2 replies to this topic

[drsteve]

Sometimes when Neptune is smiling at me, he will arrange things with what I call an accidental symmetry. This is one in which things end up being symmetric, even when thye have no right being so. It is a rush when you see the stars coming into alignment before your eyes, but often I don't notice until I download my image and say "hey look at that!".

The first image below, I call "Bannerfish Mandala". On my first pass at editing my images from my recent trip to Sipidan, I missed it entirely. On the second pass of editing, my wife spotted it. All I did in to this image was to brighten the background fish and to airbrush out a stray fin in the lower left corner. Nothing was arranged. The second isn't really an accidental symmetry since divers tend to clump up when waiting for the boat to pick them up. Here are threefold and fivefold symmetries. Does anyone have others?

[Rocha]

Very nice Steve, I really like the bannerfish shot...

[drsteve]

Like most symmetries, it isn't perfect. If you look carefully, you will notice that the rightmost bannerfish is actually two right on top of each other. Either that or that fish has TWO banners.