Big Sur Wallpaper Oddity

[jakebrosy]

First, I'm not from California so I'm not terribly familiar with the coast. Hell, I live in Manhattan and wouldn't recognize most of the coast of this tiny island.

I run two monitors and have a different Big Sur wallpaper on each. I noticed yesterday that the one of rocks in the water looks different between the two photos. I pulled apart the Big Sur dynamic photo and found an image taken about the same time as the Big Sur Aerial (based on where the sun is).

It appears the Big Sur Aerial photo shows a rock formation off the coast that doesn't appear in the same place on the Big Sur (dynamic) image or on Google maps. (I get that the perspective difference betwen the two photos might explain this.)

Is anyone here familiar enough with the coast to know? Crops from both photos are attached and the migratory rock is circled.

 

[gmarm]

Huh, that's pretty interesting.

I'm not familiar with the location myself, however as a landscape photographer I know that certain photographers will "move" things around for aesthetic purposes. Can be a bird, person, rock, whatever.

I just didn't expect Apple would do this in their wallpaper, if that's the case.

 

[TechRunner]

It's a Russian submarine, disguised as a rock formation.

Seriously, that's odd. I probably wouldn't have noticed that. Your attention to detail is better than mine!

 

[svenmany]

I think that's the Bixby Creek Bridge. Wikipedia says that it "is one of the most photographed bridges in California due to its aesthetic design". So, I was able to find another picture showing an aerial view. It's kind of small, but I'm pretty sure your first picture has the rock in the wrong place.

 

[jakebrosy]

I just didn't expect Apple would do this in their wallpaper, if that's the case.

I was surprised Apple distributed a 'manipulated' photo as well. I'm actually more surprised that no one else has noticed it before.

 

[lostless]

Fr google earth from a similar angle. Yeah. Apple manipulated the photo. If you look at the original photo, you can even kind of see where they photoshopped it out.

 

[jakebrosy]

View attachment 1924702
Fr google earth from a similar angle. Yeah. Apple manipulated the photo. If you look at the original photo, you can even kind of see where they photoshopped it out.

I guess the question is WHY? Why move a rock? If you don't like it just erase it from the photo. I work with photographers and (unless they're submitting to a contest) they routinely erase superfluous data to help focus the viewer. But this?

 

[svenmany]

I guess the question is WHY? Why move a rock? If you don't like it just erase it from the photo. I work with photographers and (unless they're submitting to a contest) they routinely erase superfluous data to help focus the viewer. But this?

They probably wanted some visual interest in the lower left of the photo. If that area had been left empty, I think the photo might have seemed off balance. I suppose they could have composed a different photo, but they probably looked through hundreds and picked their favorite.

 

[zarathu]

I guess the question is WHY? Why move a rock? If you don't like it just erase it from the photo. I work with photographers and (unless they're submitting to a contest) they routinely erase superfluous data to help focus the viewer. But this?

Clearly so people who care about things like this will have something to talk about in forums. I would say that they got their desire.

 

[Hombre53]

You’d think Apple had better things to do (like focus on fixing the bugs in their OS) than erase/manipulate rocks on the Big Sur coastline. Apple employee(s) working from home and bored? Lol… Good find, Jake!