Shot Alive

When I was younger, I used to quite often build piles of rocks and see how high I could get them. My best effort was about 3 m and I had to build another strong pile to stand on to reach the top. I am not sure if I have any photos of these old structures, but never mind, there are lots of other people that like doing this same thing, and today there is a lways a digital camera or cell phone handy to take a snap.

These pictures are on flickr, and you can see larger versions by clicking them.

Balanced stones at the Lake Constance in Germany.

Birling Gap Balance, by andy-mac.

My creation on the beach on Saturday.
The white rocks are actually chalk boulders from the white cliffs near Beachy Head in east Sussex. I used the Flickr maps to see which would be a good beach on the South coast of England with good size rocks to balance and found Birling Gap which was superb with these rounded white rocks.

It balances really well as you can see from this 10-rocker.

I don't think anyone else on the beach had seen rock balances and one guy thought I'd drilled a hole through the middles and stuck them on a pole (which I seemed to recall was my reaction when I first saw them on Flickr).

Rock Balance 2, by andy-mac

Here is my 2nd ever balance seen here behind my 1st ever balance. These were done on the causway that connects Isle Oronsay to the main Isle of Skye at Ullinish at low tide looking west toward Loch Bracadale and Wiay Island.

These two balances would just about get wet at high tide and I'd love to know if any of them still remains.

Rock Balancing, by citril

Rosemarkie Beach, Black Isle

The tide was out today, so I had a greater choice of rocks - these are the ones I felt drawn too, and they stayed put! The bottom/first one was (obviously) in place already - the third one I rejected twice because it had an anemone on it, but then I positioned it away from the sun, knowing the tide would soon be coming back in. I did think about pulling the seaweed off ... but it was there first!

Huge thanks to bebalance for such encouragement and fantastic guidance! And to Trentretro for introducing me to rock balancing!

rock balance, by juleslewis2000

A rock balance at Porthleven, Cornwall. I liked the contrast of the white rock and the abundant seaweed...

Quadruple Counter Balance, by rocker

Crissy Field SF 2003 - all 4 Rocks were counter Balanced against each other - this is 100% opposite to Straight UP Balance. In straight up balance, You place the Rocks upward from the start using Your two hands holding the Rocks one by one to Balance the formation. In counter Balancing, when You are positioning the Rocks upward - You have to hold the Rock one handed - place it on the intended point connection while Your other hand, pick up another rock to put on top of that other rock earlier. At this moment You have to find a`way to Balance those 2 rocks altogether - it is even harder if You are using very small contact points . . . it is even harder when You put two more Rocks on top of that . . . all counter Balanced . . . . Wow . . I didn't Know how I was able to do THAT - especially doing it outdoor near the Golden Gate Bridge . . . a lot of Wind . . . [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Dan ]

These are more in the way of pet rock balancing :-)

Rock balancing first attempt - IMG_5963, by tomcox

Inspired by Dave Gorman who amongst other things said this about his rock balancing habit: "In short, rock-balancing was to my tour what basket-weaving is to residents of certain institutions."

Rock Balancing, by mutephotoblog

Rock balancing on Queens Quay in Toronto.

06 11 24 rock balance

At Lake Constance in Germany - best viewed large
'06 11 24 rock balance' On Black

Rosemarkie Rock Balance, by citril

Rosemarkie Beach, Black Isle

This is my first attempt to really try and counter balance rocks that ordinarily I would have assumed would NOT balance together. Not as spectacular as the pros, but it was fun doing it!

Huge thanks to bebalance for such encouragement and fantastic guidance! And to Trentretro for introducing me to rock balancing!

And nature too can do rock balancing! It gets the second to last word on it.

Balancing Rock, by srjacobs

Probably the most photographed rock in Utah, this is "Balancing Rock" at Arches N.P.

But the last word in rock balancing goes to Bill Dan!

Rock Balancing by Bill Dan, by calanan

Rock Balancing by artist Bill Dan
Crissy Field
San Francisco, California