TLR Challenge: 2 – The Spirit in the Sky (A One Shot Story)

This is a bit of an aside from the general theme of the challenge – equipment, method and composition. Something that just appeared and deserves its own entry.

We arrived in Tokyo about lunchtime for a couple of days seeing some of our clients in the evening at their restaurants. I had hoped to shoot at least half a dozen 120 films but the forecast wasn’t good – mixed cloud and sun that afternoon then heavy rain until we left. I decided the best thing to do that afternoon was to rush round places I knew where there were some good photo opportunities – the Shiodome area near Shimbashi, the Hamarikyu gardens near Hamamatshucho, and the Tamachi restaurant district – and shoot a film in each place before our first meeting. First stop was Shimbashi where I went along the high-walk shooting reflections and abstracts.

The image above is of the Dentsu building – an unusually shaped skyscraper, not rectangular or even rhomboidal in cross section with a narrow angled cross-section towards the high-walk. I was hoping for a blue sky – and with a red filter it could be rendered black to create a minimalist image – but the generally cloudy sky was not being my friend. I took a couple of shots about 10 minutes apart, the second with disappointing flat grey cloud.

The image shown appeared at the time to be a random pattern of cloud and a little blue sky with reflections of the clouds in the building. After development and scanning, looking at the thumbnail image I was surprised to see a face looking down at me from the sky – if you can’t see it reduce the size of the image and it will become clear. Short hair across the top of the head and down one side, a suggestion of a beard and moustache, his right eye and eyebrow, one side of the nose and one side of the full lips …. and a hint of a devil shaped ear. The image shown is a straight scan with no manipulation other than minor cropping out scanning errors along the edges.

Pareidolia. Dave Powell may have a more interesting explanation.

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