Tripods: Some who don't do it might wonder why others shoot with tripods so often. This light right here and now is why. While most people can hold there camera still enough at fast enough shutter speeds in the bright sunlight, that's not typically what makes great photos of the land. It's the hours of the day that light is hard to find (morning and evening), and when you do, there's not much of it. This low light means longer shutter speeds, which means you can no longer hand-hold the camera still for say, 1/30 second and slower. Enter the tripod and cable release. 

 

On the rim, close to the edge, there weren't many trees. This makes walking with the tripod easier as well. I usually don't carry my camera on my tripod when it's slung over my shoulder like this. There are too many trees, rocks and other perils that can whack it right off the head and smash it on the ground. Party's over just like that. So I carry my tripod but no camera over my shoulder most of the time, and it takes one arm to do so. This leaves one arm for steadying yourself with a walking stick (usually a telescoping ski pole) if you use one, or to catch your fall should you. I prefer having both hands free, especially in the dark, just in case. But it was light enough this morning that I felt comfortable what I was doing.

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The rest of the pre-dawn morning turned into a slow amble up a gentle slope that was the canyon rim, peering over, shooting, stopping, wondering, praying, and just having a sweet, peaceful morning as the sun rose higher toward the distant horizon where it would eventually break through the darkness and ignite everything under it, changing the flavor of the day until sundown so many hours later. The moon had been full the previous night and it hung there motionless, opposite the corner of the sky the sun would occupy, seeming to bow to what it knew was coming: he was Lord of the Night, moving off in preparation for Lord of the day to come. The wind was gone now, temperatures were up, safety was assured and any earlier tension was gone. I took my coat off, left my gloves and hat on, and kept going.

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Gently, slowly, the dusk light began revealing utterly unspeakable things and I shot. And shot. And shot. And shot. Everywhere I looked I saw something else-the way the pink, indirect light was revealing cracks in old trees, the color the light briefly turned the dirt on the ground, the pocks in rim rocks... even now as I remember it I drift back into it and wonder how anyone can deny we have a genius Creator... who can't not be beautiful. Sometimes moments catch you off guard and rock your soul-blindside you with beauty and awe with no preparation, no time to process-they're just there and you're there and there you both are and man-wow. I stood there and watched and inside I cried it was so pretty I just couldn't stand it.

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When people look at a picture I shot, maybe they see something special - maybe they don't. It almost doesn't matter -though I always hope they do. But what I see is this morning, this moment, this glimpse of who my God is, sticks with me-it's preserved. Not captured, just preserved-so I can refer back to it when I wonder, or need to re-juice on Him. My God-it's so beautiful. And I'm so sorry others don't see you the way I see you here, now. Thank you more than I can-for your mercies on us, your grace, your beauty and numerous beautiful gift to us-for this beautiful scar we call the earth.

If you could imagine, the day only got better from here. But I'll save that for another time.