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.
Elevate Your Vision
Read this story and all the best stories on The Luminous Landscape
The author has made this story available to Luminous Landscape members only. Upgrade to get instant access to this story and other benefits available only to members.
Why choose us?
Luminous-Landscape is a membership site. Our website contains over 5300 articles on almost every topic, camera, lens and printer you can imagine. Our membership model is simple, just $2 a month ($24.00 USD a year). This $24 gains you access to a wealth of information including all our past and future video tutorials on such topics as Lightroom, Capture One, Printing, file management and dozens of interviews and travel videos.
- New Articles every few days
- All original content found nowhere else on the web
- No Pop Up Google Sense ads – Our advertisers are photo related
- Download/stream video to any device
- NEW videos monthly
- Top well-known photographer contributors
- Posts from industry leaders
- Speciality Photography Workshops
- Mobile device scalable
- Exclusive video interviews
- Special vendor offers for members
- Hands On Product reviews
- FREE – User Forum. One of the most read user forums on the internet
- Access to our community Buy and Sell pages; for members only.
You may also like
