Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/01/30

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Subject: [Leica] An unusual visual phenomenon
From: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 10:40:41 +0100
References: <AANLkTiktcTv-zGMt28scRocnMzhkKwscDxX8vRBpOL=7@mail.gmail.com>

I think "a couple of hours of shoveling" is the operative phrase. I would be 
hallucinating at that point.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog

YNWA







On Jan 28, 2011, at 3:56 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:

> Yesterday afternoon, when shoveling our recent 15" snowfall off the
> driveway, I paused at the mailbox to get the day's mail. I set the letters
> down on the snowbank to close the box when I noticed that all the white
> envelopes appeared a pale shade of blue. When I took them in the house they
> appeared normally white. While I have no definitive explanation for the
> "blue" envelopes, I have written before that the eye, mediated by the 
> brain,
> does not see reality but sees what it expects to see. We alter the visual
> scene until it conforms to our expectations. Colors are viewed in their
> "proper" hues despite ambient illumination, shapes are altered, sizes
> changed to offset their diminishment by perspective, and so on. Reality is
> in our mind, not in the objective scene.
> 
> All I can suggest is that after a couple of hours of shoveling I expected
> the snow to be white despite the fact that it was yellow tinged because of
> the late afternoon sun. By shifting the color balance of the scene to meet
> my expectations, perhaps the truly white envelopes were shifted into the
> blue. Does anyone have an explanation?
> 
> Larry Z
> 
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> Leica Users Group.
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> 



In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin) ([Leica] An unusual visual phenomenon)