JUN 2, portraits of couples: background-subtracted format

a) Reprise of material posted on June 2 in previous years ...

2020: Nuclear monologues, As We Nuke It (Shakespearian verse)
2021: American satire, Georgia voters (poem) 
2022: Italian loanwords, oratorio (poem)
2023: birdlore, High Park's peacocks (photo-collage)

To access the details of any item in slide format, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... oratorio), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath the slide(s) for each entertaining delight that you discover, you will find a clickable link that lets you easily explore a more widespread collection of wonderments (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.) on the topic of your choice. 

b) Today's Offering (Jun 2, 2024):  

   Birds, and occasionally other types of animal, exhibit paired behavior that seems to reflect the human proclivity for sharing among two mates, traditionally, but not always, of different gender. Photographs of these moments, often intimate, are only available for certain species, but are highly prized. We have tried to capture this state of pairing in a series of 40 or so blogposts entitled "Portraits of Couples" (you can find these assembled into collections on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense".)  

   We wondered whether a recent technical advance, automated background subtraction, targeted principally at single human subjects, might be of value in highlighting some representations of shared experiences in the biosphere as well as with humans. The software renderings below (the original photos were all taken with Giorgio's cellphone) show some of our results. It seems that the technique is not bothered too much by the presence of two heads, but only works if the two bodies are touching. And, as with single bird photos, there is the danger that some dangly body parts, such as legs, claws, horns and beaks may be unwittingly amputated by the software.  

        

Canada geese

horses

domestic geese

Aurora and Cephalus (statue)

pigeons 

mallard ducks

mute swans

chickens

broad-headed skinks

brown pelicans

emus

bros

  

The fun continues in a follow-up post. Click HERE for more background-subtracted couples.