There will be no challenge today. I figure after all the contests and challenges I’ve been running,you might need a break:~)
The Truth
Last week I showed you the above picture and challenged you to figure out what it is before I dosed it with Photoshop.
Today, the truth comes out along with revealed secrets.
First, I have to apologize for the mistake in my hints about what this object is. There was a lot of confusion about the fifth clue, “Some people live in them, but they’re not safe when the weather isn’t right.
Actually, you can’t live in this object unless you’re a very small insect and you take anti-dizziness medicine:~)
However, the object does have the same name as something you do live in, which is very dangerous in bad weather conditions like hurricanes and tornadoes.
And the Winner Is
Many of you who left comments were sooooo close! Several suggested windmills — Patty, Tony and Hilary. Others like Jannie and talon thought it was something to do with birds and Belinda, SuZen and Barbara thought a lighthouse was a good choice.
Peggy said it was a “whirlygig thingamagig,” which I loved and was very close! Jonathan declared he was “lost in the sauce” and Gerri just liked the picture. Last, but not least, Desk49 thought it was a copper box.
But no one, except Mike Goad, answered the challenge correctly. I congratulate him on this because it was evidently rather difficult:~)
Because I knew what the object was, all my hints seemed obvious to me. Therefore, I expected everyone to get this challenge with no problem.
This proves a very important literary lesson: What an author may think is very, very clear may not be clear at all to the reader.
Next time I do something like this, I promise to make the hints a bit easier and to check them out with other people before I put up the post.
The Unveiling
So, here goes the unveiling, starting backwards and I will tell which filters (in caps) I used to alter the original picture:
If I remove the TWIRL and then…
Stop the WIND from blowing as well as…
Hide the GLOWING EDGES and…
Avoid SOLARIZING the picture, you will end up with….
My new Wind Mobile!
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sara .. great pics .. and no-one we can’t live in it & in this weather I wouldn’t want to live in it anyway – far too many holey windows?! I thought Mike might have made the right suggestion .. good for him.
You had us thinking though – but shows us how our communication needs to be so careful .. not so much here – this was fun .. but for anyone doing anything public – that lots of us read .. clarity is essential.
Fun – and I enjoyed it .. Hilary
.-= Hilary´s last blog ..The Law of Unintended Consequences and Post Boxes =-.
@ Hilary — Your words, “clarity is essential is one of the things I learned from this challenge!. That’s what I love about blogging — you learn new things constantly from the sites you visit and from the people who visit your site. It is fun and I love that you enjoy participating:~)
Never heard of a wind mobile, but that is so pretty! Must be lovely to watch spinning in the wind. I can see why Aggie would love it!
I’m laughing because it’s so true – what we think is so perfectly clear gets lost in translation.
I enjoyed the challenge, Sara!
.-= talon´s last blog ..Look up…way way up… =-.
@ talon — I’m pleased you enjoyed the challenge. I will have to admit I made this one too difficult…it’s a learning process:~) I can’t believe you’ve never of a wind mobile? Where I live, we put them outside in our gardens and then the wind spins them around. This one is lots of fun because the copper really catches your eye. I love to watch it.
Hi Sara – Very cool pictures! You know, I like it that it wasn’t clear, that we had to rack our brains and most of us couldn’t come up with the answer. It forced us to focus on the process of guessing, imagining, analyzing. And that was enjoyable, and the end result didn’t matter so much. Maybe that was a happy accident, but I guess I love those happy accidents!
.-= Patty – Why Not Start Now?´s last blog ..Meaning Mondays: The Purposelessness Edition =-.
@ Patty — I remember happy mistakes and accidents! It’s hard to say about the hints. I certainly confused some people about whether or not you could live in it:~) It all worked out in the end and I think it was fun:~) Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Sara,
When I taught communication skills in Ethic – students were so amazed and what a clear communication looked like in a diagram and how many lines of connections there were before just two folks were in what is called “direct communication” or some say “on the same page”
I could not guess what the object was at all as I just got totally amerced in the final whirl and color – rainbow…I knew it was movement, and I thought it lovely…
I am glad to have it revealed. thank you
@ Patricia — That’s interesting about a clear communication! It certainly makes me feel better:~) I’m glad you enjoyed the revealing!
immersed not amerced sorry
.-= Patricia´s last blog ..Making Valentines: 3 Hearts Swan =-.
@ Patricia — Now here’s a good example of communication. I read your first comment and didn’t even notice the mistake:~) I guess it’s because my mind knew what word you intended to use and just filled it in….interesting!
I love the progression of the photos. And I also really love that you include a literary lesson. I struggle with this sometimes when I text my husband. Some things are so clear to me and I assume should be to him, too until he comes home with butter instead of cream!
@ Belinda — Thanks for your nice words about the progression of the photos and my literary lesson! It is funny how clear you can think you’re being when it’s not that clear at all to someone else.
Hey, at least you text:~) My boyfriend and my daughters get very annoyed with me for refusing to learn how to text. It takes me forever to write something on my phone, even with the character helper or whatever it’s called. I get frustrated and just call them…it’s easier:~)
Aha!!! Very cool. It is amazing how much twirling can change a picture!
.-= Gerri´s last blog ..Count Down Day-4 =-.
@ Gerri — Perhaps it’s appropriate that Twirling altered the picture. Think about happens when WE twirl too much…it’s certainly changes how we see the world…at least for a little while! Thanks for the visit and sharing your thought:~)
Ooo-ooohhh… pretty wind mobile. I love wind mobiles! My mother has heaps of them at her place and it just makes everything come alive whenever there’s a slight breeze about.
Communication is a tricky business when you’re a writer or an artist. Many’s the time I’ve come up with what I thought to be a hugely funny Trottersville strip only to find that others don’t get it. At all. And no matter how carefully I explain the joke to them. It’s a humbling experience I can tell you!
.-= Tony Single´s last blog ..Meet the Wife =-.
@ Tony — I can really understand how comic strips could be difficult regarding communication. You have so much space to visually and verbally communicate the idea. In addition, humor is so varied with people. I know this well because I have what might be called a “darker” side to my humor. I can find things funny that might horrify or offend other people. For example, I do sometimes enjoy the Darwin Awards and I love Despair.com, both of which look at life with a slightly askew view:~)
Ahhhhhh, that’s what is is!!!
Mobile , mobile home. How clever, Sara.
This was fun! And ya know, with a little more brain power I coulda got it! Your clues were actually very good.
xo
@ Jannie — Thanks about the clues. I think were okay once I cleared up the fact you could not LIVE in the object:~) Certainly, Mike picked up on that quickly:~)
The textual information that you provided helped. However, the picture actually helped, too. I recognized the swirled techniques, so was partially able to reverse engineer the image. What I ended up with was close to the third image in this post only more faded and without color, but I kinda recognized the shape. All I could come up with, though, was something associated with wind. It was only on my second try that I was able to get it, when I remembered some mobiles I had made many years ago and how they would move. They were made for interior use, though.
.-= Mike Goad´s last blog ..Dream Lake =-.
@ Mike — After I put this one up and realized people were struggling with, I was afraid no one would get it…but you did and I felt better for it:~) I noticed that some people had not heard of wind mobiles. We have them a lot where I live and many are garden mobiles — maybe it’s a Florida cultural thing? That was another lesson for me — I assumed everyone would know about wind mobiles and they didn’t
I was pleased that you figured this out. I always enjoy when you visit my picture post challenges.