North Rim Sunrise

New Gear for the Trip

I have a fairly short list for the new gear I'm getting this time out. I've decided I really need a second camera body as I spent $200 getting my sensor cleaned twice during cycle #1 due to the dirt that got inside during lens changes. Even being very careful it's almost impossible to keep dirt from entering the body. Images taken during the last few weeks of my trip looked like they had chicken pox with all the black shadows. It's very time consuming to fix them (in Lightroom) and I always worry about degrading my images while trying to fix the problem.

Anyway, I found a great deal on a Canon 6D at B&H which combines the camera body with a Canon Pixma 100 photo printer at a price less then the camera body alone. I'm not really too excited about the printer yet (it's the razor while the blades ... ink and paper ... are the real cost items) but it'll come in handy if I want to print some small (12x18 is max size I think) samples for proofing my processing and for handing out to prospective clients for my much larger prints. I actually save $250 with the combination which is almost 20%. I'm also getting a super wide fast lens (Rokinon 14mm f/2.8) for astrophotography and some miscellaneous items for my computer. Not a lot of money but will help me get the job done.

North Rim Sunrise

I spent 2 days on the Grand Canyon's north rim at the end of Cycle #1. Slept in my truck in the parking lot of the lodge as there was no room and it's very expensive. Not even a campground site could be found. The north rim is only open during the summer (starting May 15th) and early fall. Too bad as I suspect the canyon is amazingly beautiful when it snows there. There are ways around the closure but they entail a very dangerous dirt road which I'm not inclined to attempt with my little Nissan pickup.

I wanted to get a sunrise shot so managed to drag my nearly dead body out and wandered to an overlook near the lodge. I was the first person there but soon others managed to make the trek to see the sun break on the canyon's eastern edge. As I've stated before, sunrises are spiritually different than sunsets. The air is dead calm and cool. The birds put on a great show, singing to greet the new day. It's such a wonderful feeling to wait and watch the world come alive.

Grand Canyon NR sunrise - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Grand Canyon North Rim Sunset

Getting those Amazing Shots...

I get the most horrified looks sometimes when I set up my rig to take these amazing panoramas. As I edge closer and closer to the abyss people's eyes start to get larger and their facial expressions are of genuine fear. "You're going there?" they often ask as I carry my camera and tripod across the rocks and stand at the edge looking down into a 1000 foot drop. "It's what I do!" is my usual answer but that does little to assuage their fears. "I'd never do that" has rung in my ears more often than I can remember. But, to get the really spectacular images one has to take chances ... to go where no one has gone before. Otherwise it's just another photo like thousands (or sometimes millions) that came before and will come after. That's not me ... not even close to me. I want to bring home something unique so I go to the edge. Not that I'm careless ... I'm very careful and respectful as I approach the edge. I make sure, when possible, that the space is cleared of stray rocks and loose dirt and I never stand up or play around. I'm almost always on my knees and keep my weight leaning backwards. I often hook my tablet to the camera so I can view the sensor output from a safe distance and make adjustments without having to lean out over the edge as I rotate the camera to the extreme angles. I always hold the tripod to make sure the camera is stable and I'm not forced to grab the gear in case it starts to fall. I try to be a careful as I possible can be and, so far, that's been enough.

To give you an idea of my typical vantage point, look at the picture below. It's from the Grand Canyon and shows my tripod at the edge. One inch further and there's a long drop to the valley below. But also note that the tripod is not fully extended so I can stay low. This is for safety and also because it allows me to position the camera closer to the edge and thus to shoot more vertically as I sweep the camera through the angles for the panorama. If you look at my last post, from Horseshoe Bend, the bottom center of the image looks straight down. The camera was positioned on a very small ledge of rock jutting out into the canyon. There's no other way to get that kind of photo except by being right there on the edge. Although it looks dangerous, in most situations, it's not ... if one is very careful and aware.

On the Edge at Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon North Rim Sunset

As an example of what I discussed above, this is an image taken on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Take the road from the hotel, turn right at the fork and go as far as you can. Don't let the burn area discourage you although it's interesting in it's own right. Lots of dead trees. Just keep going until you can't go anymore. There's a large overlook just beyond the parking lot and a picnic area (designated as a place for large parties ... weddings, birthdays ... can you imagine having a wedding where a drunken guest could just walk off the edge? Scary thought for sure). The vantage point is just beyond this picnic grove and places you 1000 feet above the valley floor. It was an interesting day ... I'd seen heavy rain earlier which was a blessing as it washed away some of the junk that was obscuring the canyon. I hung around the parking lot for most of the afternoon and wandered out to this location just before sundown. I always like to get there an hour or so before the main event as it gives me time to scout the location and to get in the correct mindset. I got one of those questions from a young couple sitting a respectful distance from the edge and gave them one of my pat answers. I think they were more than a bit disturbed because they soon stood and wandered away. Guess the thought of watching someone stumble over the edge didn't sit well with them. Oh well.

As the sun sets, I start my cycle. Camera in portrait orientation and my 16-35 f/4 set to 16 mm for maximum coverage. F-stop is usually set at f/18 for maximum depth of field (I don't worry about diffraction too much ... depth of field is most important). Camera set to make a bracketed series (3-5 images per set). Shoot, rotate camera so I get at least 1/3 coverage between adjacent groupings (have screen set with 1/3 grid so I can easily judge rotation), then shoot again. When I complete the first sweep, adjust camera angle down until I can see bottom of canyon in view screen, go back to the starting angle and repeat the series. I usually get between 60 and 90 photos before I'm done. And sometimes I'll do this multiple times if I think the sunset is getting better. I usually stop when the bracketed shots are hitting the 30 second wall meaning I'm out of time and the sequence is no longer accurate. This is always well after sundown and I'm shooting the orange halo and often seeing the earth's shadow to the east (you see it in this photo as the bluish ting just above the horizon on the left side). I then use my standard technique of Photomatix to combine the brackets and then into Photoshop to create the panorama followed by Lightroom for cropping and final color adjustments. And the result ... breathtaking as always.

Grand Canyon North Rim - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Grand Canyon North Rim Storm

Flush the Summer Goodbye...

It's been a bummer summer here in Crimea. I was really looking forward to spending at least part of this summer on the Black Sea with the family but that appears to have gone in the proverbial crapper. We've had zero good days this month so far and it's already 2/3 done. It's either too cold and/or the wind is too strong making the beach uncomfortable. And this year the bus company that provides transportation to the beach changed from a very nice VW bus with comfortable seats to this POS Bogdon municipal bus that overheats and is exceedingly uncomfortable to endure for the hour+ it takes to get there. Add to that the insult of raising the price 33% and you've got a good formula for not ginning up the excitement needed to make the trip. So we've been a grand total of once so far and it doesn't look to get any better going forward. No one is happy about this but there's not much we can do to fix it. Just grouse and bitch and hope, against hope, that it gets better soon.

Grand Canyon North Rim Storm

My last stop on this cycle was at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a roll of the dice so to speak as I knew the camp grounds and even the cabins would be booked full and then some. They also have a policy of no 'overnight camping' which is a polite way of saying ... no sleeping in your car or RV in the parking lots or overlooks. I decided to challenge that position and slept in my truck for 2 nights in the parking lot at the lodge. No one bothered me but I think that's probably from oversight more than anything else. The single ranger had other things to worry about than people sleeping in their cars. So I got away with a slight transgression.

On my second day I went out to Royal point which is the eastern most overlook. It's near the spot where the Colorado enters the main canyon. It was a very hot day so I found a shady spot not too far from the bathrooms, ate my lunch and settled back to await the evening. Around mid-afternoon the sky darkened and it started to rain. As any photographer knows, rain is a good thing as it creates drama. Mundane scenes suddenly become interesting and photogenic. I had already selected a nice overlook to visit in this event so I drove as quickly as possible there and set up the camera. The result was a very pleasant surprise and I have now processed the files for your enjoyment.

Grand Canyon North Rim Storm - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY NC 4.0

Grand Canyon North Rim Sunset

The 8 hour rule...

I was in California much of the last 2 months of my trip and got to know most of the rest areas along I5 and elsewhere. For the most part they are clean (except the mess outside of Lassen) and safe for the weary traveler. However, they have this ridiculous rule ... you can't stay more than 8 hours out of 24. I understand why ... to a point. They don't want someone living in the rest area. That's what I heard from one snarky cleaning guy as I set up my computer on a picnic table under some big redwood trees up north. I suggested perhaps he was slightly outside his job description and that I had no intention of 'living' in his little kingdom but I did expect some courteous from him. I was a customer and deserved to be treated as such. He crawled away after that but it still made me mad. I used their roads and paid an obscene amount for gas (up to $1 more per gallon than surrounding states) so I indirectly paid part of his salary. When it's very hot and your ride is struggling in the heat you want to pull over and maybe find some shade until the sun get lower in the sky and it cools off some. Or you're tired and want to find a place to cook dinner and sleep ... well 8 hours isn't really enough to do that. But, once the rule exists, there's always someone who feels compelled to enforce it literally. So, when the state trooper would cruise through the area every hour and give you that hard stare you knew it was time to move on ... even if you weren't really ready. It was an insult to a traveler in their state and dangerous. So ... please ... whoever wrote that rule (and similar rules in several other states ... I'm looking at you AZ), back off some ... OK. Make it an unwritten rule ... no one can actually 'live' in a rest area but enforce it with compassion. Is that too much to ask?

Grand Canyon North Rim Sunset

I was heading toward Albuquerque and the cycle's end but wanted to make one last stop. I drove up I15 through Las Vegas and dropped down toward the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It's a very different experience than the south rim. 2500 feet higher, more forested and cooler. And, quite frankly, the canyon looks and feels different. The place was full and then some so I wound up sleeping in the parking lot of the Grand Canyon Lodge for 2 nights but I really wanted to finish this cycle on a high note. On the second day I went out to Cape Royal, a 17 mile drive from the Lodge, and spent the day scouting all the vistas along the drive. There were many but only one, the group picnic area at Cape Royal, gave me a reasonable shot at seeing the actual sunset. So, as I always do, I hung around throughout the long afternoon and, as sunset approached, made my way to the chosen spot. It was a shear cliff, at least 1000 feet straight down, but gave me the vantage point I wanted. I got the usual stares and the obligatory "you're going out there?" question as I set up my equipment and waited for the perfect moment. This time mother nature smiled on me and provided a really beautiful ending to her day. So, enjoy the view ...

Grand Canyon North Rim - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0