Week 9 : Time is relative

This view of the moon shining through the clouds gave me a strong sense of time. It seems as though a Batman type of spotlight is shining up towards the clouds, but in reality, the rays of light from the sun reflecting off of the moon are percolating through this thin layer of clouds. Another interesting concept is that the appearance of the moon behind those clouds is not quite as large as the attention grabbing orb of light in this image. In the great distance between the moon and these clouds the light has diffused enough to create this larger ball of light. It makes me think of what is possible with lenses that throw light out at different angles and the effect of that light hitting a translucent object. What fascinated me in this case is that the translucent object was slowly moving. With the projector-like moon in the background, the unidirectional creeping of the clouds made me feel like I was in a slow motion movie. Although seconds were proceeding at their usual pace, it felt in those moments as if time had slowed down because of the stillness around me. I'm also amazed by the illusion of distance. I'm still left in wonderment looking back at this photo because it appears as if the clouds were lit from below due to the bright activity in the foreground. They were actually at a higher altitude than they appear and it takes me back to the question of time. They made time slow down, yet if they were moving right in front of my face, would time have felt faster? I wish I had more time to play with some of these concepts in class!