I mentioned the other day that I now use the iPhone a lot for "note taking." This is a good example of a note-taking kind of photograph.
I've always wondered about mankind's ability to judge change over time. We're very good within "human scale" time periods—say, a few seconds to the duration of one or one-and-a-half lifetimes—and sometimes a much narrower range than that. We're not good at judging change outside of human scale—we can't detect the speed of a bullet, or the changes in a mountain range over five millennia.
The way I used to express this idea was by asking: how do we know that eggs taste the same now as they did in, say, the year 1500?
What this picture shows is the difference between a "free range" or "cage free" egg purchased from the supermarket and an egg from a real free range* hen. The egg with the darker orange yolk came from a local Old Order Mennonite farm, where the hens live outdoors on a large pasture and roost in a hen house at night, and eat what they want to eat. My local farmer has a flock of 200 hens which he considers very large. An industrial egg-production facility usually has 10,000 hens per barn** and may have multiple barns. I don't know the age of these particular eggs, but typically the Mennonite-farmed eggs I buy are usually no more than a few days old at most whereas grocery store eggs can be up to several weeks old.
Just as we're not good at detecting change over time periods that are outside of human scale, most people are poor at judging absolute illuminance across a field, even a limited one. For instance, in this picture, the amount of illumination variation between the inner wall of the bowl at the top and the inner wall of the bowl at the bottom. Many laypeople's eye/brains would read it as being fairly evenly illuminated when they were just looking at it. Their brains know the bowl is white so that's how they see it. The illumination difference is trivial and that information is downplayed or discarded. (Of course you, as a photographer, probably also noticed, approximately at least, the color of the outside of the bowl—you saw it as a color-cast on the side of the bowl toward the light.)
It's easier to compare the color differences between these yolks when they're next to each other like this. I'm not good at tasting or smelling, so I'm worse than average at detecting the flavor differences. It's a lot easier for most people (including me) to detect the differences in flavor between farm-fresh eggs and eggs from the supermarket if you eat them one after the other. But I'm much better than the average person at detecting illumination change or color differences. That just comes from years of practice, mostly from making and looking at photographs.
As a species we're essentially blind when it comes to gradual changes in the look of the world. Ansel Adams spoke at the end of his life about the change in the clarity of the air around San Francisco Bay during his lifetime. He said that the air in the 1970s was almost never as clear as it frequently was in the 1930s. He was one of the few people in a position to detect such a thing. He started out with a more acute eye than most people and then he honed his seeing skills by practicing photography. Or consider that the Milky Way is now invisible to about 80% of the population of North America, masked by light pollution. A visitor from 1700 would find many things to distract and amaze him, but he might be startled as well by the differences in the sky and the atmosphere.
Human knowledge of gradual change and of subtle differences is frail, if you ask me.
Mike
*The real term is "pasture raised" or "pastured." Thanks to Scott for this.
**I don't actually know the correct term for the building where they keep all the laying hens.
"Open Mike" is the off-topic editorial page of TOP. It appears on most Wednesdays.
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Dave Van de Mark: "That dark orange colored yolk from the 'real' free range chicken is just so beautiful and is exactly like some eggs I can get from a neighbor who has a few chickens running around her yard. I'll be totally honest in saying that, after uniting the egg to a slice of buttered toast with crispy bacon on the side, I'm not ready to describe a taste difference between it and a 'quality' organic one. But I'll take that dark orange yolk over the yellow one anytime, thank you!"
Moose: "Re '...Most people are poor at judging absolute illuminance across a field, even a limited one': One of the points in the movie 'Tim's Vermeer' that helped convince me that he is correct that Vermeer used an apparatus and technique very like what Tim devised was accuracy of subtle illumination differences across large areas of (close to) the same color illuminated by the same source. That seems to be one important reason that so many people say of Vermeer's work that it seems 'photographic.' There's a statement in the movie similar to yours, without the 'most people' caveat, and some good examples from other Old Masters."
robert e: "For those concerned about the source of their eggs and who don't have convenient access to a farm they trust, the Cornucopia Institute maintains a database of egg brands, rated according to numerous farming and business practices. And the 'Certified Humane' program's website lets you look up participating retailers and producers. I don't know much about either organization, but I'm impressed by the thoroughness, transparency and ease of use of Cornucopia's list."
Real eggs should also have different colored yolks depending on the season, because of differences in the chickens' diets. (I'm intentionally using the word real here).
We eat fresh eggs at home, bought from local farms. I've seen kids, young kids, who "don't eat eggs" devour them when we make them at our house.
And to the freshness point, there's a decent supermarket brand raised here in Massachusetts that we buy when we're in a fix. On a visit to Florida once we found the same brand, and the difference in color and taste, even without a side by side comparison, was enormous. Same eggs, just 1,500 miles and maybe a few weeks...
Posted by: Ben | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 01:58 PM
The orange egg looks the older in your photo!* The yellow egg has a firm circle of albumen whereas the orange one seems watery. It may be the lighting has made it look that way as we are dealing with translucent liquids.
I keep poultry (Indian Runner Ducks for eggs currently) free ranging in my garden and the darker colour of the yolk is typically what you see from feeding on grass and invertebrates though the yolk colour can vary with the breed too.
Commercial eggs can be raised using a diet containing colour to darken the yolk.
*It may still have the better flavour.
Posted by: Richard Parkin | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 02:06 PM
The Mennonite eggs are called "pasture raised" or "pastured" eggs. "Free range" and "cage free" come from factory farms where the hens are debeaked and kept indoors in giant, crowded sheds for their entire lives. (There may be a little trap door that leads to a little outdoor cage, but the door will be locked most if not all of the time). The hens live in their own waste, and the ammonia from that waste burns their eyes and lungs for their entire lives. They are killed when they are quite young, as their egg production slows down, and their transportation to the slaughterhouse and deaths are both horrific.
Even with pastured eggs, at the hatchery half of the chicks are born males and they are killed cruelty as babies, as males of the egg-laying variety are not worth money.
See here, for example:
http://www.upc-online.org/freerange.html
Chickens are intelligent beings, each with its own unique personality. They can recognize up to 100 of their friends. They are viciously abused by the billions every year. I choose to boycott all bird products. Luckily, humans have no need to eat bird menstrual discharge.
Thanks.
Posted by: Scott | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 03:08 PM
Mike,
I'm terrible at attaching the correct year to otherwise accurate memories , but back in the first digital revolution, the one that digitized sound my son and I were building a recording studio.
We started with the then wiz-bang fast Mac SE 30 with 4 mb of RAM
then onto a Mac Pro tower so we could install a ProTools 3 PCI Card system . I don't remember the year, but I do remember paying something like $1200 bucks for the first 'Micropolis 1.2 GB Hard drives with garden hose size SCSI cables
So the 1 TB fingernail sized SD card is truly amazing to me..
Posted by: Michael Perini | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 03:42 PM
Mike, you may be interested in the work of the Longnow Foundation, "…established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide a counterpoint to today's accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common."
Posted by: Simon Griffee | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 03:46 PM
"I don't actually know the correct term for the building where they keep all the laying hens."
Hell.
Posted by: Bert | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 04:30 PM
A few years ago I read an article about egg consumption. In Holland we prefer dark yolks, in Germany they want them light. The average German also thinks that eggs with a white shell are better. We love the brown ones. In reality the color doesn’t matter. It is just like the chickens themselves, that can have all kinds of colors. You can’t say that black ones taste better than a brown ones (as the Batak people on Sumatra do when they are referring to dogs). So the poultry farming industry just designs the eggs that we want, including the colors of the yolks. It does not have a great reputation when it comes to producing healthy food. My favorite chickens however are of a French ‘brand.’ They had a good life but within a controlled process. They even come with a certificate. In other words: you don’t know what your Mennonite hens had to eat. Could be anything, and that surely makes a difference for the taste. My grandfather had a pig during World War Two and he couldn’t find any other food for it than fish meal. So its meat tasted fishy.
Posted by: s.wolters | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 04:50 PM
A lot of people get up in arms about chickens and eggs.
The colour of eggs has a lot (if not everything) to do with what they've been fed. Ontario eggs are much more yellow than British Columbia eggs because they get fed corn.
If you observed what free range chickens get into/up to and what sometimes appears in their eggs you might change your mind about them.
When I visit my in-laws (who are chicken farmers) I routinely eat eggs taken from the barn. These eggs, in some cases, would have been laid maybe not even an hour earlier. There is no taste difference between them and what I buy at the store at home.
In a blind test I would be willing to bet a significant sum that 100% of people would not be able to discern a difference in taste between a free-range and a caged egg. It is entirely about perception.
There is tremendous misinformation on the topic of eggs and chickens.
Oh, and you can save some money buy buying white eggs. They are identical to their brown counterparts on the inside. Only the shell cover is different.
Now back to photos!
Posted by: PaddyC | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 04:56 PM
Get accustomed to "pasture raised" eggs and "cage free" eggs start to look downright sickly. In my experience, the former taste a lot more "eggy", the whites cook up thicker and "meatier", and their shells are harder. I strongly suspect that at least one important factor is that out in the open, chickens are allowed to be omnivores and eat what they need.
Posted by: robert e | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 05:09 PM
Here in NZ, egg yolk have darker color because that's what people here expect and love. Once can achieve this simply by feeding the hens corn or just simply turmeric or paprika.
Fresh eggs do taste better than older ones and almost anyone can tell the difference. An easy way to find out, fresh eggs sink and lie horizontally on the bottom of a water filled pot, older ones sit vertically...
Posted by: Erez | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 05:16 PM
Darker yolk and albumen from free range chickens do not mean age differences. They are primarily due to diet differences with farmed chickens eating feed. Free range chickens get to eat insects, lots of insects which changes the flavor and the color profile of the eggs from more carotenoids and xanthophyls.
Posted by: BWJones | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 05:17 PM
While I did not take a picture of it, about 6 months ago I saw the same thing between "cage free" and free range eggs. It converted me to buying the more expensive free range for good. They are so much brighter and orange and I do believe they taste better. They are most certainly also better for you.
Eggcellence!
Posted by: Robert Harshman | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 06:19 PM
New print offer idea: Prints made using albumen process!
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick Perez | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 06:58 PM
I buy eggbeaters. Tastes the same, to me, a restaurant eggs.
All eyes are different. Many men are colorblind to one degree or another. There isn't one chart on the color vision test that I can read. But I can see contrast much better than most.
Before light meters, motion picture Directors of Photography, would read the stop off of the palm of their hand. Unlike stills, there can't be any variance between shots, or they won't cut together seamlessly.
I've worked with two DPs who read their hands—amazing to see, just as accurate as a Spectra or Gossen light meter.
I never learned to set stops off my hand. But I can walk across a set while looking at my palm, and see where I need add or subtract light, accurately.
Now-a-days the movie biz uses digital imaging techs who monitor everything live (SOOC). If you have a mirrorless camera, you can do the same thing.
Posted by: c.d.embrey | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 07:53 PM
I have read that the only advantage to older eggs is that for some reason they are easier to peel if hard boiled.
Posted by: Ed Kirkpatrick | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 08:56 PM
(Reflecting on a recent topic here). Don't ya just gaze at a picture like that and wonder who the hell first thought of using that stuff to print a photograph?!
Posted by: Kenneth Tanaka | Wednesday, 21 September 2016 at 11:03 PM
When I visited upstate New York from Asia recently, I was reminded of the pale-yellow yolks of American supermarket eggs. They don't have as yolk-y a taste, as the fancy organic eggs you can buy there, or the eggs I eat here, on the other side of the world.
Since eggs in Singapore, where I live, are also from factory farms, there's no special virtue, I think, in terms of taste, at least, to free-range Mennonite or Amish eggs.
But there is a difference I know about which might account for the difference in color and taste.
Eggs in equatorial Singapore are not washed and are stored unrefrigerated on supermarket shelves, just as in Europe.
EU (and Singapore) regulations forbid the washing-off of the natural protective layer on egg shells, which stops them from going bad at room temperature for a long time— the layer stops bacteria from getting inside the egg that would cause the egg to spoil.
By contrast, the USDA and FDA rules are exactly the opposite back home in the States. Eggs must be washed before they get to a retail shelf to get rid of certain harmful surface bacteria that the egg picks up when it is laid by the hen.
This process washes off a natural layer of protectant, and consequently, the eggs need to be refrigerated. Without that layer, bacteria get inside the eggshell and the egg becomes rotten rapidly.
Posted by: Mani Sitaraman | Thursday, 22 September 2016 at 12:22 AM
I should have added. The manager at the supermarket let me in on a little secret. He said most brown eggs are artificially colored brown after they are laid, like Easter eggs. Apparently, hens don't produce brown eggs reliably enough for egg-farms to reliably meet demand, and it removes the need to sort the white eggs from the brown ones.
Posted by: Mani Sitaraman | Thursday, 22 September 2016 at 12:28 AM
How to peel an egg:
http://www.howlifeworks.com/lifestyle/How_to_Peel_a_Hard_Boiled_Egg_in_Only_Seconds?ag_id=1907&wid=0CDF9AFA-686E-49D2-951D-985BECA6CEC4&did=190228&cid=1005&si_id=7555&ti=&it=2016-07-14%2005:43:08&ck=a5b262d10a1821591ae1cb91c0222ba6&pubs_source=mpt&pubs_campaign=20160714-1907
Posted by: s.wolters | Thursday, 22 September 2016 at 01:36 AM
My mother has some pet chickens that are about 16 years old. They used to run free dining on snails in the garden but then the hawks and owls started killing them. Now the two surviving hens mostly stay in a big covered pen about 20 feet square, unless a human is around and then they will come out but stick close to people.
Chickens are very social animals and get lonely. A few months ago a couple of chickens just wandered in* and without much fuss joined the flock. The two old hens and the two new hens really seem to enjoy each others company. One of the hens even likes being held. Back yard eggs are to store eggs what backyard tomatoes are to store tomatoes. And the nasty short lives of most commercial hens is just awful.
*not particularly unusual. For years we had a flock of peacocks that just moved in. Not as fun as you might imagine. They sound exactly like a screaming woman. They like to sleep in trees but when they are asleep they tend to fall out of the tree. On the roof of the house. They weigh about as much as a large turkey so in the middle of the night you wake up to the sound of what seems to be a screaming woman tumbling across the roof. Eventually you get used to it but it leads to interesting conversations with overnight guests at two in the morning. Oh and peacock poop, pretty much like goose poop, except that geese don't like to stand on things.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Thursday, 22 September 2016 at 03:57 AM
Mike:
Sorry for the late comment - I'm once again traveling. A few weeks ago we were on a home exchange in Sweden. This time the home exchange involved taking care of 6 chickens - 1 older dominant hen and 5 younger ones. All friendly and social. We got 5 fresh eggs regular as clockwork every morning, sometimes so fresh the were still warm. Boy, were they good.
Posted by: Steve G | Thursday, 22 September 2016 at 12:11 PM
The thing that determines the colour of the egg shell is the variety of the chicken that lays it (e.g. R.I.Reds are one of the varieties that lay brown eggs, Leghorns lay white, etc.). The main determinant of yolk colour is the amount of carotinoids in the chicken's feed.
Tastes in yolk colour do vary regionally within countries and between countries and there is in fact a gizmo called the "DSM Yolk Color Fan" that is used to quantify the colour of the yolk for those whose vision does not have the fine-tuned ability of an Adams or Johnston. The fans are available in hardware stores in farming areas.
My sister-in-law is Italian born and over the years I have been learning bits of Italian vocabulary to add to my French and Spanish. Some time ago we were cooking together and I asked what the words were for egg and yolk and was very surprised to learn that a yolk is a "red" (rosso d’uovo). I have subsequently learned that the yellow yolks we're used to are "giallo dell’uovo" but, in her opinion, no Italian would eat anything other than the deep orange "rosso" yolks.
Posted by: Chas | Thursday, 22 September 2016 at 01:01 PM