Assignment:
What? Do I possess some type of paranormal power? How am I to get a picture into a camera when it is outside the frame? Maybe drill a hole at an angle in a camera and make a pinhole image “outside the frame”? Maybe find someone with heavy makeup, thick dyed black hair, and a months wages of silver jewelry slung about their neck, and see if magic can happen?
Oof! 2025 is shaping up to be a tough year!
So what to do? Well what are the options that I can think of? Henry said that, “it’s what you see”, but I can’t even look much less see around corners! By the way, did you know we pronounce his last name wrong? His Aunt says that it should be pronounced like the word “thorough”, with emphasis on the first syllable, and the ‘h’ sounded out (like THOR-oh). Also, since I have wandered off topic, did you know that his birth name is different than his commonly used name? For some reason after college, he decided to go by Henry David Thoreau, instead of David Henry Thoreau, (what his birth certificate shows). I agree that it does roll off the tongue easier, but that might be because of the forced familiarity with him from my, undergraduate college Great Books course.
So where was I? Oh yes, the impossible frame. Have you heard of the term, “he’s afraid of his shadow”? Meaning of someone or some animal that is skittish or overreacting, and obviously feeling very vulnerable. That got me to thinking of shadows and shapes of things based on their shadow. The story is often told of the venerable passenger airplane the Douglas DC-3, that the only thing original on the plane is it’s shadow. The DC-3 started in service as an airliner in the 1930’s and some are still in use today (with most of the original parts being replaced long ago)! U.S General Eisenhower said the most important machines during World War II were not made for war; the Jeep, the Bulldozer, and the C-47, (a DC-3 dressed in army dungarees).
Yes, a shadow can reveal something that is not there. Think of a total eclipse, the moon casts a shadow on the surface of the earth, but is over 200,000 miles away.
So that is my magic trick, I can show something by using it’s shadow, even though the object itself is not in the frame:
