Since an 80 yo man died a few days before we departed, it was a good thing I did not know this. We found it a VERY different adventure. We travelled nearly 200 miles in 8 days, through nearly 100 rapids and were helicoptered out to a ranch and then took a small plane for about an hour back to Marble Canyon from where we began.
Care had to be taken and it was necessary to put still cameras back into waterproof bags on just about all rapids many of which submerged our 35 foot raft entirely while some large waves submerged us more than once in the same rapid.
I have looked at just a few images (Day 2 so far), but soon realized they do not impart the beautiful magnitude of what we saw.
Attached are just a few so far. Leica SL3 + Panasonic 28-200. This is the camera I submerged two times on one raft departure. Dried it and cleaned it and it is still going strong today.
Just fantastic photography Louis! The colors are so vibrant and rich! The reflections wonderful! The texture and detail in the rock is superb!
So glad your SL3 survived a "bath"!
Hope to see more soon! The white morning glory is bueno!!!
Dan
You have a nice collection of photos so far. I look forward to seeing the other photos you created during the trip. The first photo is from one of my favorite camps. I love the downstream view from there. Did you hike up to the waterfall there?
Keeping camera gear clean and dry can be one of the biggest challenges on the river. I've made numerous trips through the canyon over the years and had close calls with cameras and lenses. I'm glad your gear survived the trip, no worse for the wear.
Adam Schallau wrote:
You have a nice collection of photos so far. I look forward to seeing the other photos you created during the trip. The first photo is from one of my favorite camps. I love the downstream view from there. Did you hike up to the waterfall there?
Keeping camera gear clean and dry can be one of the biggest challenges on the river. I've made numerous trips through the canyon over the years and had close calls with cameras and lenses. I'm glad your gear survived the trip, no worse for the wear.
Adam in a previous post Louis told us that his Leica SL3 took a swim and lived to tell about it!!!
Dan
Danpbphoto wrote:
Adam in a previous post Louis told us that his Leica SL3 took a swim and lived to tell about it!!!
Dan
Thanks. I saw that post and what he wrote in this post. I'm glad he got lucky. On my trips, we have everyone keep their gear in their dry bags until they are off the raft. Most accidents on the river happen when getting onto or off the rafts.
Adam Schallau wrote:
Thanks. I saw that post and what he wrote in this post. I'm glad he got lucky. On my trips, we have everyone keep their gear in their dry bags until they are off the raft. Most accidents on the river happen when getting onto or off the rafts.
douter wrote:
Gorgeous captures, Louis, I like that some of these really demonstrate the scale of the topography!
Douglas
Thanks Douglas,
To me that was the hardest part-- to show topography with scale. I was very disappointed with many images that just did not seem to convey the immensity of the canyon looking up from below.
I damaged my foot while tripping over the bow line at a stop so I was resting for the last 2 days and thus did not get a tele shot of 2 Big Horn Rams going at it on their hind legs about 75 feet from the raft and almost at river level. I have it on my GoPro and must figure out how to capture a single image off the video and then get it processed.
stgrove wrote:
I damaged my foot while tripping over the bow line at a stop so I was resting for the last 2 days and thus did not get a tele shot of 2 Big Horn Rams going at it on their hind legs about 75 feet from the raft and almost at river level. I have it on my GoPro and must figure out how to capture a single image off the video and then get it processed.
I'm sorry to hear about your foot.
In 2019, I was rowing a raft on one of my 18-day expeditions when we encountered two Desert Bighorns battling it out on a beach just below Forster Rapid at river mile 123. They were oblivious to our group, and many of my workshop participants were able to get photos of them from close range.
By the way, I like your composition in the first photo from the third group of photos taken below the overhanging rock.