Light that makes dull look dazzling

Afternoon ray of light spotlights the city street looking north to give dark sky and bright ground reversal of normal light balance.

The expression, “putting lipstick on a pig” (to add glamor), is used when the dazzling effect covers a much duller reality. That is something like this moment on Saturday afternoon, November 12. The forecast for the first snow of the cold season includes heavy clouds blowing in from the west and south. But a break in the cover lets the low angle of the sun shine at full power. The effect is uncanny, since the usual brightness of overhead sky and darkness of solid earth now is backwards: overhead it is dark and the ground is exceedingly bright. In fact, it is even more unusual than that 2-part split since there is an added layer of light here: bright bottom, dark middle, and then some of the brightness hitting the higher layer of cloud near the camera lens so that the view is a kind of “dark sky sandwich” with brighter parts bottom-most and top-most.

With regard to the theme of this blog on the parallels of seeing certain ways (noticing, reflecting, seeking) and thinking certain ways, this photo illustrates how a location that is unordinary can be transformed into something rare for a short time and which only a few people will be in a position to appreciate before it goes away again. When something dull (like this city street) is presented in a way seldom seen before, it has the power to attract people’s attention; it can even cause a person to stop in his tracks and snap a photo to share. Something similar is possible when an ordinary thought or subject or habit is presented in a new light. Then it may have the power to attract attention or cause a person to stop and consider it with new eyes. What is usually dull now is unusually dazzling.