Puzzle

Taken last evening near Half Moon Bay. Even as I look at this photo, I have a hard time orienting my brain to figure out what it. I guess you'd call this picture of a 'sand shelf' on a beach - looking down. The left part of the image was about 4 feet from my camera, the middle part the slope, and the right part about 12" away. I had this sort of orientation in mind when the photo was taken, but it was physically impossible to position myself, as a result I had to flip and rotate the image in post-processing. I'm posting a color and b&w. I had thought of posting this to ESS, but am a bit undecided.
This was a complete experiment, and I'd be interested to hear thoughts, no matter how evaluative and/or critical.
Canon 40D, 10-22mm, f16

B&W

I kinda like the color version, Greg. I wish you had not told us about the making of the image and let us enjoy the abstractness that forces our minds to think and play. There's still some of that going on here.

I like how you can see every grain of sand lit by sidelighting.

Very nice, Greg. I would show this one in ES&S for sure.

For what it's worth, I nearly recognized what this image was from the onset (maybe that's because I've often wondered what this kind of image would look like captured through the lens). I take that as being a good thing, that it is not purely an abstract image and has some known qualities to it. I like the golden tones in the color version myself and the mixture of textures found throughout the various layers. No nits here... well seen and captured!

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Appreciate it.