my entry to smash 428: electric toothbrush

mostly i use my toothbrush to brush my teeth but it can be used for other things- such as playing with shadows. so here's a curious shadow phenomenon i discovered when i saw the shadow of the brush that was standing on the bathroom countertop

i liked the shadow when i incidently first saw it so i got my phone at took a shot of it. but when i saw the photo i thought i could do better

the bathroom light has a dimmer that is set quite low so i my eyes don't get a shock if i have to get up at night. so i turned up the dimmer to get a darker shadow and then positioned the brush so it lined up with the vertical tile joint. the shadow looked much better, nice and dark but it was still fuzzy around the edges. i guess that is because the brush is round. anyway i got the idea of making a double shadow so i went and got a powerful flashlight.

with the shadow from the bathroom light still lined up with the tile joint i shined the flashlight and took the shot. at first i didn't really notice the difference in color of the two shadows so when i saw the photo i was quite surprised. the shadow from the bathroom light had turned a distinct purplish blue while the shadow from the torch was a less obvious orange. the wall tiles had also taken on a purplish tinge. in the absence of the cool bluish light from the LED flashlight, the color of that toothbrush shadow is the compliment of the light source- orange. the light from the bathroom dimmer is a warm incandescent orange so it casts a bluish shadow. in this case the purple blue light from the powerful flashlight gives that shadow a remarkable double dose of color.

aren't shadows fun? happy hunting