Pareidolia (/ˌpærɪˈdoʊliə, ˌpɛər-/; also US: /ˌpɛəraɪ-/) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. (From Wikipedia)

I kinda have that, Pareidolia, only mine is not exactly it. There was a time not long ago when I could “see” spaceships here and there frequently enough for it to be borderline inconvenient. This was mostly outdoors due to the supposed size of a spaceship, they usually aren't small. I had this when I was young too, lost it in my late teens but it came back about ten, fifteen years ago. This was around the time I built my first scale model spaceships since my youth.

My pareidolia isn’t really a textbook case but something perhaps close to it. In my mind there are spaceships where there is just empty spaces. Like the vision enhancing apparatus in the head of a Terminator I would see how a spaceship would fit on yards, fields, forest clearings and such. I often took photographs of those places and later, sometimes years later, I would plant a spaceship there. These were mostly winter landscapes but sometimes other seasons of the year too. Also cityscapes and garages would trigger the sights.

A Star Wars AT-AT walker barely visible in misty autumn field. There is a dog walker minding their own business in the picture.
The simple task of taking the dog out for a walk can be a creative session. I don’t know who that person in the photograph is, it was just somebody walking their dog, but seeing this I knew there was a big walker in the mist. Yeah, not really a spaceship but the walker fits the bill just as well.

If I didn’t have a camera with me when I saw a good spot I would go home, get the camera, go back and take the photograph. So, it’s not all just inspiration on the go, there is some planning of course.

An X-wing starfighter parked on a snowy field in foggy weather. Some red cildren's toys visible on the foreground suggesting a location on Earth.
Many photographs are from along the regular dog walking routes. The X-wing in this one is sitting roughly on the spot the dog walker is walking on in the photograph above. Just different time of the year.

This is inspirational and exciting most of the time but there were times when I got weary of it too. Everywhere I went there were potential opportunities and I got anxious if I didn’t have a proper camera with me or if I didn’t have the time to stop for a photoshoot if something came up. Ditching the habit for a vacation or a night out wasn’t always a given. Maybe there were signs of addict behaviour there somewhere at times. When there was a good sighting there was a good rush, repeated later when a spaceship model actually fit in there just as I saw it. Love those moments! Truly.

A big spherical spaceship, the Aries 1B, parked on a snowy hayfield among some trees growing in the middle. There is a snow covered tire tracks leading to the ship.
I drove past that place in a car and happened to look to the left when there was an opening among the trees and saw this. The weather was just right, I drove home and back with the camera, took some quick shots and hurried back just in time to catch a bus downtown, we had tickets to a theater. It took me two and a half years to finish the photograph but it was always going to be the Aries 1B.

I have lots of unused photographs of various locations with this potential in a “Projects” folder on my computer desktop. I check them sometimes to see if they talk to me. If a photograph that looks great doesn’t seem to work even after a while, I save them elsewhere. They’re not good for a project.

Most of the time a foggy day or night offers the best circumstances to spaceship sightings. Summer is not ideal in terms of foggy weather but direct sunlight doesn’t mean this does not work. For this one I had to add a couple of additional models to conceal a contemporary car in the picture. It didn't seem right for this scene.

For the past couple of years I have noticed the spaceships have begun to appear less. I still get those moments from time to time but they are clearly fewer. There are scale models on the workbench even now, I still build them, but it’s more about the build and less about whether I’m going to use the model for photography. I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. There is joy in building without a goal other than the model itself. And when the visions come, the more models I have ready the better.

A Naboo N-1 starfighter hovering still inside an empty parking garage with bare concrete walls.
The latest one, “The Royal Guardsman”. This wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, it was planned for a possible spaceship composite when going to the location for a photoshoot. Choosing the model happened while shooting, the sleek white snub fighter seemed perfect for that empty garage space. It took a while to find a way to make it sit right but it worked well in the end. Great fun!

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Tags: inspirations, spaceship