The Rock

There has been a very interesting mix of responses to the photo I posted earlier. I've been really excited about it and have sent it to pretty much everyone I know. There are some reactions of amazement, some nice comments that it's a good photo, though they don't put a lot of stock put into seeing faces in grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, shower curtains and rocks. I can say that I fell into that category until I discovered this photo.

Why the change of tune? Because I took it of course. It's probably the only way to be 100% sure I'm not being duped.

At the church we go to, the Pastor put the photo up on the big screens at all the services throughout the day. All said and done, a couple thousand people viewed it yesterday. Pastor Nate asked people if they could see the image to raise their hand. A little more than half the room did so at the service I went to and Lea said about the same at the one she attended (we went separately, I had to work all day).

Let me assure you, my Photoshop skills are I think above average but to create something like this would require some seriously advanced work if it would be possible at all. I shot this photo (and after viewing my deleted pics...5 others) in RAW format. If it came down to it I would be able to prove the validity with those files. As far as I know you cannot manipulate the base of a RAW file. I cropped the shot in to show you just how integrated into the rock the image is. I've been searching the internet looking at various images of shadows and designs people claim resemble Jesus. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I realize I am biased because it's my shot but I have not found anything this dramatic anywhere out there. Have you?

An image within an image

I posted this photo a couple of days ago and didn't think much of it other than it was a pretty shot. That was until my Uncle John viewed it and made a pretty amazing observation.

This photo was taken while on safari in the Serengeti. If you've been there before you know there are countless numbers of these rock formations all over the place. They are very dangerous to get of your car car nearby because they are home to many lare cats including Lions, Cheetah's and Leopards.

I noticed the rays of sunlight breaking through the low, dark clouds and I remember asking my driver/guide Nickson to go offroad to this rock formation so I could grab a shot. I hadn't shot only rocks before and I didn't do it again. I took the photo, didn't think much of it and went about my day.

As you may know, I've been editing the photo's from the trip a few here, a few there but the bulk of the images remains untouched. This week I finally got a little bit of time off so I was motivated to do a lot of RAW processing (adjusting color and exposure). It's a long montonous process when dealing with thousands of images. While in the process I stopped at this photograph and felt compelled to do a complete edit on it. I separated it out, worked on it, made it my desktop image, posted it to this blog, posted it to Facebook and didn't see anything until John wrote...now it's all I can see and I can't believe my eyes.

Do you notice any image in the rock on the right?

Serengeti Hippo Pool

Serengeti Scenery

There are many large rock formations like this around Serengeti. Many big cats like to hide out around here.

Hippo in the grass

Twiga Twilight

I'm in the groove on finishing up the remaining 1,500 images I have to edit from my trip to Tanzania last year. This is another photo that I didn't see a lot of potential with until I started to play with it in Lightroom. Now that I've edited it I really like it quite a bit. This was taken just moments after I watched a pride of Lion's chase down and attack a lioness that was trying to get a piece of the dead elephant the pride had already claimed as it's own. The sun had just gone down and my guide was racing the light as quickly as we could to get back to camp before dark. You are not allowed to be out on the roads after dark in Tarangire and he didn't want to get in trouble. I remember seeing this giraffe munching with the pretty sky and I coaxed Nickson into stopping so I could grab a quick shot.

Elephants

Here are a couple of shots I was working on when I got home from the Fish House tonight...