To Cast a Shadow
26 November 2014 -- 330/365
North Providence, Rhode Island
The title comes from a passage in Ursula Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" in which Master Hand cautions, "A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow." It reminded me of my favorite theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg - um, you DO have a favorite theoretical physicist, don't you? - and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It's a principle in quantum mechanics holding that increasing the accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another conjugate quantity may be known. Simply put, the act of taking a measurement changes the properties of that which is being measured. To light a candle is to cast a shadow. (And now you know what happens when quantum physics crashes headlong into philosophy. Hmmm. I wonder what the h-bar value is in that collision.)
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, boost black, boost white, and protect highlights. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
