Canyon Kaleidoscope

yeah, I know, another image from the Narrows . . .

While wandering through the Narrows I turned around to witness an incredible color display. An exposed mountain peak dominated the view above the canyon walls, fully lit by the sun. Light from the peak, as well as from the blue sky above, bounced down upon the water and rocks at my feet, while in the background the canyon walls glowed orange with peak mid-day glow. After choosing my composition (carefully excluding the sun-lit peak), I attached a polarizer filter to my lens. Spinning it around to change the level of polarization, I was reminded of peering through a kaleidoscope, as an explosion of colors emerged and disappeared with each revolution. Full polarization removed the reflections in the foreground water too much, whereas no polarization didn’t remove enough glare from the canyon walls, muting their color. Somewhere in between the two extremes proved to be, in the immortal words of Goldilocks, “just right.”

Canon 5DII, Nikon 14-24mm lens with custom adapter.

To read more about my trip to the Narrows, check out my most recent Blog post.