It's a bird, it's a plane, its a... cloud

For as long as I can remember I've been able to find faces and pictures in unexpected places.  Whether in a cloud, smudge, or a crack, pictures seem to jump up at me. While this can sometimes be frightening when trying to sleep and the shadows on the walls take the form of scary faces, it is mostly an enjoyable talent.  But as it turns out, there are about 7 billion other people who have the same talent.  The technical term for recognizing familiar faces or likenesses in clouds and shadows and other things is pareidolia.    The reason this happens to all of us is because our brains are constantly trying to recognize and make sense of what we see.  Our brains are designed to find familiar patterns and will do so even when a pattern isn't complete.

Which face do you see in this optical illusion?

So what do clouds, constellations, optical illusions, and inkblot tests have in common?  They can all become examples of pareidolia.

Besides being a science educator, I am also a photographer.  If you have ever visited my website: www.dustinangell.zenfolio.com, you might have noticed that I like to photograph clouds.  There are several reasons I find clouds such interesting subject matter.  The pareidolia aspect is certainly one of the main fascinations for me.  Please take a look at some cloud photos I took a few weeks ago and let me know what you see.

Links:

Pareidolia and Astronomy: http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/lenin.html

Brain looks for simple patterns: http://www.whatmakesthemclick.net/2010/12/30/100-things-you-should-know-about-people-49-the-brain-looks-for-simple-patterns/

Pareidolia: http://www.skepdic.com/pareidol.html

Brain searches for patterns: http://dukechronicle.com/article/brain-constantly-searches-patterns