Arizona Day 6 – Point Imperial Sunrise Finale

The final morning of the workshop was a return to Point Imperial to shoot sunrise.  The previous evening there had been a bit of a disappointment because the great light hadn’t materialized–always a potential occupational hazard.  The hope was that sunrise would bring more compelling conditions.

We had experienced four previous sunrises on this workshop and they had all been terrific: the first and second mornings had been spent at Monument Valley; the third morning saw us at Lake Powell; the fourth had been at Cape Royal on the North Rim.  Could we really hope to have five top notch sunrises in a row?  The law of averages would seem to suggest no.  Fortunately, the law of averages would be defied on this morning.

This morning’s shoot would be the last of the workshop and by loading up the car and simply beginning the long trek back to the Phoenix area immediately after wrapping up, I’d save myself about an hour’s worth of backtracking, so that’s what I did, along with all the other attendees.  It was another very early morning, and the car loading was done in the pitch dark, as was the drive from the North Rim Lodge area to Point Imperial.  It was well worth it.

The cloud gods smiled on us at dawn.

Dawn, Point Imperial, Grand Canyon National Park – North Rim, Arizona

And then again at sunrise.

Sunrise, Point Imperial, Grand Canyon National Park – North Rim, Arizona

And what we got post-sunrise was nothing short of magical.

Morning Light, Point Imperial, Grand Canyon National Park – North Rim, Arizona

I converted one of the “god beams” images to black and white and ramped up the contrast a bit.

The Light black & white, Point Imperial, Grand Canyon National Park – North Rim, Arizona

It had been another terrific morning’s shoot–the light held for several hours past sunrise–and the light show made the roughly 500-mile drive back to Phoenix seem a lot shorter than would have otherwise been the case.

I hope you enjoyed the posts from the Arizona trip.

When I started writing this blog more than three years ago, I didn’t intend for it to become a primary venue for relating my photo trip travels, but that’s mostly what it’s been this calendar year.  With the next post, I’ll return to my intended purpose–reflecting upon the art of landscape photography and its broader meaning to me.