That White and Gold Dress (what? Blue and Black? No Way! (Visual or optical illusions)

SUMMARY: Brains are fascinating things. So are colors.

Things in shade or shadows take on a blue cast. In sunlight, they might appear blue or white or green or who knows, but also may take on a yellow cast.

If you know that an item is in shade or shadow, your experience and your brain know how to subtract the blue subconsciously--If you have the proper context.

Photographers and artists know this. 

Photo: Note blue shadows on backlit trees and the path

From PeakPx free wallpapers?

Painting: Shadows are blue or bluish
from Mark Mehaffey on Artists' Network
(I couldn't figure out how to just include this directly from the page, it's set up oddly)

The famous dress --
white with gold or
 blue with black? (Via Wikipedia) 

As a photographer, I'm very aware of the color effect of shade. For example, if someone wears a white and gold dress and I can see the whole person and the whole environment around them (e.g., it's sunny in the background but they are standing under the shade of a tree), your brain can subtract the blue tone from the shaded area and correctly see the colors--and ditto if you can also see the wearer's face and see that it is vastly overexposed like the background. 

But if you zoom in so that you see only a portion of the dress in the shade and everything behind it lit up, your brains (and cameras!) no longer understand whether it is a white and gold dress in the shade or a black and blue dress in the sun or very overexposed or WHAT.

I think that photographers and painters tend to see it as if it is in shade, which means it's white and gold modified by the blueness of shade. We know that it's blueish because of the shade, so we automatically subtract the shade to make it what it "really" is: white and gold. My mind has great difficulty accepting that it is anything other that that. Even after seeing photos of the actual black and blue dress. 

It's a fascinating example of how your experiences and interests might affect your perception, versus mine.

This professor of psychology and neurology notes that about 2/3 of viewers see it as white and gold (unless I got that backwards).

Here's a photo of a Disneyworld duck. (Because I paid so much to get to Florida and get into the park, I just want to stand there taking photos of ducks?!?) It was a sunny day, as you can clearly see.

But wait--that's not how the image actually came out of the camera. I asked Photoshop to adjust the coloring for a sunny day, because it was a sunny day but it came out of the camera quite bluish because it was actually in the shade on a sunny day. Which version is better? I like the former because it better shows what my brain saw, not the colors that the mindless camera chose to apply.

How do you see the dress?

Meanwhile, speaking of visual illusions and ducks: Can you unsee this once I tell you that ducks all wear a dog mask on their face?

Doves, Music, Lyrics, and the Mysterious Ways of Brains

SUMMARY: They weren't the lyrics I thought they were.

[I *swear* I'll have something up about the new house tomorrow.]

On a driving trip through Arizona in 2010, taking photos as I went, I took a shot of blooming saguaro cactus and realized that it had a lovely dove perched on it taking sips of water from one of the flowers. I looked it up in my bird book: White-Winged Dove. Because I always like to know. 

 For some reason the topic of my vacation (or of birds or I don't know what) came up later in my dog agility class. I told about the bird drinking from a flower. What kind of bird? A species I'd never heard of before: White-Winged Dove. 

One of my classmates said, "oh! Like the song!" And it took me no more than a blink and two heartbeats to know exactly what she meant and to realize that the lyrics I'd thought for nearly 30 years were "like the wild wind does, sings a song sounds like she's singing" were not the actual lyrics. 

How I made that connection so quickly, I have no idea. She said nothing else about the song than those four words. I wonder what expression I had on my face.

Nature Stories Aren't Always Happy

SUMMARY: The babies are gone.

The little baby finches, so helpless and freshly hatched just a couple of days ago, were there yesterday morning but gone last night. I have no idea what happened. I know that not all creatures survive infancy, and I realize that if her first 2 survived after fledging a month or so ago then she's got at least 50% going for her, but still, makes me sad.

That is all.

Babies!

SUMMARY: (Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Waiting... waiting... waiting... for Mama House Finch's second litter of the season.

May 27: mama hanging around but nest is empty
May 31: Mamabird	May 31: Daddybird
May 31: Three eggs!	June 2: Mama always watches me carefully; her nest is SO canted that I'm afraid none of the eggs will survive
June 2: Four eggs!	June 2: 5th egg on floor below
June 3: I've mostly fixed the nest tilt, but...	June 3: Only 2 eggs left
June 5	June 7
June 8	June 9
June 10	June 12
June 14: Success!	June 14: They think I'm Mama coming to feed them.

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. << >>  Visit Cee's Photo Challenge blog; lots of blogs. <<

Stuff I've Done In the Last Month-ish

SUMMARY: Your choice: Wordless Wednesday OR Caption Wednesday (hover over image)

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Twin Beaks -- The Hummingbird Saga Part 1

SUMMARY: Originally posted on Facebook (and ongoing); reposted here for posterity and those who aren't on FB.

Feb 6, 8:23 a.m.

I guess that I shouldn't fret so much over my hummingbird. I mean, if she weren't living on my porch, I'd never know one way or the other what happened to her. But her nest last year blew over twice on the decorations on which she built it,and then she gave up. She moved over a couple of feet, but it's on a precarious end of a wire and it's sooooo windy out there..... Fret fret fret even though really there's nothing I can do about it. I did so enjoy watching her 2 previous years worth of twins grow up.

Feb 7, 9:40 a.m.

The hummer nest survived this storm--and I'm SO glad because this morning I caught a glimpse of her feeding a chick! (She has always bred pretty early--I'll have to check my previous years' notes to see whether this is even earlier.)

Feb 9, 9:02 a.m.

Struggling with a hummingbird possible tragedy.

I've been so worried about the hummingbird nest--so windy and it's been looking as if it's tilting slightly. When I first came downstairs this morning, I looked out at the nest. Mama hummer not there, but not unusual for her to go look for food.

I happened to glance down and there was a tiny piece of something on the carpet underneath--I bent down, and it was a baby! Crap! I touched it gently and it moved--still alive! It was very hard to pick it up (and it struggled in its very tiny underdeveloped way) as it has very long, thin claws that had become tangled in the carpet fiber (and this is a very flat, tightly woven outdoor carpet). I was afraid I'd break something so I was as gentle as possible. We're talking a baby who's just about the size of a finger joint and delicate talons thinner than a hair!

Managed to pick him up, got up on a stool and gently tried to tumble him into the nest--but I'm guessing that his claws must have gotten caught on something because I could see him above the edge of the nest struggling and struggling. I can't see into the nest--it's only a few inches from the ceiling. Mama came by briefly and I could see her feeding--I don't know whether she has one or 2 babies this time, so don't know whether it was that baby. She then sat on the nest for a minute or so, doing something very busily--I'm guessing that she was trying to get him better adjusted. But I can still see his little back about the edge of the nest, and if his tiny claws are stuck higher up, where his back is still exposed to the weather and he can't move around, he may be doomed. I don't know what to do. :-(

Feb 10, 8:45 a.m.

Oh em gee-- I really should just let things go their own way and not worry so much. Remember I said yesterday that the tiny tiny thing that I held in my hand looked like it nearly filled the nest? Well, I forgot this one thing about hummingbird mamas: Once the chicks get to a certain size, she no longer needs to sleep there to keep them warm and won't fit anyway! So apparently the little guy fell out at just that point in his life. He is alive and well this morning!

I'm still not entirely sure what's going on--is there another chick in there under him somehow? what's the bare spot on the lower right--can't tell what body part I'm looking at there. The feathers don't seem to be going in the right direction for him. And as I've also noted there have always been twins before. Well, if there were twins and one is still there, I'd say that it's a goner. I don't THINK there is, but I can't make out what's visible here.

But, anyway, here you go--a hummingbird chick that's just a bit more than the size of my finger joint and growing like crazy daily.

Feb 11, 9:02 a.m.

Hummer twins! All is right with the world!

Feb 12, a.m.

This is  what I can see from below--two little bills pointed upward, waiting for mama hummer.

Feb 12, 8:48 p.m.

This is this morning's photo--2 babies hanging out in their slightly tilted nest.

People asked about their size.You can see how the nest is listing to starboard.

Hummer update: For those watching this soap opera, I really do have to warn you that this might not turn out happily.

Thursday evening, Feb 12, just got home, and *&*@#, one of the babies is on the carpet again!

Yes, again one has fallen out of the nest. Again I have to disentangle his tiny fragile claws from the carpet, and this time he's struggling mightily, too. I don't know whether I've hurt one of his feet as he struggles. I gently dump him into the nest from my cupped palm, and he starts to fall out again. I catch him and then I ever ever so gently try to hold him upright between my fingers to drop him in feet first, and he lets out a tiny fragile high-pitched squeak, which I've not heard from the babies before.

Oh, lord, I hope that I didn't kill him--their bones are so tiny and fragile! But he's in the nest, gasping for breath from the terror and hopefully not from pain. Then I did some rebending of the wire near the nest again, trying to get it straight--and SO scared I'm going to break the wire. An hour later, still seems to be in the nest. But I can't check them all the time--so I fear for the worst long-term.

Feb 13 9:00 a.m.

Friday morning--two chicks still in nest but apparently aren't speaking to each other.

Scary--now I'm leaving town for 3 days. Who will check for babies falling out of the nest while I'm gone? No one. Sigh.

Feb 16 11:27 a.m.

The latest drama from Twin Beaks--The Hummingbird Saga: I left town for 3 days, and what a delight to look up this morning at home and see this!

This cracks me up.

Not a great photo (i'll try again later). But you can see the start of the green irridescent feathers on the nearest one. (Does the farthest one look a little scraggly? Not sure. Definitely calls for a better photo later.)

To be continued-- (Read more here: Twin Beaks Part 2 and Part 3 )