[zerodaze]

WMBP - good post and very good suggestions. The Grand Canyon begs for wide open big panoramic vistas. But when you get home and look at your pictures, you will be glad if you took a lot of smaller area pictures - rock cliffs, vegetation, how a trail curves around a barrier, etc.

Sunset at the bottom of the canyon can still be magical just before the sunrise itself, especially if cloudy and the light from the sun scatters across east facing buttes. The cliffs can take on a fluorescent pink to purple hue that is worth seeing even if you can't pull off a shot.

And that is the challenge of photographing the Grand Canyon. You can take and see a lot of great pictures, but you won't capture the scale of the canyon when you are standing there where you take the picture.

If anyone has suggestions on techniques to capture this vastness, please share.

[mysticcowboy]

Do you have a photographer's ephemeris? That will tell you not only the time of sunrise and sunset but where on the horizon the sun will appear or disappear. There's a free one called TPE, by Stephen Trainor. Always helpful for landscape photography.

When are you going? There's a full moon on Feb 28. I got some great night shots there a couple of years ago. A tripod, a remote shutter control and some patience will give you something special that doesn't look like a me-too photo.

It's normally the wrong time of year for thunderheads, but the area's been getting some unusual weather. (My mom lives in Prescot, 100 miles south of there). Pray for thunder clouds. If you're lucky you can get some spectacular light in mid-afternoon.

After the "magic hour" you can still get take great photos using HDR techniques. Don't be put off by the radioactive glow that some HDR photos show. That's totally an artifact of processing. It's possible to use the technique to make normal appearing shots. It's just that you can shoot during the rest of the day and still make attractive pictures.

michael mckee
My Port Townsend – A City in Photographs – 365