The Mind's Eye

 I haven't gotten out much to make pictures for some time due to a physical mobility problem.  I hope to get past that soon, but in the meantime I have also been trolling through my posted pictures to identify locations where I might go with my cameras which don't require a lot of walking.  In the process of looking at the pictures I was reminded of an odd mental phenomenon. 

American flags get included in my images periodically, often by chance rather than intention.  The odd thing is that in the monochrome black and white images I often distinctly perceive the actual red, white and blue colors in the flags.  Here are a couple examples:

Ikonta A 520

Kodak 1A Folding Pocket Special

I can look at those two images closely and remind myself that the pictures are completely monochrome, but I cannot seem to banish the perception of color.  

I posted the pictures on our local NM Film Photography group on Facebook, but I think only one person responded that they might see some color in the flags as I do.

In a related oddity, there is one picture of a flag in my Flickr photostream which does not evoke the color response for me.

Leotax Elite

The obvious difference in that image is that the flag is not shown in its entirety and the flattened graphic character of the composition somewhat obscures the identity of the flag object.  

No subject other than the flag in any of my pictures has ever produced a false color impression for me.

On the general topic of flags, I would not describe myself as being particularly patriotic and, while I am most familiar with the U.S. example, I don't think America's flag is more impressive graphically that that of a lot of other countries.