@Analog X64:  Thank you!  That adds a lot, for me, being able to see the original and think it through from there.

I grabbed the first half-way decent gnu image I saw, to play with it a bit... Added some tweaks to light color and scrunched the image just a bit vertically, as a further experiment.  It didn't turn out as nice as yours, and only partly because it's not as good a source image, I think, but I suppose it's a decent proof of concept.  Lots of fun possibilities... Thank you!

@ThunderStone:  I would think Bryce renders would be good subjects, partly because you've got good control over "zoom" and camera height.  I think I'll look for an old render that might lend itself to trying...