Following previous posts on this topic, I present some more great examples of pareidolia — the tendency of human perception to find familiar images (or sounds) when presented with what is actually “noise.”
When I’m taking my end-of-day break out on the deck, I almost always have my camera with me. I’m a big fan of cloud shapes and shoot tons of photos. I’ve done several posts about cloud formations that look like familiar objects. For example:
- sky-lights.org/2016/05/30/cloudzilla/
- sky-lights.org/2012/08/06/why-some-clouds-resemble-things/
- sky-lights.org/2012/02/06/qa-lenticular-clouds/
- sky-lights.org/2012/10/08/sky-lights-200/
- sky-lights.org/2007/08/08/qa-pigs-can-fly/
Pareidolia is an interesting phenomenon. Human brains seem to be hard-wired to recognize familiar shapes and sounds. We see or hear things that aren’t really there. When presented with “noise” (visual or acoustic) our brains kick into overdrive sifting through the random patterns and searching for something we recognize. The results can often be compelling.
So enjoy this new collection of cloud pareidolia. You might not always see the same thing I “see,” but I’m sure you’ll find something in this nephological Rorschach test.
Next Week in Sky Lights ⇒ Wisconsin Aurora