Stonehenge doffs its cap to CAS

[Howard Brown]

This photo appeared in The Times, UK, today 21JAN2017. It was attributed to ‘ROOM RF’,
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=stonehenge+cloud+getty+images&biw=1090&bih=610&tbm=isch&imgil=ZcXqL-w1qm_IsM%253A%253B9Iw5oikhB87iwM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.gettyimages.com%25252Fphotos%25252Fstonehenge&source=iu&pf=m&fir=ZcXqL-w1qm_IsM%253A%252C9Iw5oikhB87iwM%252C_&usg=__JSZFh2OTONYpdC-tzYbspWtS6GQ%3D&ved=0ahUKEwiwh_HZqtTRAhVqBsAKHRs8AHQQyjcIMw&ei=–aDWPCdA-qMgAab-ICgBw#imgrc=ZcXqL-w1qm_IsM%3A

[Howard Brown]

Much musing

I find this photo quite startling – Stonehenge is in the middle of Salisbury Plain with no hills for some distance. So what are these clouds? Lenticularis of some sort, like a pile d’assiettes (1), ‘formed due to alternating layers of moister and drier air’.

These clouds seem quite lowly, so Stratocumulus lenticularis, CL5, p34 in (2)? But these are not so UFO-like says Hamblyn.

So, Altocumulus lenticularis, CM4, p54 in (2)? They are localised phenomena and never go on to invade the sky, says Hamblyn. I wonder how long this stack was around.

Then there is the cynic’s explanation, but we wont go into that.

(1) The Cloud Collector’s Handbook, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, pp 28-29.
(2) The Met Officee Pocket Cloud Book, Richard Hamblyn

[Michael Lerch]

hygge…uuhhmm the lighting of the edifices and grounds does not match the ” sunset” lighting of the cloud formation so, there is an easy clue some ” photoshopp’ing has been done to the pic. I think you see it but haven’t found the words..the scale is off, to me anyway.. The Straight Ahead perspective is a subtle give away imho. Its Flat. ,,kinda what happens when your observing mind becomes cynical. Overall, its not a natural shot, opening the door to,,,unnatural…Americans have been introduced to the ” alternate facts” very recently. I think the Lenticular/ Stonehenge shot is an ” alternate fact’ Some body getting carried away with the UFO Business…and the photographer/processor decided to give it a try as well..imho. Seems to me,, such a shot opportunity would have made it into the Viral universe soon after being observed..A) because being Stonehenge, many folks would have seen it and photographed it..B) each of them anxious to get their 15 minutes of fame…Imean as an example,,the other recent Lenny phenomena in GrtBrt had at least 3 or 4 photo witnesses just here..Cynical? no..Experienced in a good way is how I prefer to see it. I’d like to see a bunch of photos from different folks of the event before I believe this one.

[Howard Brown]

Thank you, Michael, for your skilled eye. I did send an e-mail to CAS drawing their attention to the photo and Sheena said she would ensure the powers that be were aware.

It makes you wonder, though, how much you can trust those such as Getty Images and The Times photo editor (I did not check the letters page thereafter).

‘H’

[Michael Lerch]

hygge..Im always brought to Magritte’s ” This Is Not A Pipe” illustration, ( Treachery of Images). Photographs are not reality. They are at best a 2 dimensional representation of reality or of something. As a collection of photographs ( a graph made by light) of Stonehenge in all its various moods and incantations the lenny shot is allowed on ” poetic license” basis. Just as the shots of “modern day”druids celebrating equinox are allowed. But neither have for a second got me thinking in terms of logic or reason. Both turn me to my heart, my ” feel” of this ancient tribute to their gods/god.. The Lenny shot works figuratively. It fails in a literal sense. The Lighting is wrong. The scale is wrong. The Physics that produce such phenomena is absent. The Witnesses are Missing. etc etc. Some of the other photos are also problematic in a literal sense, but figuratively work in the wonderful magical fantasy realm that Stonehenge invokes in all of us. Now..I got a guy over here this side of the pond, who wants to make things great again. Yet, it seems to me , Stonehenge would the best starting point for such ambition. Is there any way I can Interest a majority of the public to take this modern day Whiz ard and give him something to really brag about if he was to succeed at making great again?

[Gavin Pretor-Pinney]

This is definitely a fake image.
Here is the same cloud over… the pyramids of Egypt!

What has happened to the state of British journalism when The Times newspaper prints a fake photo composite as if it is a real scene? Clearly, no one there has the time to check with the agency whether or not the image is real.

When it comes to images of the sky, Photoshop has a lot to answer for.

[Howard Brown]

If this thread has been an attempt at Trump l’oeil (pardon my French) then perhaps best close out with the genuine. I was tardy with my order for the 2017 CAS Calendar but it has now arrived and this lenticular is the cover picture

The Cloud Appreciation Society

I hope Michael got a gratuitous Calendar as his photo has been chosen for February.

[Michael Lerch]

GPP..my goodness, I hope Lenny tipped the taxi driver well..

I think,,and i hope,all Photos that end up printed and displayed in what ever media venue are ” processed. ” I’ve gone on about the fantastic attributes of Adobe Lightroom. Professional Photogs use RAW,a choice in Image Recording in the digital camera,which is designed for maximum processing of the image for the printed page. So again, the only truth in any Photograph is the feel the observer gets from it. …I remove birds, planes, bugs , dust etc from my ” image”. I add or subtract contrast, saturation, clarity, to a image of maybe just a part of an image. I crop just about every shot. I shoot with the knowledge that I will adjust the size, the borders, the brightness the darkness, etc etc etc. I almost feel sorry for the printer,,because as in the CAS Calendar,,the original, un processed image was asked for. I knew what I went thru with that image before I originally sent it to Ian.

Gavin expressed somewhere, that he hoped we were happy with what the printer did with our photographs. I am Happy. Minor differences are not worth the time to discuss. Just as my Image is not the same as the actual momentary sight I saw,,the printers version cannot be either.

For a real hoot though,.try to imagine the Trump Logo floating above Stonehenge and or The Pyramids,,maybe the Greek Acropolis….Eiffel Tower..etc..

[Howard Brown]

One more hoot
From The Times Register today (an obituary):
His last column for The Oldie appeared days before he died. In it he railed against the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency. “I keep finding myself singing Nellie the Elephant who, packing her trunk and saying goodbye to the circus, went off ‘with a trumpety-trump, trump, trump, trump’, ” he wrote. “I’m hoping against hope that Donald Trumpety-Trump will also say goodbye to the circus in Washington and return to the jungle whence he came.”

Alexander Chancellor, CBE, editor of The Spectator, 1975-84, and The Oldie, 2014-17, was born on January 4, 1940. He died on January 28, 2017, aged 77

[Howard Brown]

Off topic (apologies) but not unrelated to this thread.

In 1967 JK Galbraith wrote (*) of the Entrepreneurial Corporation and the Mature Corporation:
‘Nor is any reconciliation possible. The assertion of the competitive individualism of the corporate executive, to the extent that it continues, is ceremonial, traditional and, on occasion, a manifestation of personal vanity.’
He continues of any head of a modern enterprise seeking the heroic image ‘Doubtless this does no harm’ and explains in a footnote that being well qualified for ceremonial functions is what the position almost exclusively requires.
So we must just hope that Galbraith’s observations apply to President of the USA.
(*) JK Galbraith, The New Industrial Estate, 1967 pp 103/104

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