The Bird Goddess of Lake Powell

January 03, 2020

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January 2020 Viewer's ChoicePhotographer: Stan Wagon
Summary Authors: Stan Wagon; Jim Foster

This image appears to be a strange fossil of some sort. But it’s all just rock. The image is rotated 90 degrees. In the orientation above, the right half is a rock outcrop above Lake Powell in Forbidding Canyon, on the approach to Rainbow Bridge; the left half is the reflection of the right half in the still waters of the lake. It was taken from a small boat before the wake of the boat reached the wall.

When lake water is calm, photographs of a reflected image are often very hard to tell apart from the original image. However, only at an incident angle of 90 degrees can the original image be 100 percent reflected. Otherwise, reflected images are never quite as bright. Photo taken in April 1990.

Photo Details: Pentax camera; 35 mm Kodak print film.