| |
|
 |
GRAND CANYON
IDIOT
Written by Rick Archer, May 2007
Story contributed by Gareld McEathron
I have obsessed over this
picture ever since I first viewed it. I hope
it is a trick picture. Unfortunately the
shadows made by the dog and the people make this
picture extremely believable. Therefore it is very sad
as well. How can anybody be so stupid as to
throw a frisbee and risk the life of a trusting dog?
However I remain suspicious of this picture for a
simple reason - why were the three people next to
the dog so completely oblivious to the danger?
Therefore I think this picture is a fake.
If a picture totally defies all common sense,
chances are good there is something sneaky going on.
|
Surely you have heard the saying, "Don't
trust anything you read or see on the
Internet."
Thanks to modern computers and photoshop
programs, it is actually fairly easy to
create fake pictures using digital
manipulation.
As one example, I do not believe this
picture is real. It was sent to me as
a joke with the caption, "Can you find
the hidden waterfall in this picture?"
As I study the picture, the background and
the foreground do not seem to agree.
It appears the woman has been "pasted" onto
the waterfall background.
Let me also say that given the silly context
of the picture, this adds to the likelihood
that someone has created a fake picture for
the fun of it. But of course no one is
harmed, so who cares?
|
 |
I promise you it is not difficult to create
fake pictures. I fake pictures myself
all the time. I started creating fake
pictures to solve simple problems when I
published pictures of friends from my
various cruise trips. Let's say I have
a group picture of 10 people. Nine are
smiling and one has her eyes closed.
How hard is to find some open eyes and paste
it over the closed eyes to create a picture
that makes everybody look good?
Or what if you have a man who is 6'
7" with a 5 foot wife? How do get them
both in a close-up picture? One simple
answer is to raise the lady's head. As
you can see with this picture of my friends
Pat and Jess Carnes, I was in a bit of hurry
and didn't disguise my work very well.
The lighting on their faces is different for
one thing. But I doubt that they
minded. I was just trying to balance
the picture. In addition, Pat, who is
a beautiful woman, was frowning in the
original. So I simply found a picture
where she was smiling and combined the two.
|
 |
Here is
another example of my work. Study the three
pictures I took of my wife Marla plus my friends
Denise and Jim Duncan on my 2007 Hawaii trip.
|
The four of us went on a waterfall tour that
ended with a dip in a pond on the Big Island
in Hawaii. It seemed there was one
perfect launching pad, so the three people
all went in at once.
When I looked at the three pictures I took,
I laughed at the similarity. Then I
decided to have some fun - I merged the
three pictures. Decide for
yourself how realistic this picture is on
the right. I promise you it is a
complete fake.
My guess is you would never suspect my
combination picture is fake if I hadn't told
you ahead of time. After all, there is
no reason to "fake" such a simple moment.
So what about the picture of the dog jumping
after a frisbee into the Grand Canyon?
Real or Fake? I don't know the answer.
I just know it would be very easy for me to
create that dog picture if I put my mind to
it.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
THE GRAND CANYON IDIOT
However, our next situation is a true story.
As you will see for yourself, the
pictures you will see were definitely not doctored.
This was a case of "photographer photographs photographer."
The following photographs were taken by
a professional photographer
known as
Hans van de Vorst at the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Mr. van de Vorst was out on his own photo shoot when he
witnessed a man taking a huge risk. He swung his lens
and took the shots you are about to see.
The
descriptions below are his own.
Let me add the identity of the photographer IN the photos is
either unknown
or deliberately withheld.
|
 |
| |
Hans Van De Horst: "As I
walked to the edge of the canyon to take my own
pictures, I was simply stunned to discover this guy
standing on this solitary rock high above the Grand
Canyon.
The canyon's depth is 900 meters here. The rock on
the right is next to the canyon and safe.
Watching this guy on his thong sandals, with a
camera and a tripod I asked myself 3 questions:
1. How did he climb that rock?
2. Why not take that sunset picture on that rock to
the right, which is perfectly safe?
3. How will he get back?"
I found myself unable to move. A morbid
fascination came over me. Was I about to
witness a tragedy? And should I do something
to prevent it?"
|
 |
|
| |
|
"I was not alone. The
man's folly had captured the attention of dozens of
onlookers. Now the sun completed its descent
behind the canyon's horizon. The man picked
his gear and tucked it under his arm.
Having only one hand available, he prepared himself
for the jump. This took about 2 minutes. At
that point he had the full attention of the crowd,
most of whom had their hands covering their mouths
with worry.
I gasped. He was actually going through with
this! I lifted my own camera and braced myself
for whatever might happen.
He got a little running start and jumped on his
thong sandals... The canyon's depth is 900 meters
here."
|
 |
|
"I estimated the gap between
the rocks to be four feet apart. After he
jumped, for a moment, his body was suspended in
flight.
Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher.
I had wondered if the jump down from the higher
ledge was so easy that he didn't think about the
jump BACK in the other direction.
Unable to jump upwards, this man tried to land lower
and use his one free hand to grab the rock.
I hoped he found something easy to grab.
The rock was quite steep. If he didn't get a good
grip, he wasn't going to get a second chance."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
"We've come to the end
of this little story. As
you can see, he made it. Amazing.
Look carefully at the photographer. He has a camera,
a tripod and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder
or in his left hand. Only his right hand is
available to grab the rock. Plus the weight of his
stuff is a problem.
He lands low on this flip flops.
Both his right hand
and right foot slips away... At that moment I take
this shot.
He pushes his body against the rock. He waits for a
few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs
and walks away.
Some people should not be allowed out alone!"
|
 |
|
| |
|
Rick Archer's
Note: I checked out this story on the Internet. Van de
Horst did indeed post these four photographs on the Internet
at Flickr.com. I found this information by googling 'Hans van de Vorst grand canyon'. If you wish to learn more about this story, you should be able to do the
same.
Oh, by the way, as I was writing this story, I had just
added the suggestion how a reader could use Google to learn more.
I was just about to publish this story and wrap it up.
But just before I hit the 'PUBLISH' button, I got a
little more curious and decided to do some more research.
To my surprise, I added another chapter!
If you
are interested in what I found,
click here.)
|
|
FOLLOWUP
TO STORY OF GRAND CANYON IDIOT
Before posting this story, I asked my wife Marla to take a
look. Marla gasped. Her first word was,
'Unbelievable!'
But then she got suspicious. Marla said, "No one in
their right mind is going to risk a jump like that with
thongs and one hand! You need to dig a little deeper."
Taken aback by her admonishment, I decided to double-check.
So I went back and clicked a
couple more sites that I had previously ignored.
That's when I found another picture of the exact same spot taken
by someone else. Unlike the Van de Horst pictures, the photo
below came with some
explanations. From what I was able to gather, the rock formation
is actually a very well-know spot in the Grand Canyon.
|
I found this
picture on the Internet with the title
Leap of Faith.
What is odd about the picture is there is a young lady who
isn't even fazed.
I learned this particular jump has been tried many times.
The leap creates
in spectacular pictures such as the one at right. It makes for a great picture indeed because it appears the
consequence of failure is almost certain death.
But guess what? There's a secret to this picture you will want to know.
|
 |
In
reality, it turns out there is a wide ledge about eight feet below
that is conveniently out of the camera's eye.
Although a fall
might result in some bruises, there is definitely not a 900
meter plunge to the bottom to fear.
Below is a picture that will give you a different
perspective.
|
 |
| |
Hmm, now this kind of
changes things, doesn't it?
After some more Internet search, I found another
picture of the Leap of Faith rock. I'm not
sure, but that looks like a tripod out there.
You suppose that is the same guy out there from the
Van de Horst photos? This might be another picture of the same guy in
the original photos. Same jeans, same tripod, same
black hair.
I had wondered why there weren't more Van de Horst pictures.
Why just four? Because pictures like this one were
conveniently omitted to keep the suspense alive.
So in the case of the foolhardy photographer, it
seems our friend Mr. Van de Horst was having a
little fun with us. I think he played a
joke on us.
And I am glad he did. It was a fun story.
And now I will leave you with two true breath-taking
pictures of a spectacular accident that was truly a
brush with death.
|
 |
|
| |
|
THE CAR ACCIDENT
Talk about lucky!!
Note that the truck is facing the wrong direction to the
damaged barrier above. Traveling from the right side
of this picture to left at
a high speed, the driver lost control and hit the guard rail.
Due to the angle he hit the concrete barrier, his truck went
airborne! When the truck came down, the back
of the truck landed on top of the crushed concrete barrier.
A split second later the nose of the truck hit the ground
where the second arrow begins. The force of the
two impacts bounced the truck back up in the air and caused
it flip in mid-air like some Evel Knievel daredevil stunt. The
driver screamed and held on for dear life as his truck flew
across the culvert upside down and backwards. The truck
landed on its side, teetered for a moment, then came
down to rest where you see it in the picture.
Magically, the driver walked away unhurt. But my guess
is he has nightmares.
|
|
 |
As if the picture above isn't remarkable
enough, now take another look from a different perspective
in the picture below.
Unbelievable. The truck landed just feet from the gorge. I don't think this one was staged. wowowow.
|
|
 |
|
|
