I am certain that this was carved by a geology professor wanting to demonstrate differential erosion and large scale dune crossbedding in 3D to his students.
I had seen pictures of this hoodoo before, but I had no idea of where to find it. As I caught my first glimpse, surprise turned to panic. Sunset was close, so it was a 200 yard sprint to catch a few frames before the shadows buried the tower.
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 1Ds Mark II, 24-105mm @47mm, f16
@Bill_Pelzmann I really like this one! The warm colors and the blue sky play nicely together. I like how the shape is kind of mimicked with the hoodoo in the distance, well done! It does feel like there is a bit of a lean in the image, I’m not sure if the horizon is sloped, off balance, or just playing a trick on me trying to square it with the foreground.
That’s pretty special. Glad you had the 200 yard dash in you! What an incredibly tortured looking hoodoo. I agree with David that the horizon looks like it may be tilted, but it’s hard to tell because there are distant hills/mountains. An imposing figure in any case.
There is a regional slope that causes the apparent tilt. I frequently remove a natural tilt if it is distracting. In this case I thought removing it would make the hoodoo look even more unstable. But that might be a good thing Thanks for the feedback.
This thing is WAY beyond amazing!! The horizon is distracting and unfortunately contributes to a first impression of either camera tilt or lens distortion, or some of both. I will also often correct something like that, even if it’s just an illusion. Unless this is a crop you don’t have room to level the horizon, and the right half doesn’t look that bad – everything seems to sweep up on the left. So I tried a Warp just to see if it would look odd. It’s quick and dirty but I think it looks OK.
Bill, this is a spectacular tower in a fantastic setting. I’m loving all the different layers and how they show differential erosion in the main tower. Since the sloping layers are natural, I think they should be retained because that’s showing nature as it truly is, not as we imagine it ought to be.