These fields seem to be (look like they are) slowly eroding away into barren wasteland. At 30,000 feet one can more easily see geographic transitions like this and it's one of the reasons I find flying so enjoyable.
Note: there was ice on the window and you can see it in the bottom of the image. Also, I bumped up the contrast some here to get it closer to the way it looked to my eye.
I posted a piece on my weblog about being "dugg" that some of you may find interesting to read if you're coming to this image late: I felt the digg effect.
Harriet Picturebug, Kalabird, westerndave, jamesToligney, and 632 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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Nelson Chee 63 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called EARTH : The way you see it from high altitude, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
lifebeginsat50mm 59 months ago | reply
That's got to be the most outstanding photo I've seen on flickr for quite some time. Good work!
Oh, and I came by way of www.kottke.org rather than digg :)
lefauxfrog 59 months ago | reply
Prepare to be kottke'd, Richard. :-)
Richard- 59 months ago | reply
Thanks for the heads up soylentgreen and lefaurxfrog. I wish, however, that he'd linked to this view rather than the large view where people will no doubt... well, you know. Sigh. I guess there's no protecting this image anymore.
acroporablue 59 months ago | reply
id like to see what it looks like from the ledge
Fort Photo 59 months ago | reply
Very nice and congrats on getting dugg!
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Anitza V 59 months ago | reply
Came over from Reddit/Wired. It is such an awesome photo. Thanks for sharing it!
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ashabot 59 months ago | reply
Great photo, Richard but one thing. The desert, unpopulated Earth, is not "barren wasteland". Most people seem to think that if humans haven't infested an area, it's a wasteland. They so miss the point and the beauty of Earth.
itsthestringers 59 months ago | reply
Awesome photo... This one was particularly interesting to me, because I grew up right there near Grady, NM. I could almost see my house! In the bottom right quadrant of the picture, you can see an angled gray line, which is the two-lane highway that travels up the Cap (the Caprock, locals call it the "cap"). The altitude at the edge of the plateau there is 4900 feet - nearly a mile high. And the guy who mentioned wind turbines is right. There is a newly constructed 80 Mw wind farm on the edge of the plateau - very windy there. This is what it looks like from the ground: flickr.com/photos/whitakerz/2264642312/sizes/o/
Richard- 59 months ago | reply
Wow, fantastic itsthestringers. Thanks for the view from the ground, nice to see that.
ëzaricos 59 months ago | reply
The image is fantastic, but the cause, erosion, is not.
NewtonFireMuseum.org 59 months ago | reply
Amazing! Just amazing
Richard- 59 months ago | reply
ëzaricos: Thanks. It's not erosion, it just "looks" like erosion.
Newton: Thanks.
TrespassersWill 59 months ago | reply
Similar up in Montana:
olasis 59 months ago | reply
Awesome image, its like its out of National Geographic.
OwenBlacker 59 months ago | reply
Wow!
Poorfish 58 months ago | reply
I got it in Google Earth
here it is
http://echopic.com/xgb
34°59'59.06"N
103°18'59.49"W
SPGirl90 41 months ago | reply
This picture is amazing!
Richard- 41 months ago | reply
Thanks poorfish, the google earth link is wonderful.
Thanks SPGirl90. I got lucky.
mc waters 16 months ago | reply
what an awesome, unique shot.