Viva Brazil! Viva Photoshop!

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Yesterday we attended Viva Brazil, a festival in Federation Square. There was Brazilian food, Brazilian music and Brazilian dancers. Quite a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Not often I get free license to watch semi-clad women dance. And the dance was all shake and wobble. The women were all well built and obviously having fun. No anorexics in this chorus line.

One of my gripes with cameras and photography is that the eye and brain conspire to make you unhappy with the photos you take. The photo below is of a group of dancers. In real life it was bright, energetic, noisy; lots of wobble, smiles and fun.

The eye focuses on the bits of interest to the exclusion of all else.

The camera's rendition is just a little sad. Oddly, because it includes everything, it is empty and sparse.



Close cropping and Photoshop helps put a bit of life back into it.

Viva Brazil! Viva Photoshop!
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Children, don't try this at home!

First, the preamble:
(Can I say that?)

Anyway, I have been browsing a book with the overly ambitious title of Instant Analysis by David J Lieberman. In one of the last chapters he talks about shaking up your mental and physical routines, those mechanical patterns in your life.

Some of the exercises he lists as ways of interrupting the physical patterns are:

◊ Change the order in which you put on your shoes
◊ Pick up the phone or drink with your other hand
◊ Rearrange your house, office, desk
◊ Wear your watch on your other arm

You get the idea. His intention is to shake up your life (just a little!) and increase your awareness of yourself and the world around you.

Now, about the post proper...

Many moons ago, when I was about 12-ish, a (former) friend dared me to ride my bike while holding the left handle with my right hand and the right handle with my left hand.

It's trickier than you imagine.

When the bike starts to veer left, your brain says 'steer right' but your right hand is on the left handle so you very quickly do a four point landing on the gravel.

The four points in question being two knees and two palms.

There are some patterns that I recommend you leave alone.
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Against the spin...

Interesting.

The blurb about the dancing lady suggests that most people see her spinning anti-clockwise and yet nearly everyone who commented on my last post saw her spinning clockwise.

Obviously I have a lot of very individual, right-brained readers!
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A gentle touch...

I want to play with your mind for a minute.

Do you mind? I have warm hands...

Think of the last time you went out to a restaurant for a nice dinner. Go there in your mind, recall all the details, the smells, the noise, the emotion.

The lighting was dim and the walls a dark crimson colour, weren’t they?

If yes, I do free tarot readings every other Sunday.
Well, not free exactly. I expect a coffee.

If no, imagine the same dinner but WITH red walls and dim lighting. Can you do that? Can you change the decor of that dinner? To a rich red colour? Like using one of those online colour scheme programs that let you ‘repaint’ your house, paint the walls red. (Those who said yes, you try it with a deep bottle green.)

Now, think of something else totally different. Say, a polar bear.

Nice bear.

Now, go back to your dinner memory. Are the walls red now? It wont be so for everyone but for some it will. And if I was to ask you about that dinner in a weeks time you may also find that the red walls are part of the memory.

Memories are not as hard and fast as we believe.

A final thing about that dinner: Could you see yourself sitting at the table? Was your perspective that of someone looking at you and your partner enjoying a lovely meal in this red and dimly lit restaurant? Perhaps from slightly above? Often from above the right shoulder.

For many people that is the case. They can see themselves in the picture.

And yet at the time, when it happened, you only really saw your partner and your arms.

So is it a memory at all?
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