Pretty amazing . . .

Perhaps you've seen this picture before? . . . At least one like it:

It always amazed me how relaxed these high-steel "skywalkers" were when in their element. No safety harnesses. Totally relaxed.

Of course, people--the building developers, general contractors, as well as most of the workers--pretty much assumed and accepted that one or two men (or possibly more) would die on every construction job. Those were "just" the risks you had to accept. It was a risky profession. (Interesting case study on the subject available here. Also well worth reading: High Steel by Jim Rasenberger. See, especially, places like p. 247 where you find stories of the workers' own opposition to safety regulations.)

I could continue down that path, but that wasn't, actually, the reason I wanted to show this picture. The reason I wanted to show this picture is . . . well, please take another look.

Anything bother you visually about it? If not, it should.

The photo has been manipulated. Can you discern how and where?

Besides being flipped (notice that all four guys are "lefties"), there's something else "wrong." Indeed, impossible.

Take your time. You'll get it.

See it?

It's an impossible object like the Penrose Triangle or Devil's Tuning Fork:

. . . --the kind of thing M.C. Escher specialized in.

But now in photos?!?

. . . The problem is, I can't figure out how the manipulator did this (I'm assuming it's a him, though, of course, it's a possibility a woman might do such a thing. But, for some reason, I get the feeling this is the kind of thing men do more often than women). . . .

Okay.

Here's the original:

Perhaps I need to flip the manipulated image back and then superimpose the two photos so I can discern what is going on. . . .

Hope you had fun!

Masterful Photoshopper

Erik Johansson of Norrköpin, Sweden, was featured in the January issue of Popular Photography magazine in a piece called "Optical Illusions: Making the impossible seem real," a special version of the magazine's regular feature called "Share My Project."

I was intrigued with Johansson's M.C. Escher-like "Common sense crossing":

and "Vertical turn":

Johansson describes his methodology for making these photos:

"To combine photos, you have to make sure [to] capture your elements in the same lighting and from the same angles, with the same shadows," he says. "To get multiple perspectives on a scene, I'll shoot from different elevations."

For ["Common sense crossing"], for instance, to combine the vertical lines of traffic with the horizontal lines, he had to shoot from different hills along the roadside, at a far enough distance to capture perlectly straight lines.

After a rough composite, he seeks out his final additions. He regularly collects a stock library of elements such as skies and trees, or textures from rocks and pavement. Other times it's simply a matter of more research.

The final stage of compositing them in Adobe Photoshop, he says, takes 10 to 30 hours. "Combining is less difficult when the photos are planned carefully in advance," he says.

Using up to 100 layers, he adds photos in piece by piece.

Go to Johansson's website to see many more photos, some of them whimsical, others rather mind-blowing.

Reading what shouldn't be there . . . but is

I have three or four web pages set up as my standard home pages on my web browser. But I so rarely start a new session that I almost never visit my home pages!

Today, however, I wanted to have two browser sessions going at the same time--so I could copy material more readily from one screen to another. (Just a little easier than using multiple tabs in one browser session.)

Anyway. That meant I saw my home pages--which include iGoogle--for the first time in weeks. My eye was attracted--as it usually is--to one of the widgets I have running on iGoogle: Mighty Optical Illusions.

And today's optical puzzle was a doozy:

What do all those strange shapes stand for?

I know--or at least I assume--the artist has to be playing with negative space. Normally I can "see" whatever-it-is they have hidden in the negative space. But this one just seems really difficult!

Eventually, with the help of some commenters, I was able to make it out. But unlike the editor of the blog, who says, "once you see it, there’s no going back," I will confess that I "go back" regularly. I have to almost trick myself into seeing what the artist has hidden.

See how you do.

If you can't make it out, let me suggest that you pretend you are looking at a flat piece of bright metal. Someone has cut holes in it with an acetylene torch. The metal is brightly lit from the front (behind you, over your right shoulder), and the background is dark.

Yes, it does say something.

If you don't get it, "check this revealing article," writes the blogger. And there you will find an easier puzzle of a similar variety -- although I believe we should say it uses positive rather than negative space:

Well?

Visual effects

Ah! I love this site. Every now and then the author includes something I'd prefer not to look at. But most of the optical illusions he offers are well worth the pondering.

I have added his iGoogle gadget to my iGoogle page so when I (rarely) visit it, I am reminded to re-visit my old friend. (He has a bunch of gadgets/widgets for other services as well:

• Vista Gadget
   
• Mac Widget
   
• iGoogle Gadget
   
• Yahoo PC Widget
   
• MySpace App
   
• Facebook App

But here are a few optical illusions I came across today as I wandered my way through a few of his pages:

• See the guys?
  
  
   
• Let's see . . . you've got a tree . . . and some birds . . . and . . . what else?
  
  
  . . . See the fish? And . . . what is it? A gorilla? And a bear . . . a cheetah?
  
  --If you can't find all the animals, how about finding the dogs that the Mira Foundation provides to help blind people. Then I'm sure you will find the animals in the Pittsburgh Zoo logo:
  
   
• And how about the bear in honor of Berne, Switzerland, the hometown of Toblerone Chocolate--whose logo bug you see here:
  
   
• 
  
  But this entire series was brought to my attention by the over-the-top post about the Bible-reading robot in the Chicago Bulls' logo.

Enjoy!

--If you are reading this on Facebook, the original is from my John's Corner Blog.

Japanese illusionist defies the laws of physics . . . and biology

I found this video on a website I visit every now and then.

I have no idea what the commentator is saying, but the visuals are enough! (6:42 of Japanese TV)



Enjoy!

Optical illusion

A video shot with strobe lights produces some pretty nifty optical illusions. I particularly like the water droplets that split in two and just "hang there" in mid-air. And when the splashes go in reverse! . . . Wow!