Ether

It was the shifting patterns in the water that caught my eye as I followed this swimming duck with my camera while walking along the Fox River in St. Charles Illinois. I only took one shot when I felt that the pattern was just right. Some alteration was done in PhotoShop to help achieve the rich gold tones of the water.

The ebb and flow of the environment on which the duck traveled reminded me of the ancient hypothetical substance, ether. It was thought that ether filled the entire universe and was considered both rigid and permeable at the same time. The thought of "empty" space just didn't compute until experiments little more than a century ago disproved the existence of ether.

I can imagine that scenes like this triggered the original supposition among ancient Greek philosophers that the world was submerged in a shifting, flowing invisible mass that allowed us to pass and momentarily took on our own shape.

Much more interesting than empty space.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.