Monday, July 20, 2009

God likes the winner, yet loves the loser!

This is a case of photographer photographs photographer. The following photographs were taken by photographer Hans van de Vorst at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The descriptions are his own. The identity of the photographer IN the photos is unknown.

I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock in 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 taking that sunset picture on that rock to the right, which is perfectly safe?
3. How will he get back?

This is the point of no return

After the sun set behind the canyon's horizon he packed his things (having only one hand available)
and prepared himself for the jump. This took about 2 minutes. At that point he had the full attention of the crowd.

After that, he jumped on his thong sandals...The canyon's depth is 900 meters here..

Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep
and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock.

We've come to the end of this little story. 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 and 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.

"Impossible is Nothing"
Life is a game. God likes the winner, loves the loser but, hates the viewer. So, be the player.

Note: There are many stories circulating in the net, that there is a shelf in between the two rocks, maybe around 20-25 feet down, which is not visible in these shots (though de Vorst came to know about the shelf later). But even then, a slip from the sledge would cost him his life for sure.

7 comments:

Strawberry Girl said...

My Word!! What a daring thing to do! Crazy? Yes Living? Absolutely

(I have done similar crazy things, but not on such a grand scale!)

Interesting Post Nara!

~Annie ;D

Unknown said...

Wow! I bet AP would be interested in these images. Awesome capture!

lakshmi said...

amazing one

Heather said...

WOW! Even if there was a shelf below, that's still a crazy courageous jump! And in flip flops? Very impressive!

Rush said...

its a computer modified picture..noone can do this wit flipflops..and a tripod in another hand..get real...too much to be true!!

Viji said...

OMG!

If this is real, this guy sure is a daredevil!

But the question is, "IS THIS REAL'?

Vancouver, Canada said...

awesome post nar! i've seen photographers do similiar stunts for that one great pic! anything is possible :)

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.