Map view of Grand Canyon photos...

I was playing around with keyword-based feeds for Smugmaps and managed to extract a KMZ file for my favorite Grand Canyon photos...


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And here are all of the photos, enjoy...


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Grand Canyon photos, November 2008

I finally finished processing my Grand Canyon photos... Of something like more than a 1000 that I shot, I ended up keeping somewhere around 100 or so, and flagging only about 23 as favorites.

Here are my favorites, collected together in one place via Smugmug keywords. And here is a slideshow of those favorites.

I ended up separating the photos into several small galleries, devoted to specific sections or places on the rim, including Hermit Road from Trailview Overlook to Hermit's Rest, Mather Point, the Rim Trail between the Village and Yavapai Point, Desert View, Lipan Point, and miscellaneous shots from the West Rim Drive.

After this experience, I am tempted to stick to night shots. Or at least give up on big landscapes. I found it really hard to get satisfying shots, whether because of the haze, the lighting, or my own lack of skill. I also had an adventure during processing when somehow the Samsung monitor profile used in Windows color management seemed to begin behaving badly, so all of a sudden photos were showing up in Lightroom in a bizarre sepia. I had to remove the Samsung icm file and then everything was OK again.

Here are a few that I was really proud of...





I really liked this shot, which almost looks like a painting, as a result of the haze...

Two sunrises at Yavapai Point, Grand Canyon, November 2008

We spent Thanksgiving at the Grand Canyon. Of course I ended up taking a lot of photos. On two mornings, I woke before dawn and went to Yavapai Point to see the sunrise. The first day was somewhat cloudy so the results were pretty mixed, as you can see here. The second day was all cloudless glory, and I was happier with the results, which you can see here. I was shooting with the Canon EF-S f2.8 17-55 IS. I brought along my Tokina superwide but in the end didn't make use of it, I decided that putting it on would result in my picking up too much extraneous junk. I regretted not bringing a longer lens to zero in on some of the interest light effects when the sunlight hit particular formations.

If you are in too much of a hurry to visit the individual galleries, you can check out a selection of my favorites from those two mornings here.

And if you are in a real hurry, because you have places to go and people to meet, here are a few real favorites...