Grand Canyon at Desert View

Just as the sun went down I took this shot. I just loved all the colors.

A little bit about this photo? Sure!

This has been taken from Desert View on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon about 15 minutes after the sun dropped below the horizon. For me, it’s when the Canyon comes alive with color and is easily my favorite time to shoot there. As this is a popular view point, expect a lot of tourists to be hanging around during sunset hours, but it suddenly becomes very peaceful as most of them leave as soon as the sun is no longer visible. You are left with this beautiful, quiet, colorful view that you can just enjoy.

Very little post production done on this photo – most of it was out of the camera. I had a 0.9 Grad ND filter (Cokin Filter System) on my 24-70mm F/2.8 with the shutter open for 3 seconds at F/11. I applied a bit of saturation (and clarity – seems to make the Grand Canyon pics pop a little more) and increased the temp and recovery a little.

This is NOT a HDR. The exposure is purely from the effects of the grad ND filter.

I have started to reduce JPG quality and size of my uploaded files as I have found sources taking my larger images and putting them as available wallpaper on their sites – Not cool. Soon my prints will be prints will be available to view over here in Northern Virginia where they can be bought.

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