Viewing an iconic location from a different perspective.

Taking Photos Of Popular Places

I often find the more popular spot is, the more difficult it is to photograph. Take the Grand Canyon as an example. Chances are you know exactly what it looks like even if you’ve never visited. There are no less than millions of photos of the natural wonder. Any image search will produce untold amounts of images taken from vantage points I could never access, with detail and resolution far exceeding my gear.

So what to do?

It’s perfectly valid to trek all the way out to the view point and snap some pictures of the canyon. I can’t help but feel a little unfulfilled though if I came home with photos that were indistinguishable from anyone other person’s vacation pictures.

Tri-X To The Rescue

In hopes of getting a new perspective, I shot in black & white. Lucky for me, there were a good amount of well placed clouds in the sky. In addition, the position of the sun created some nice shadows across the canyon. With these conditions, I got the idea to shoot some high contrast scenes of the area. I wanted to use the canyon more as a prop or canvas for the shadows to lay, rather than the focal point of each photo.

Gear Used

• Nikon FM
• Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
• B+W 022 Yellow Filter
• Kodak Tri-X 400
• Stand developed in HC-110