Grand Canyon - Part 2

[Teton Chuck]

Floating the Grand Canyon is a white water adventure worth doing, but I did it as much to experience the place. I had hiked into and out of the Grand Canyon, but that is different than floating its length. I had hoped to do a lot of photography, but that too was limited. I choose to take two Nikon cameras, a D7000 with an 80 – 400 mm zoom lens and a D800e with 24 -70 mm lens. I packed all my equipment in a Think Tank camera bag. That bag was put into a large dry bag and strapped on the top of the raft. I choose two cameras so I wouldn’t have to change lenses on the trip. More about that later. I didn’t take many photos from the raft for two reasons. The first was the potential for damage from water. The second was the difficult lighting conditions on the river. The gorge would be in the shade and the cliffs above in direct sunshine. It presented an impossible midday photography challenge.

Here are some photos I was able to get from the raft.

This was at the beginning of the trip. We had just passed under Navajo Bridge, the last sign of civilization we would see for over 200 miles.



Redwall Cavern is a vast chamber carved out by the river. It is in the Marble Canyon section of the river. The walls are very steep and high so the problem of extreme light from above is mitigated. The following two photos were taken in this part of the canyon.





This last photo was taken from inside the Cavern looking out at the bright light. It was done strictly for fun.



I'll continue the story in pieces.

[dje]

These are nice shots Chuck. It's interesting to see the canyon from the bottom rather than the more usual shotss from the top.

Dave

[IzzieK]

Teton through Chuck's eyeview...I like your narrative taking us through part of your trip along with the shots to accompanied them...I can't wait for the next installment...I have not done whitewater rafting for like forever...now I cannot do it anymore for some reason: fear! I like the last fun shot!

[teokf]

can't wait to see the future installments.

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[bnnrcn]

Nice images with a nice story . Like the others I'm looking forward to seeing the photos of the rest of your trip

[Kaye Leggett]

Great photos and really lovely to see them from this part of the Canyon - a great take on the classic shots of that area.

[gregj1763]

Interesting narrative and great images Chuck, love the last one

[Mike Buckley]

Very nice images. The last one is indeed fun.

If you haven't seen the IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon, you'll enjoy it even more now that you've been down the river. I recommend very highly that you see it in an IMAX theater any time you get the chance. If you do, consider that chances are exceptionally high that you'll be the only person in the theater who has rafted through the canyon.

Were there any other serious photographers in your group?

[Teton Chuck]

Thanks to all for the comments. Mike, we hope to see the IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. Don't know when. I am considering buying the CD. There was one other serious photographer on the trip, but we had very different approaches. He brought an Olympus E-M1 with two lenses. The camera and lenses are small so he had easy access to them on the river. I never saw him use a tripod. The Oars staff where very supportive of my photography. But my approach would not work if very many people used it to photograph. It would be far too much equipment to manage. More on those issues later.