২৭ মার্চ, ২০২০

There's a line between light and dark, and sometimes it's clear.

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This post is a place for talking only about the concrete matter of what's in the photograph and the abstraction of the line between dark and light. It is not a café — go 2 posts down for that — and it's especially not a place to drop news flashes about the coronavirus — go one post down for that.

৩৪টি মন্তব্য:

MadisonMan বলেছেন...

The best part of that awesome picture? The Sun is almost visible. What a dreary stretch. We got screwed earlier this week. I think Wednesday. (It's dreadfully hard to keep track of what day it is) Milwaukee and SE WI were sunny and almost 60. Clouds never cleared here.

stevew বলেছেন...

Very interesting and pleasing. Did you have to enhance the photo to get that line to stand out? I have a hard time getting photos on my iPhone to accurately represent what my eyes see.

Are you a half empty or half full person? I see that line as clearing the clouds away and imagine it moving from left to right.

rcocean বলেছেন...

Wow, what a great photo.

rcocean বলেছেন...

I've seen the effect in real life, but not with such a dramatic contrast. Of course, having it over a body of water seems to make it more noticeable.

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

"Did you have to enhance the photo to get that line to stand out?"

I did enhance the photo, mostly by dragging down the light, but the line was equally evident in the unretouched photo. I took maybe 20 photos of this excellent sunrise, and this one jumped out as the one with the clear line. I'm amazed by how strong the light vs. dark effect is on the water. You can see in the clouds that there's a vertical sunbeam making the line, but there's something unreal about the light and dark on the water. And yet, we're used to seeing cloud shadows on water. Something about the straightness of the shadow made this special.

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

You're out there expecting the light to come up over a horizontal line, so it's surprising to get hit with a vertical line.

Temujin বলেছেন...

Just a great photo. And I never comment on your sunrises and sunsets because, well....I see my own daily. But this one struck me as both beautiful and strikingly timely.

MadisonMan বলেছেন...

I see that line as clearing the clouds away
Would love to grab the boundary and swipe right :) I have a feeling Momma Nature is gonna swipe left today.

Lash LaRue বলেছেন...

I’ve searched and searched, but I can’t find the concrete matter.

Dave Begley বলেছেন...

One of your best, Ann.

Howard বলেছেন...

Light and dark plus cold and warm chroma. It sort of reminds me of the yin-yang symbol where you have a major division between light and dark and then you've got a little bit of dark in the light and a little bit of light in the dark same thing here with your photo.

Roger Sweeny বলেছেন...

Usually, I don't pay much attention to the sunrise photos. But this is cool.

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

Oh! Actually, I accidentally posted the unretouched photo. I've replaced it with the change I originally intended. You can still see the original here.

As I said above, I dragged down the light. I also cropped it a bit on the right side.

Howard বলেছেন...

Nice underhanded passive-aggressive criticism of our esteemed host, Rodger. Your dismissiveness provides an excellent contrast with the high quality of the art we are privileged to view dot-dot-dot

Ralph L বলেছেন...

Once you see it, the vertical split is pretty strong, too, just not complete.

Jay Vogt বলেছেন...

Ann Althouse said...As I said above, I dragged down the light. I also cropped it a bit on the right side.

Have you no decency Althouse?

Kidding . . .. . .That one caught my eyes too. I meant the un-tweaked one.

Howard বলেছেন...
এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।
Howard বলেছেন...

The line between light and dark in the water is echoing by a distinct lineation in the clouds to produce what looks like a hyperbolic function with the abscissa just a bit above the horizon line. It's nice how that offset of the center of symmetry makes the design much more powerful.

Leslie Graves বলেছেন...

I really love this. The cloud mass has a dimension the water doesn't have in that the cloud mass to the right of the line seems to lower-in-the-sky than the cloud mass to the left of the line. But in the water, a plane surface, that dimension disappears.

I keep looking at the photo. It is so strikingly pleasing to the eye.

JML বলেছেন...

This is a good place for Shouting Thomas to repost his “Morning has Broken” video.

Owen বলেছেন...

Great pic. Great discussion. Feeling lucky to be hanging out here.

madAsHell বলেছেন...

You gotta have your head up, and looking to find photos like that!

Nice work!

madAsHell বলেছেন...

Shouldn’t we find penumbras chasing umbras across the water?

rhhardin বলেছেন...

It's a good chance to back the dollar with toilet paper, now that TP is white gold.

Tomcc বলেছেন...

Delightful photo, thanks! Matisse could do something with that.

eddie willers বলেছেন...

Beautiful. And your title made me think of the line from this song written by Jimmy Webb: Art Garfunkel - All I Know

When the singer's gone let the song go on
It's a fine line between the darkness and the dawn
They say in the darkest night
There's a light beyond

But the ending always comes at last
Endings always come too fast
They come too fast but they pass too slow
I love you and that's all I know

That's all I know, that's all I know . . .

Richard Dolan বলেছেন...
এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।
Richard Dolan বলেছেন...

It has two lines and four quadrants -- the horizon line and the line running diagonally top left-to-bottom right. The quadrants have a play of lighter and darker; bottom right quadrant is the darkest, upper left is the brightest.

Pictures like this remind me of Turner's paintings playing with light/dark over water.

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

Wow, thanks, Eddie.

That is such a beautiful song.

eddie willers বলেছেন...

That is such a beautiful song.

Jimmy Webb is right there with the best songwriters of all times.

Heck....I love his MacArthur Park by Richard Harris. I think the song usually reaches the top of both best and worst song ever lists. And I bet you'll take a picture in spring that will inspire me to post it again.

eddie willers বলেছেন...

And I bet you'll take a picture in spring that will inspire me to post it again.

But I'll find a better version. Sorry to have sent you to such a low-fi recording.

wildswan বলেছেন...

I've never seen that effect in water. From a mountain top you see it in the sky sometimes by a combination of cloud gaps and blocks and straight edge rays. The two together, sky and water - great pic.

Susan in Seattle বলেছেন...

Superb.

Unknown বলেছেন...

The world has benefited greatly from your cataract surgery, Prof. Althouse. I love these photos and it makes me so happy that you are able to see and capture so much beauty, and then you share it with us!

(These posts really do help.)