About the images
All photo gear was secured in waterproof backpacks. There were a couple of film bodies aboard but the 2005 expedition was done almost totally digitally. The 8 + days were covered by each person having their own supply of battery power and storage. I know of no one that feel short in this goal and no one that complained of not having the right equipment. My strategy has always been "less is more".
The images of page 1 ... Sharing a 25 year dream
The ancient ruins above Cardenas camp. Cardenas was Coronado's scout. They saw this magnificent canyon, tried briefly to find a way across and went back home! I've charged past what is known as Furnace Flats in years past and have viewed it from above at Desert View overlook on the south rim but have never had time to explore and photograph here. The image was done with the Hassleblad X-Pan and 30MM lens. Depth of field was a large problem. The image I wanted was about living there and I needed to show the scale of both ruin and canyon. f/22 and distance scales on the lens (remember them?) were helpful.
Elves Chasm is I think, the most beautiful place in the Grand Canyon. Camping just outside the legal boundary, we were there for first light. Working in teams so everyone got shots from all angles and distances made for many great compositions. The deep color of the water made the use of the Sigh-Ray color intensifier a natural.
The hike at Nankoweep last year produced one of my favorites of the expedition. Doing it again gave me a chance to improve or at the very least, duplicate this 45 MM X-Pan image. Contrast makes this a very difficult image. The bolt blue sky gave a different look from years past.
Black tail Canyon is mostly dark, bright and straight up and down. This always screams for a tilt/shift lens. In this case the 24 MM was perfect. I don't like the feel of composite frames so I came as close as I could to a useable frame for both exposures and worked from there.
The Colorado river and the rapid at North Canyon has been a constant favorite of mine. I was successful 5 years ago with the use of the Sigh-Ray Blue/Gold polarizer and this time using that same filter, I simply took it to the next level. The low angle helps with the towering cliffs and widens the already huge expanse of the river.
One of this years surprises and rewards was north canyon. Usually a dry drainage, the snow melt from this years huge snow pack had just started. Our boat crew had been there two weeks earlier and were shocked to see a raging torrent. The Sigh-ray Vari-ND was used with their Color Intensifier to provide a very slow shutter speed and enhance the dark mud that was flowing. The degree of the falling water seemed to tell the story without trying to deal with the contrast at the top of the image. This composition holds impact because of the proximity to the huge flow of water.
John Wesley Powell wrote in his journal of turning a corner of the river and seeing water jumping from the cliffs ahead. Usually a small cascade, Vassey's Paradise, named after a friend of powell's, was just as he described it. A first for me. The use of the Canon 70-200 2.8IS from the sand bar in the river with the singh-Ray Vari-ND for a slow shutter speed allowed this super sharp image at f/8. Allowing the flow to reach the river gave a sense of completion yet still holds detail. I've yet to make the composition work any other way.
The lower granite gorge in the Whitmore Wash area has long been a favorite of mine. My rainbow image came from this area more than 15 years ago. The Singh-Ray warming polarizer helped with the shadows as did their 2 stop graduated ND. Following the lines from the slope to the river and up stream seem to create a reverse sense of space.
Images from Page two ....On the river
Elves Chasm has always presented a perspective problem. Unless you put a person or animal in it, there is no way to show just how immense this formation is. The idea here was to get close but not bend the image so as to warp it. This frame is the horizontal layering with an almost 50 % overlap, so as not to bend, of four 30 MM X-Pan frames. The trick is to keep all exposures the same and find that 18% gray that will work all the way across. In past years the contrast of any light had killed the effort. The scale of the two light color boulders stacked on top of each other, at this distance gave me the perspective I had sought. At 300 DPI this image will print at 20X30" without manipulation.
The image at the right was a make good. I have tried this contrast range for years. I think I finally pulled it off! But that perspective thing again :-)
The river at sunrise with a breeze presented a set of problems. With a 3 stop graduated ND the shutter speed was very slow. This was overcome with the use of fill flash to freeze that movement and add a little fill in the dark shadows. The angle used was to cover what I though was the negative space of the beach between my foreground and subject which is the first light on the cliffs.
The Big Horn Sheep was a can of corn. Last year there were hundreds because of the drought in the southwest. The lack of water elsewhere forced them down to the river. This year has been very wet. Without this buck, we would have gone 0-for the trip. Setting the camera quickly to AI Servo, a 1/1000 for a shutter speed and being careful not to out race the buffer on my 1Ds, I came away with many frames. Trying to stay away from "the zoo shot" I looked for something that showed the animal in his environment. Watching him run the cliff trying to shake us, I wondered what his image of us in our environment would have looked like :-)
Horse Tail Canyon is a surprising small canyon with a cascade. The Canon 24/TS with a color intensifier was used. I spent a lot of time trying to find an exposure that would hold the top wall. Lens flare was also hard to deal with. Raising and bending the image to accommodate the light was the trick here.
As was stated before, being able to shoot from the boat is exciting in perspective. Having said that, it's still very hard to compose on the fly. The early light holds many contrast problems but has as many rewards. One shot setting for the AF was employed so as to get a fresh meter reading so as not to fool the meter with quick changing light. Remember it is very hard to bracket hand held and if you don't get a fresh meter reading your bracket can start and end nowhere! One shot also allows the auto focus a new setting each time. If you use AI Servo it will fire regardless of AF. A polarizer is nice but most of them require at least a stop and a half of filter factor which is usually deadly. There are some under development now that are much brighter and lighter.
Always looking for something different the Kaibab suspension bridge provided a vertical X-Pan opportunity. The still water made it possible to hand hold and the natural light made polarizing needless. Waiting for the shadow to line up was the hardest part, as we were drifting in circles at the time.
The stilts provided many frames. Again in AI Servo at a very fast shutter speed provided the opportunity to photograph this bird as it took to flight. Isolating it from the background was not easy but an over exposed frame provided the contrast needed.
Lines are the key element in the image of the barrel cactus from Nankoweep. Getting the river to be the focal point yet filling half the frame with the foreground is not as easy as one might think. The exposure problem was approached with fill flash set to only illuminate the center of the cactus. I felt that any more attention paid to the foreground would disrupt the concept.
Life in the camp. I guess some do things other than photography in the canyon. ........ but I can't imagine why :-)
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