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Above, Below and Through

Earlier this year I was fortunate to be able to spend 8 dayswhitewater raftingdown theColorado Riverthrough theGrand Canyon. Previous visits have taken me to theNorth Rimand on this trip I was able to explore just about all of the overlooks on theSouth Rim. As well, we took a sightseeing flight over the Canyon which completed the Gestalt.

Photographed with a Canon EOS D30 and Canon 17~35mm f/2.8l lens at ISO 100. RAW Mode.

The Grand Canyon is an ever-changing panorama. Light and weather are the two big determinants of how successful your photographs might be.

In early December, 2000 the weather was clear and cool and so we had to reply on the character-full light of sunset and sunrise.

Photographed with a Canon EOS D30 and Canon 17~35mm f/2.8l lens at ISO 100. RAW Mode.

National Parks in the U.S. are becoming more crowded each year. At the Grand Canyon, as it many others, private cars are increasingly being replaced by shuttle buses.

One of the advantages of visiting the Southwestern Parks in winter is that once again you can use your car. This is of particular advantage to photographers since schlepping camera bags and tripods on shuttle busses tends to cramp ones style and makes reaching certain locations before sunrise virtually impossible.

Photographed with a Canon EOS D30 and Canon 17~35mm f/2.8l lens at ISO 100. RAW Mode.

Shooting the Grand Canyon from a sightseeing flight ($75) didn’t produce any great art, nor did I expect it to, but it was the final leg of myabove, belowandthroughadventure. We choseGrand Canyon Airlinesfor several reasons. They use a specially modifiedTwin Otteraircraft‚ a real workhorse and a highly reliable plane (Canadian designed, of course). It was equipped with large, flat, tint-less windows which were well suited for photography. They also have two pilots onboard, a real safety plus.

It’s vital that you use a polarizing filter to cut through the haze and that you don’t use too long a focal length as longer lenses will likely lead to blurred shots due to vibration and motion.

This shot provides an unusual perspective where the depth of theInner Gorgecan be seen and the context for the river starts to make some sense. When one is rafting the river it’s rare to see the upper rim since much of the time it is obscured by the rim wall of the Inner Gorge.

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Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Michael passed away in May 2016. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.
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