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You may have already seen this, but I just received this via email, loved it and so the post.
If you look closely you will realize why this National Geographic picture (Week 4 of this issue) is so interesting. Click on the image to view its full size.
Can you guess?
Disclaimer: This photo is the sole property of National Geographic. The photographer is George Steinmetz and the image is called Larger than Life. I have written to him and have received his permission.
Thanks to Gary for raising the point about copyrighted photos.
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They are on Mars?
They’re not camels?
Turtle crushing camels?
There’s a donkey doing a camel somewhere there?
As Nick said, one is a horse?
) Nice one!
a beautiful picture!! a pity that some thought only “big deal”–what other wonderful things are they missing out on? thanks for the post.
You guys have all missed the point COMPLETELY. The fascinating thing about this photo is that the shadows are all painted on the ground. The photographer JUST HAPPENED to be cleaning the bottom of his zeppelin as 47 or so camels JUST HAPPENED to be in the exact right spots to line up with the paintings. My 6 year old niece could even figure this one out. And she’s only 5. Come on guys, get with it.
It’s not a photo…it’s actually a photoshop trick. The sand isn’t really sand; It’s a piece of wood or photoshop wood..(see the wood grain). And the camels look like random shadow images. Also there are 48 camels in the “photo”…camels usual travel in packs of 2-20. All in all it still looks kinda cool.
I figured it out. The distance between the trails is exactly the length of their shadows. It seams as if these camels are afraid of their own shadows.
Got it. The seventh camel shadow from the top right appears to be smoking!
The camel in the middle (bottom) is facing the wrong way
people c’mon… a camel has 2 humps, a dromedary has one hump…
im so stuped
That’s it! There aren’t any camels in the picture at all! Cool!
hey ajay
i have seen this photo sometime back while having a coffe at Barista it was a wallpaper on a lady’s laptop.
from the first glimpse i find it strange . i just noted that it has camel and shadow and nat geo logo i did google and find it at your blog
thanks
Hello Prashant,
When did you see this wallpaper?
This post got really famous, and has been recommended by many
The interesting thing about the photo is this. The picture must have been taken as the sun was setting to cast the shadows in the direction depicted in the picture. This would cause an unusually long outstreched shadow unless the camels were traveling along the side of a hill. In this picture, the sun was probably below the natural horizen (from sea level) and the sun’s angle is upwards towards the camels as they traversed the hillside. This also explains how the shadows of the two close camels don’t fall on each other.
IT IS NOT A PHOTO!
they are not shadows,they are hands
everybody can see something different or maybe cannot see anything at all!!!
Wonderful photo !!
Takes your breath away once you’ve figured it out !!!
A coworker sent me the image today. I was blown away! Incredible perspective from the air: talk about looking at things from a different perspective.
I finally found this site to explain it to me…. thanx… duh… I have been working with photoshop for so long I was trying to figure out why someone sent this obvious painting to me…. too many shadows just looked like rubber stamped images… but NOW…. I can’t believe I was so asleep and stupid…. what a glorious optical illusion…. the mind manifested in a moment in time capturing the infinite variety of life’s eternal surprises. Many thanks to you all. And for those of you who said “Big Deal!” I can’t complain because that’s where I was when I first saw it. It’s okay… I was probably expecting to find Waldo or Osama.
But what about the 2nd shadow – if you look carefully, there is a shadow immediately below each camel, how can that be?
And the one that shows someone sitting on top whilst it is drinking – if you zoom in on it, it (the camel) doesn’t look any different from the others.
Is it a hoax?
It isn’t a hoax. That is what blew me away. When I finally looked at the larger picture of it I could finally make out that what we see as the camel is actually an elongated shadow and what looks like the shadow at the feet is actually the camel itself viewed directly down as in an aerial view. Marvelous play of light and texture and illusion and balance and order and movement and stop motion and obviously at some point… self observation. What this is similar to is one of those paintings where the water is reflecting the dock and you see the boats and people and the reflection but it is actually turned upside down and what you see is the same thing but blurred above in ripples and clear but upside down below… the optical trick is that we think the shadow or reflection to be the opposite of what is really taking place. Much like Quantum Physics: you don’t know if you are discovering reality and develop thoughts about or whether or not your thoughts about reality is what create it.
Hi Guys,
Just thought I wold add my 2 cents to this Blog. It is a wonderful picture and is certainly valid.
) bothered to check the national geographic web site.
Obviously no-one (except me
http://seabed.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wallpaper.tmpl?issue_id=20050201
This is the most incredible photo I have ever seen. Truly awesome!
Those things under the camel’s shadows i thought were crocadiles lol.
I see it now! Hundreds of Camel Toes!
as neat as it is in my opinion I personally think this is a composite! (can you say photoshop)
Now why would I say something like that
ok it is good job but look very closely
look at the sun angles .. it changes between the camels (small changes and you might buy off on that) BUT
look closer
1) there are in fact TWO shadows of the camels… a very close one .. which could only be made with the sun high say 45 to 80 degrees … which matches with the back shoulders of the camel being lit up … And of course the added LARGE shadow which wold only be made if the sun was VERY LOW … . last I looked we don’t have 2 suns
2) there is also one shadow with NO camel (If it is making that much shadow then it HAS to be receiving light…) yet he has other camels with shadows across them …
3) look at the camel .. 2nd row from the bottom … 3rd camel from the left … it should have a shadow on it if the light blocking was that much to produce that shadow … sorry it has NOT shadow on it .. it should have one …
there are other inconsistancies … can you see them?
I think this was TWO pictures put together and yes it looks great but
actually I would like to know if I am wrong but unfortuanately I don’t think so