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?

Colors of Dining Out

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

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Closing on the end of an era--?

SUMMARY: They're Just Big Chunks of Plastic, Right?

Previous posts on this topic:

• April 10, 2012: Mat Matters
• May 1, 2006: No More Rain!

As I related in Mat Matters, my dog mats... crating mats... canopy mats...   oh, right, agility mats... came to me through happenstance between 1997 and 2012.  Their two common features were:  purple. And agility.  I'd have preferred teal or blue with the purple, but, OK, purple.

After that post, my first two mats went into the trash, just too beat up.  The other two were good--one (purple and black) brand new then; the purple and white only a couple of years older, but its edge already fraying, which I never did get around to taping up.

Since (sigh, sob, sad, shoulders droop) 2014 they have been sitting on the same shelf in the garage where I kept them for the preceding 13 years. Sitting. Just sitting there. Waiting. Wanting to be out on a field somewhere, or on the dirt of an arena, or really anywhere.  Wanting matching dog crates resting on them, protecting them, dogs comfy inside them. Matching chairs. Matching leashes. Matching gear bags and toys.

Shocks me every time I realize how long it has been since I tried competing in agility.  "Just a temporary setback," I told myself.

Today, needed to tidy some garage shelves.

Had already gone thru boxes of paper/plastic plates, cups, and plasticware.
Notice a theme in colors even here?
I used to have a lot of parties and barbecues...

Dog gear that used to fit on a shelf and a half had gradually flowed from the initial shelf up and down and across. Same gear that used to fit! So, get to it. First thing, I grabbed the mats to pull them down-- and was showered with purple! (shock, startle, jump back) The purple and white literally disintegrating in my hands!

Holy crappola--is this actually a thing that happens?!

The mat. The frayed side/binding at the bottom from way back, but the crumbling purple is new...

The black and purple is fine. So, really, I guess the P&W was of cruddy quality from the beginning.  Spent 20 minutes taking the mat outside for a final photo, putting it into the trash, and then cleaning up piles and miles of scattered crumbling mini-to-micro plastic bits, on the shelves near the mats, on the floor under the mats, in a trail across the garage, in piles on the sidewalk where I spread it for photos, sweeping and vacuuming Purple.

I keep feeling the edge of my agility era creeping closer. I'm not yet ready to admit that I'm done. I might not be done--since I had been taking Zorro to class before my knee surgery followed by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, with many cases in my county, not going to be one of the first to open much up quickly, either.  Don't know where it will all go. But--another mat gone. Another connection.

But, so--just mats. But with nearly 300 weekends of competition--which means likely 1000 days of competitions--plus seminars, and classes, and fun activities--  It's all part and parcel of Being An Agility Person.  So strange.

What kind of face is that, anyway?

SUMMARY: Makeup

Backfill: Typed this May 20, 2019...:oops, why didn't I post it?  --- MARCH 25: Added first-grade class photo.

True story about me: When I was about 35, I went to a stylist who suggested that I try false eyelashes or at least mascara. I said no. But she talked me into finding a very pale mascara (light brown, I guess), which was hard to find, and it was OK, i suppose. Never used it much. But that's me--because my lashes are so short and straight, they needed a tiny bit of curling to show up even then. All too much of a pain for such tiny lashes. My newest cousin infant is lucky to have naturally long, curled-up eyelashes.

Me, at eighteen. What I think is interesting about this is that my eyes have always been listed as blue. When I got my first license, I asked the clerk something about the color, and she agreed blue. They sure don't look blue here!

Class photo, 1st grade -- they do look a bit blueish; I'll have to go find any photos at all from my youngest youth to see how blue they really looked.

My eyes today. About the color they've always been, I think.  Sort of bluish greenish. The Colors person I went to (different from Stylist) suggests bright teal or BLUE as my most flattering colors ("Dramatic", as in, if I walk into a room and I want people to notice ME and I'd look great in them--based some on eye color but also on skin tone). But see what she  put for Eye Tones? Not blue!

Me at 50. Depends on the light, too, I suppose.

Me at 47.

Added Oct 20, 2019:

Me, now. (Cell phone selfie, hence not so sharp, but colors are ok.) Not really blue...?

Any Questions About My Preferences?

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

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

Teal

SUMMARY: (Mostly) Wordless Wednesday: Colors posts--never have done teal!

I've done many agility-related color posts, but even though I love teal, somehow I've missed that one. So--voila! Mostly agility--but not all! Google search on "teal color" > > > > >

Left to right, top to bottom: Parrot in Monterey / first agility mat all worn out / agility competitor Rob / cooler handle / railing at Santa Cruz boardwalk / towel at agility / broad jump / award ribbon / speaker box handle / Tika in her crate / tunnel barrel / discussing agility course map / numbered course cones / poop-bag dispenser / my clothing and fitbit / triple jump half / mom’s empty mug collection cabinet / awesome car in parking lot / my favorite tie-dyed team shirt / faithful suitcase duffel for overnight agility trips / wall at WAG / agility peeps in teal / Gail with Gwyneth and Debbie with Porsche teamed for pairs and both earned their championships on that run (a rare occurrence) / tie dye is popular at agility / Boost always fetched her leashie at the end of a run / Tika loved being told to BREAK! / green winged teal / cinnamon teals/span>



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

The ink is black, the page is white...

SUMMARY: Because I want to be able to wear any color clothing and still have it be clear that I live with dogs.

Backfill: (Repost from Facebook yesterday)

Purple purple purple

SUMMARY: Cee's photo challenge

Backfill: Oops, never posted when I first created this! So--posting it on May 14, 2019.

I bump around on the web, so have fallen across SO many photo challenges. Can't do them all. Can't even keep up with my own challenges to myself!

However, Cee's photo challenge currently is PURPLE. How could I resist?

 Remember my agility colors series?  Never did finish all the colors, but I did purple. (Revisit that by clicking on this image--)

But what an opportunity to provide a few more images of pretty pretty purply things!

I used Google's advanced search feature to search for any photos here at Taj MuttHall that are purple--how cool is that? Click here to see.  [Although I'm intrigued that most of the purples in the link from the photo aren't actually included in this search!? And many other purple shots are missing. Hmmm. But, still, pretty nifty.]