Fly Away... by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is called The King of wings. It is a winged hoodoo in the badlands of New Mexico. I saw a photo of this hoodoo about 2 years ago and had a real itch to photograph it. Last year I went there and it happened to be the wrong time of the year. I returned this spring and finally got the right night and season. The trail there is not very long, and if you do it just right it is not all that hard. The trail is unusually unforgiving though, especially at night. You can be 3-4 meters, or 10-15 feet off the GPS track and not be able to pass. You may be just off the trail and on a ridge rather than in a ravine. This is especially true at night when vision is limited. It is an unusual place with a partial skeleton near the base, probably from a cow. This is a panorama of multiple vertical images. There is Low Level Lighting, or LLL, to give some detail to the rocks. This is lighting that is very dim and left on the whole time, done with LED light panels. I am not sure of the size, but it is easy to walk upright under the "wing". There must be a massive amount of weight cantilevered from the base. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog
King of Wings with Comet 252/Linear by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This formation is called the King of Wings, and lies in the Badlands of New Mexico, south of Farmington, and north of Chaco Canyon. It is a "winged" hoodoo, and the massive eccentric wing is at least 30 feet, or 10 m long. You can easily walk under the wing. I am not usually claustrophobic, but every time I walked under it I had the feeling it would collapse on me, lol, so I qiuckly learned to walk around it. It has probably looked like this for millennia, but the eccentric weight on the rock must be tremendous. The camera was level, even thought the horizon does not look it. 14-24 mm lens at 19 mm, f/2.8, 20 sec., and ISO 12,800. Cheers, Wayne The small blue fuzzy object in the right center sky above the stone wing is the comet 252P/LINEAR. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog
Winged Hoodoo in the Bisti Badlands by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Winged Hoodoo in the Bisti Badlands, New Mexico. There is a marvelous variety of hoodoos in the badlands. Over millennia sedimentary rocks of different hardness were laid down, and the softer lower layers erode faster than the harder upper layers, resulting in unusual shapes. I accidentally left a light on in the back canyon, and did not realize it until the photo came up on the display, but I think it added to the appearance. This is a single exposure. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog