Monday, October 22, 2012

Mandarin Orange Monday



An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language. ~Martin Buber


FYI ... Of all an Owl's features, perhaps the most striking is its eyes. Large and forward facing, they may account for one to five percent of the Owl's body weight, depending on species. The forward facing aspect of the eyes that give an Owl its "wise" appearance, also give it a wide range of "binocular" vision (seeing an object with both eyes at the same time). This means the owl can see objects in 3 dimensions (height, width, and depth), and can judge distances in a similar way to humans.





More FYI ... Cats' nocturnal vision is far superior to that of humans. They can see clearly with only one-sixth of the illumination we need to see.  The muscles of the iris surrounding the pupils are constructed in a fashion that allows the eye to narrow to a vertical slit in bright light and to open fully in very dim light, to allow a maximum of illumination.  In addition, a reflective layer behind the cat's retina called the tapetum lucidum reflects incoming light and bounces it back off the cones, making more use of the existing light. The tapetum is probably responsible for the fact that when a small amount of light hits a cat's eyes at night, you see shiny green orbs.

6 comments:

Farida said...

You have captured the animal's eye perfectly on these photos and they are really fantastic.

Take care :)

lorik said...

I love these images - all three. The processing in the first one is fantastic - love the way you have exaggerated the textures and defined the eye. The eye itself is beautiful - so orange and also has a glass like quality. The other two show the softness of a gorgeous ginger cat (like mine!) and lovely intent staring eyes. I love "doing" cat eyes too - have you seen my brooches (not pushing for a sale - just sharing:)) )
I enjoy seeing your contributions to MoM. Thanks for sharing.

Elephant's Child said...

All of an owl is beautiful - including its eyes.
The information about cat's night vision confirms my theory that when I punt a cat during my nocturnal trips to the toilet it is totally the cat's fault and I shouldn't have to apologise profusely. Which I do. Which said cat requires.

Miriam said...

Fabulous photos Andrea and I like your commentary very much.

Christwym @ gmail.com said...

The close up really draws us into the space

Bruno Laliberté said...

Nice and informative!!
:)~
HUGZ

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