What can I say?  It is, after all,  the Grand Canyon!  It is an awe-inspiring sight from every available viewpoint.  In 1990, my son and I backpacked, with six other members of our local Boy Scout Troop, to the bottom of the Canyon along the South Kaibab Trail and back out again a couple of days later along the South Bright Angel Trail.  Apart from some rather painful blisters on my feet and the stark realization that I was way too fat for such an enterprise, we had a great adventure.  Hiking through the Canyon gave it a whole new "persona".  Prior to that trip, my personal impression and artistic vision of the Canyon was always one of "vastness" and obvious physical grandeur.  After the trip, I have gained an appreciation for just how grand it really is.  But, I have also found it to be an "intimate grandeur" much like what I feel when I watch the ocean.

Photographing the Canyon is an experience similar to places like Yellowstone and the Tetons.  There are such well-known landmarks before you that the thrill of being there to photograph them is only tempered a bit by the challenge of doing something "new" with the opportunity.  Well, if you have read many of these "intro" segments, you already know that I deplore "difference for the sake of difference" as an artistic cop-out.  So, in exploring the Grand Canyon photographically, I have trended strongly toward a "capture the essence" approach.  I can't say that this has been a wholly conscious thing, but my favored photographs seem to be those that are interpretive of various "moods" and small features of the canyon that appeared before my lens and tickled my creative side.  Postcard views are worthwhile for their own sake, but not always artistic in nature.

I have been doing some interesting panoramic images of the Grand Canyon as well as representational images that are worthy of your consideration.  More to come. Stay tuned!

Enjoy the exhibit! ~φ~ Fred Stevens