This photograph was captured for its depiction of size and geological context. The image accurately depicts the slick-as-glass rock surface.
This is the geological formation called the Window. It serves as a “pour off” for water from the Oak Creek Canyon drainage system. Over centuries the flow of water literally sanded (eroded) the rock-bed until polished as smooth as glass. So slick is this “river bed” that after sliding into the crevice over which I am standing (to photograph a scene sans the rock face) I had difficulty climbing out. A word of warning about visiting this site: Be very careful. I cannot over-emphasize the dangerously slick surface of rock on which you will be standing. If you slide off this precipice it is a 200-foot drop to a certain death below.
The original image is a Tagged Image Format File (TIFF) with a file data size of 35.1 megabytes (MB).
For display on this web site the TIFF was duplicated and the duplicate re-formatted as a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG/JPEG) image with a file data size of 6.82 MB. To approximate detail visible at the time of capture the image was sharpened as necessary and resampled via the Photoshop Bicubic Sharpen algorithm. The re-sampling increases the image resolution from 300 Dots Per Square Inch (DPI) to 360 DPI.
Unless otherwise noted the image was corrected to offset color shift and balance. This restores black (shadows), white (highlights) and neutral gray (neutral mid-tones).
• An unnumbered image is the only one of the subject matter.
• A number corresponds to the sequential order in a subject-matter-related sequence.
• The letter “B” indicates color correction to approximate what was visible when the image was captured.
• The letter “C” indicates enhancement beyond an approximation of what was visible at the time of capture.