The Earth in the Sky

I love these black & white photos of Devils Tower by Zac Henderson.

A butte of a rare kind of volcanic rock that formed a mile underground 50 million years ago, Devil’s Tower is visible now thanks to erosion of sedimentary rock. The tower features the world’s largest known example of columnar jointing. Its massive stone columns, as much as 10 feet in diameter, formed as magma cooled and contracted, creating great stress that the rock alleviated through fracturing. The columns come in 5, 6, and 7 sided varieties.

These photographs were captured over the course of 3 days with the ultimate goal of capturing the full moon streaking behind the tower. The black and white images in this series were captured late in the day while waiting for the moon to rise. These photographs were captured in 830nm infrared and helped create intense contrast between direct sunlight and shaded regions of the image. The resulting set of photographs are a study of afternoon light and shadow on the surface of the tower.

If you ever get the chance to see Devils Tower in person, I recommend it. (via colossal)

• Devils Tower
• photography
• Zac Henderson