Written and Photographed by Royce Bair

About the Image

Thor's Hammer is one of the largest and most famous sandstone hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park. This is a real alignment I photographed on July 15, 2020 at 5:03am. Unfortunately, there was smoke on the horizon, due to recent wildfires in the area, which obscures some of the comet's tail. It's amazing to me that something only 5 kilometers (3 miles) in diameter, made up of only ice and rubble, can put on such a show with its dust and ion tails, and do this from over 64 million miles away (103 million km)! This, and other wonders remind me of the lyrics from "Look at the World" by John Rutter:

Praise to thee O Lord for all creation
Give us thankful hearts that we may see
All the gifts we share and every blessing
All things come of thee.

Gear + Method

This is a stacked and blended image, taken with a Canon 6D, using a 70-200mm lens @ 100mm

• 5 exposures @ f/2.8, 4 sec, ISO 6400, stacked w/Starry Landscape Stacker to reduce noise

• A 6th focus-stacked exposure (f/7.1, 25 sec, ISO 4000) was blended via Photoshop layers for better foreground detail on Thor's Hammer

• That foreground exposure included Low Level "Reflection Projection" Landscape Lighting bounced off a nearby geological feature (lighting methods described in my "Into the Night" Blog on my Website). More of my images and methods can be found there as well!

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