File:Looming with towering and mirage of Farallon Islands.jpg

English: The image was composed out of the three frames taken from the same place of the same place (w:Farallon Islands). The difference in the appearance was kindly explained by Dr. Andy Young:

"Brocken Inaglory has an illustration, containing 3 different views of the south-east Farallons with different refraction conditions: the top image shows just looming; the middle, looming with towering; and the bottom, a 5-image mirage, with the uppermost erect image severely stooped. These pictures were taken at heights of 40 to 66 meters on Point Lobos, near the Cliff House (San Francisco). The nominal distance to the sea horizon from a height of 40 meters is just about halfway to these islands and rocks, so only their parts above about 40 m height should be visible. An eye height of about 150 m would be required to put the sea horizon at the islands, assuming standard refraction. Even from 66 m, the lower peaks, such as Seal Rock (the isolated feature at the left of the photographs), which is 25 m high, should be almost completely hidden.

However, a picture taken from a ship near the islands shows that everything is visible in Brocken Inaglory's pictures, even the low flats a meter or two above the sea. So looming is present in all the pictures taken from San Francisco."
If you are interested to learn more about phenomenon, here's the page to read