When do you give up? I’ve been asking myself this question a lot recently. There’s an idea for a series of tricks that’s been floating around in my head for the past month, but I just can’t get them to land. I find the idea fascinating and my gut tells me it has potential, but I keep hitting barriers. I’ll explain more about this idea later but for now I want to explore dealing with a frustrating lack of progress.
Let’s start with a “success” story where I came exceedingly close to admitting defeat and abandoning it. Figs. 1-2 show photos I took on my phone that look like I’ve used some digital editing to create the illusion of the false reflections in the mirror. I’d seen a photo online where someone had snapped a picture in a hotel room where a reflection in the mirror didn’t fully match what was being shown on the TV that was hanging on the wall opposite. In the comments, people had mentioned a similar effect where during a storm, a lightning bolt only revealed itself in a reflection. Very curious.