.

By the way, what kind of and which camera were you using?
Regardless of this, my advice would also be to shoot in RAW and then develop/edit the photos in some photo editing software.

 

[Rive]

The best, I think, would be to photograph the cat outside in broad daylight, but maybe it's an indoor only cat, I don't know?

Both in- and outdoor, but these lazy moments are indoor exclusive...
Thanks for the ideas! Will try.

Last weekend, a hike again: this time not in the 'backyard', but a different range of hills.

Stripes

Shadows

Distances...

.... and hopeful ducks

 

[DennisN]

Stripes

Very cool!
Particularly that the shadows are at different angles, that really caught my attention!

Distances...

A lovely view!

 

[gmax137]

Toadstools, Big Water Utah

 

[jack action]

Power line tower from my facebook today:

 

[morrobay]

Chinese new year decorations at the market

 

[collinsmark]

Before and after a corrector plate cleaning on my 10" scope:

When it comes to cleaning the corrector plate on a telescope (such as a Schmidt-Cassegrain, Maksutov-Cassegrain, or Rowe-Ackerman Schmidt Astrograph), the primary lens of a refractor, or the primary mirror if the telescope doesn't have a corrector plate (e.g., Newtonian, Ritchey–Chrétien, or [Modified] Dall-Kircham), the best advice regarding when it is time to clean is:

Procrastinate
Procrastinate
Procrastinate

It's the one thing in life where procrastination is usually a good thing.

A little dust on the objective doesn't help the contrast, but other than that doesn't negatively impact the image as much as you might think. The reason for the procrastination is to lessen the chance of scratching the sensitive anti-reflective (AR) coatings on the lens or mirror. Less frequent cleanings mean less chance of scratches.

And when you do clean, do it carefully. As in really, really carefully.

The before picture above represents about a year and a half to two years of successful procrastination.

(I plan to finish up a couple of targets with this scope and then take it down for some planned maintenance soon anyway, so I figured now would be a good time to clean the corrector plate.)

 

[berkeman]

I know @phinds will appreciate this from my Facebook feed today...

 

[phinds]

I had to think for a minute to figure out how you even DO that, and then I realized that it's not conceptually difficult, just VERY tedious and you have to love working with hand tools, which I am not good at (at least, not to this level).

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Similan_Islands

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

Remote , only camping. Had read that there are very strong tidal currents between the islands. So used a safety line. However did not experience any during several days visit. You would be long gone out there.

 

[DennisN]

View attachment 339786

Holy cr-p, that's such a cool photo!

 

[pinball1970]

Thought I had lost this.

 

[Borg]

It looks like something that I would have to hide so that my wife wouldn't try to throw it away.

 

[pinball1970]

It looks like something that I would have to hide so that my wife wouldn't try to throw it away.

It was a gift off my Ex, she did not like me talking about physics but she liked buying ties!

 

[Haborix]

It was a gift off my Ex, she did not like me talking about physics but she liked buying ties nooses!

She was laying the groundwork to handle the problem if you didn't tone it down...

 

[morrobay]

Around Jomtien. Fresh strawberries

 

[pinball1970]

I never knew the connection between Manchester and Abraham Lincoln.

https://acws.co.uk/archives-misc-lincoln_letter

 

[pinball1970]

The plaque.