by Raven » Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:20 pm
Tourists and vanity: it afflicts even our machines.
Travel all the way to an alien world, stop in the middle of an alien landscape, and take a photo of yourself.
(Well, technically, take 55 partial photos of yourself, to be stitched into one -- each time photographing where your arm isn't. But notice the shadow cast on the upper left of the wheel directly below us, center bottom of the picture, and on the ground left of the wheel. What's casting that shadow? Not the semi-conical motor to the left; its shadow is recognizable just left of that shadow directly below. By elimination, the mystery shadow is "us", the camera, directly above.)
Tourists and vanity: it afflicts even our [i]machines[/i].
Travel all the way to an alien world, stop in the middle of an alien landscape, and take a photo of [i]yourself[/i].
(Well, technically, take 55 partial photos of yourself, to be stitched into one -- each time photographing where your arm [i]isn't[/i]. But notice the shadow cast on the upper left of the wheel directly below us, center bottom of the picture, and on the ground left of the wheel. What's casting that shadow? Not the semi-conical motor to the left; its shadow is recognizable just left of that shadow directly below. By elimination, the mystery shadow is "us", the camera, directly above.)