ZephonSoul on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/zephonsoul/art/Unstable-Equilibrium-69183449ZephonSoul

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Unstable Equilibrium

Published: Nov 6, 2007

3.8K Views

Description

_{[Ramblings]

(you can freely - and it is warmly suggested - skip this part!)

Imagine an "harmonic oscillator" (physicists just love them!) such as a pendulum able to rotate all the way around a pivot (let's suppose friction is not present). The position/s we call "of equilibrium" are the ones charaterized by null derivative of potantial energy, and in this simple case it occurs when the pendulum is vertical (same orientation of gravity). Thus we identify two points of equilibrium: the first one, when the pendulum rests down the pivot, at 6 o'clock, and the second one, when the pendulum rests above the pivot, at 12 o'clock. While the first point is a stable point of equilibrium, the second one is an unstable one. This can be understood quite easily considering the fact that each infinitesimal movement the pendulum may develop while being at 12 o'clock will be "amplified" by the gravity effect bringing the system back to oscillation (this comes from the fact that in that position the potential energy has a peak).

[The Photograph]

Location: Torvaianica, Rome

I still had my filters that evening... this one was captured with a ND8+GND8+C-PL to slow down the shutter speed and balance the sky. The place is truly awful, one of the worst places to spend summer: ugly beaches, dirty water, wastes all around... but photographing it is quite easier I guess.

Why the title, uh? Look at the sky: the light is being overwhelmed by dark clouds, and it seems to me the equilibrium between these two elements is fading quick. On the other hand, look at the gully: seems the sketch of some sort of oscillations, slowly vanishing due to the effect of some sort of friction... I know, I'm mad!

[Postwork]

Just like my previous picture, I used a fair amount of photoshopping here. I used a similar workflow, though I did a bigger job in Lightroom and then worked with the Photomatix Tonemapping plugin in Photoshop. I must admit I'm enjoing the "artificial" effects of this plugin these days... though that may change soon...}