Grand Canyon

  1. Grand Canyon - Mohave Point

    HDR of the Grand Canyon at Mohave Point

    Last year I was out shooting a lot of photography and it got to the point where I was just forgetting about days I shot. This was one of those days. It's from the Grand Canyon at Mohave Point. I colored a few photos from this day and then moved on since later I went to the Horse Shoe Bend, Utah, and Japan, Bali, and China shortly thereafter. After firing up my old drive I decided to give a visit to some of my old forgotten HDR landscapes already colored and ready to go. This one was in the batch. It's from Mohave Point. It's on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and one of the west most points. it's supposedly has the best sunsets although we were unfortunate the night we were there. The clouds sucked.

    Today's HDR Photo

    Hopi Point Grand CanyonThis is from Hopi Point of the Grand Canyon. More west on the main south rim area. It's a pretty epic location and great for sunsets. Probably better than Mather Point which is the most popular point of the Grand Canyon. See more of my HDR Photography at AlikGriffin.com

  2. Looking Down the Grand Canyon

    This photo was taken from Mather Point looking down the at the Colorado River as it continues cutting it's way through the Grand Canyon.

    To process this HDR photo I used a different method than usual. I did something call exposure fusion. It's a setting in photomatix that sort of blends the colors differently. It seems to work great on some landscapes and especially the Grand Canyon.

    Today's HDR Photo

    Looking down the Grand CanyonThis view is of the Colorado river as it continues to cut it's way down the Grand Canyon. This HDR Photo is taken from the southern rim at Mather Point.See this photo at AlikGriffin.com

  3. Tourists of Mather Point

    This shot is from Mather Point of the South Rim. When I first arrived at the Grand Canyon this time around, I only had a few hours. I started off with my wide lens, the Canon 16-35mm f2.8L II and tried to get some nice landscape shots while there were still clouds in the sky and before the sun set. When I felt I'd shot all I could from the Mather Point area I switched to my long lens. The Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS II. And my results were something that I didn't expect. The long end of the lens really compressed the scene, and when you shot people the true scale of the Grand Canyon started to shine. 

    These kind of shots I almost never see. Most people usually just go for very pretty landscape shots, so it was a nice to be able to capture a different take on Grand Canyon photography.

    Grand Canyon, Mather Point

  4. Once Upon a Time, There was the Grand Canyon

    This is a photo of the Grand Canyon. I think it was Navajo Point, not positive. This and Mather point are my two favorite spots so far. Eventually I want to see the Grand Canyon from the north side. Lots of cool stuff up there, but it's a bit more out of the way. I think this spot is only like four hours or so from Las Vegas, making it about eight or nine hours from my house in Los Angeles. To get really unique photos of the Grand Canyon I've noticed you just have to have perfect timing. Weather needs to be doing something amazing, sunset needs to be amazing, and a little snow here and there helps. I didn't get any of those last couple times I've gone there. Maybe next time. 

    With this photo, I did a lot to it in post to give it an old look. A bunch of cross processing, colored filters, painting more color on etc. It's usually what I do to all my photos a little bit, but this is by far the most extreme.

    I'm still working on a proper color photo of this spot. Just taking me a little time to get it right. I'll post it very soon. 

    Grand Canyon, HDR Photography, Arizona, Vintage

  5. Grand Canyon - View from Mather Point

    Submitted by on

    A year and a half later with two new lenses I returned to the Grand Canyon. This time I had a little more time. About two hours. I was able to use my tripod and switch my lenses a couple times. This photo was taken on my Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS II. The Grand Canyon often calls for a long lens to really focus in on its features. This was a three shot HDR taken handheld with that lens. Handheld can be very trick and often doesn't turn out right if you move the lens to much. Luckily this lens has an auto stabalizer that works great when you can get it to kick in. The photo was processed in Photomatix using the Exposure Fusion technique and tweaked with Lightroom 4.2.

    Grand Canyon, HDR, Mather Point

    This photo was processed using the HDR Exposure Fusion Technique. I explain it here http://alikgriffin.com/tutorials/hdr-photography