This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger.
What do you think this is? What do you hope it is? What fever-dream speculations would come to you about this picture after four long sleep-deprived days on a Ferris wheel?
Pareidolia
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Pareidolia Play Along 3: The Reveal
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger.
In this installment, Ellen reveals the answer to last week’s Pareidolia Play Along.
It’s a bee, a blue bee! The genus is Osmia, the species probably pumila. The disk-like thing in the center of the shot is called a tegula and is positioned just above where the wings attach to body. If I’d been the one to name that particular bit of bee anatomy, I would have called them epaulets.
When I took the shot, I thought my oh my, this looks like a painting.
Pareidolia Play Along 3
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger
Here’s another cryptic photograph for your rorschaching pleasure. What do you think was really in front of the camera? What might the sort of person who sees saints on a taco see? If you were in a therapists office and this was a polychrome inkblot, what would it bring to mind?
If you want to analyze carefully, based on evidence and knowledge, go for it! If you prefer to extrapolate wildly, hey that’s cool too. If you just want to make outrageous shit up, well it’s not like there isn’t a precedent. Just do it as an art form.
Extra points for making us laugh.
Ready, set, go!
Pareidolia Play Along 2: The Reveal
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger
In this installment, Ellen reveals the answer to last week’s Pareidolia Play Along. Here’s the image she teased us with:
I have a pair of hip waders. Nothing fancy. Not your hootsie tootsie high-end Orvis sort of hip waders. I’d taken an aquatic entomology class (Say Didymops three times fast!) and the smallest size of wader available for use was two sizes too big for me. I did what I could by wearing extra socks to make my feet fit somewhat more securely in the boots, but it didn’t help much. I had to walk into streams and rivers to do kick samples and the rocks were slippery. If the current was running fast, it was tricky. I did not like sliding around inside the boots, thank you very much. So I went out and bought myself a cheap pair of waders.
Play Along Pareidolia Follies
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger.
Light up some incense, if that helps. Crank up some new age music. Break out the wind chimes. Lay out some crystals. Surely you must have a geological souvenir from the gift shop of a children’s museum? No? Well, hell, how about rock candy? Table sugar is a crystal. Sprinkle some of that around. Just set the mood, will ya?
Comfy? Got your mind wide open with the breeze blowing over all those meaty lobes? Good.
Now what do you see?
Follow-up to Pareidolia, Do Ya, Don’t Ya
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger
About the Quasi Cryptic photograph of last week – It is indeed a pair of submerged plastic watering cans. They were resting in a water barrel sitting in the middle of a squash field at a family farm in Bethel, Connecticut. The algal slop is charged with hopeful intentions, that or random bird poo. I’m gonna market it as nature’s own cure for woo. Instruct a homeopathist to soak his head in it. I don’t have data to prove this will help, but we can always hope.
Yucky stuff, that slime, but also a glorious color, so it shares more than one attribute with lime Jell-O. The green glows because light is flooding it from all sides. It was that electric color that caught my eye. I pulled my camera out of my pocket and stuck it in the bucket for a few shots. I saw white and faded red plastic submerged, but I didn’t realize what it was until I got home and uploaded the photos to my computer. I was thrilled! I love the shadows. I love the curves. I love the way the waterers float, nested against each other in a yin-yang embrace. I cackled. I drummed a happy little tattoo with my heels. And it slays me that I hadn’t realized what they were.
The floating shoes comment made me think about the Hansa Carrier. And so my thoughts do drift…
Thanks for looking and guessing!
Follow-up to Pareidolia, Do Ya, Don't Ya
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger
About the Quasi Cryptic photograph of last week – It is indeed a pair of submerged plastic watering cans. They were resting in a water barrel sitting in the middle of a squash field at a family farm in Bethel, Connecticut. The algal slop is charged with hopeful intentions, that or random bird poo. I’m gonna market it as nature’s own cure for woo. Instruct a homeopathist to soak his head in it. I don’t have data to prove this will help, but we can always hope.
Yucky stuff, that slime, but also a glorious color, so it shares more than one attribute with lime Jell-O. The green glows because light is flooding it from all sides. It was that electric color that caught my eye. I pulled my camera out of my pocket and stuck it in the bucket for a few shots. I saw white and faded red plastic submerged, but I didn’t realize what it was until I got home and uploaded the photos to my computer. I was thrilled! I love the shadows. I love the curves. I love the way the waterers float, nested against each other in a yin-yang embrace. I cackled. I drummed a happy little tattoo with my heels. And it slays me that I hadn’t realized what they were.
The floating shoes comment made me think about the Hansa Carrier. And so my thoughts do drift…
Thanks for looking and guessing!
Pareidolia, Do Ya, Don’t Ya?
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger
Photograph: Quasi Cryptic © Ellen Bulger, all rights reserved
People see all kinds of things in the random patterns of clouds, wood grain, inkblots and even in the carbonization of food. The browning of buttery bread, tortillas or cheese releases delicious flavors, not messages from on high. It is one thing to see a bunny in a fluffy cloud. When you are seeing a deity in a mold stain on drywall, you really need to ask yourself some hard questions. Why would a deity want to be represented in mildew or even Velveeta? And should you cut back on your drinking?
While people often see things that do not exist, the flip side is we often don’t recognize things that are in full view. So I offer this photograph. Can you see what is really here? And if so, how long did it take you?