Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Photographing what's not there


Mr Sunshine and I took a trip to The Towers (also known as The World and real name, Charters Towers) on Tuesday. It was work related, but we decided to make a day of it. Charters Towers is an historic gold mining town about 1 1/2 hours drive inland from Townsville. The country around it is usually dry and dusty, but recent rains have made everything green.
The photo, above, was snapped through the windscreen, just as we were getting back into Townsville. I had been trying for miles to get a photo of the mirages which come and go on the highway. Because we were travelling towards them at about 110 km per hour, it only gave me a window of a second or two to get a photo of the elusive mirages. I did get several photos, but none as clear as the one above. Believe me that road is bone dry. It hadn't rained all day and it was hot, hot, hot. If there had been any water on the road it would have long since dried up. In each of the mirages that I caught on camera you can see blurry reflections of trees and nearby cars in the "water" which adds to the realism of having a genuine puddle of water. I'm just happy to get a photo of something that isn't really there.



This was the other strange thing - not the blurry blob near the centre, that is a chip in the windscreen :).  The white lines do not curve at all, but when the road had a dip at just the right angle it would create this strange visual effect as though the road sort of slims down and then broadens out again.   The road is uniform in width and the shoulders of the road and the white lines continue in a straight line.
It just goes to show that you can't believe everything you see with your own eyes.

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3 comments:

  1. They reckon the min-min lights are truck lights possibly heaps of kilometres away reflecting off water in the air. When you think about it it makes sense, we have such humid air and water is reflective so why can't it reflect stuff when it's in teeny tiny particles in the air?

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  2. What great pictures! You did so well to capture them! It sure does look beautiful & green there at the moment. We used to stay in Charters Towers when I was a girl - it was out overnight stop on our trip from Mt Isa (where we lived) to Cairns/Tablelands (where grandparents were).
    Hope you have a lovely day - enjoy the "greenness!"
    Renata :)

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  3. In many years time you will be sorting through your photo's on your computer and wondering why on earth you took a photo of a puddle on the road !!!

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Mr. Sunshine & Grannysaurus

Mr. Sunshine & Grannysaurus

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Townsville, Queensland, Australia
I have worked as a Biology lab assistant, Pathology lab assistant, geochem lab assistant, land tenure researcher, hospital and prison chaplain, parish care coordinator and part owner of a small business. I have studied some science (no degrees) and have a theology and a chaplaincy certificate. I still love science of all types and enjoy studying theology. Science and theology belong together. At present I am a work-at-home Grannysaurus.

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