Goose or Orb?

Fun images – not because they’re great photography, but because they were such a surprise. They were taken last weekend while my husband and I wandered the grounds of the Chattahoochee Nature Center happily snapping pictures: ferns in the woods – snap, snap; trees by the lake – snap, snap; geese on a log – snap, snap. Basic amateur nature shots. However, by the time I got home the geese had somehow magically transformed inside the camera. Way Cool! The birds and their reflections became fat globes balancing precariously on sticks. Colors became shapes. The background had blended itself into a wash of subtle glazes.

Many years ago I read a book by Rudolf Arnheim called Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. It’s been so long now that the only thing about the book that I remember is a quote from the first few pages. It described how we see an object. Arnheim wrote, “…in looking at an object, we reach out for it. With an invisible finger we move through the space around us, go out to the distant places where things are found, touch them, catch them, scan their surface, trace their borders, explore their texture. Perceiving shapes is an eminently active occupation.” I think we must do this without realizing it. I certainly saw birds, but maybe my mind was also busy tracing, exploring and scanning those big balls of feathers. But then, maybe I just got lucky.