zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thanks GT, I hope to get some night shots. This will be my first effort at shooting the night sky.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thanks for the help Bill I will bring both the ND filter and the CPL. I do shoot RAW.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

No we are planning to arrive on Sept. 8th and leave Sept. 10th. I would like to do the train but not sure that we will be able to without spending another night there.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thank you, I'm hoping to get my first chance to try night sky shots.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thanks John for your help.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thanks for the info about the North Rim. Unfortunately we will only be able to do the South Rim on this trip.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thanks for responding Lone Ranger. I will be taking the polarizer as well as the ND filter.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

I'm sure it is beautiful but I would never get my husband in a helicopter. LOL He is afraid of heights.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thanks for the response MtnMan. Always appreciate your help.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thank you for responding. I will have 3 lenses with me. SO that I can cover from Ultra Wide to long zooming. I would love to do the train but just not enough time to spend another night there.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thank you for your help Stumbo. Your photos are beautiful, thank you for including them. I am so looking forward to seeing the Canyon.

zuzanne

twowindsbear

Forget Williams - splurge & stay at the ElTovar or another lodge at the Village. This will allow to to be AT the Canyon for sunrise and sunset and overnight.

prayingmantis

The most germane concept for night photography is the phase of the moon. The new moon in September this year will be on September 13th. If you are doing night photography anywhere from 4 days prior to the new moon to 4 days after the new moon your night shots will be best for the Milky Way but will not show much detail in the landscape. If you are there shooting at night during a full moon you will be able to see the canyon quite nicely but as far as the Milky Way you will not be able to see that although individual bright stars will show well. With night shots during a full or nearly full moon the lower part of the sky will be blue and progressively darker the higher up in your image. For night shots I like to be about a week before or a week after the new moon which gives a decent Milky Way in your images and a fair bit of detail in the landscape as well.
With regard to the north rim of the GC it seems those who are suggesting that are not telling you the problematic issues with the north rim, especially for a first time visitor. The canyon runs east-west for over 300 miles. If you are flying in to Phoenix you can drive straight north to Williams and its a relatively short drive. If you want to go to the north rim and are starting in Phoenix you have to drive toward the eastern side of the canyon and then north for a ways and then head back west. It can add a couple hundred miles of driving if the north rim is your choice. The north rim does not have an east-west drive with multiple overlooks as the south rim does. The north rim is more than 1000 feet higher than the south rim and if you are acclimated to sea level then hiking down one of the very few trails on the north rim may make you a bit short of breath (about 8600 ft elevation I think there). Some valuable suggestions I can give regarding gear and location.
Try a panorama with your tripod. Use a 50mm equivalent lens for the panorama. Also you should take a long telephoto to take shots of the lower elevations from a high point of view. Long lenses make landscape features look huge while wide lenses make everything look distant and small. A 300mm focal length (full frame equivalent) gives great images especially when the shadows in the canyon are long as in the first 90 minutes of light in the am or the last 90 minutes before darkness. The combination of the long focal length and the shadows can be quite spectacular. By all means do hike at least an hour or so down one of the trails to get a feeling of what its like to be in the canyon. I can recommend the Bright Angel Trail on the south rim. Its about 9 miles to the bottom but you only need to do a couple of miles down to get the feel of the place. I think a great place to take your first images from the top is near but not at Mather Point which is the most crowded and visited area of the entire canyon. However the key is to first go to Mather Point and look at the view there and the crowds. You will find that the point doesn't have a good place to make an image as the promontory of the point blocks the view. However, go to Mather Point and then look at the rim to your left which is to the west. You will see an overlook to the west of Mather Point only about 1/4 mile walk on a paved path which has many fewer visitors and does not have any features that block the panoramic view of the canyon. That's a great place to start. LASTLY AND MOST IMPORTANT is to purchase from Amazon a copy of the cocktail table book entitled: LASTING LIGHT-125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography by Stephen Trimble. Study that book and get your ideas from a multitude of world class images.

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

Thanks for responding. We are going to stay 2 nights at the Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan, we decided not to waste our time driving back and forth from Williams. None of the Grand Canyon lodging had any availability during our time frame. The train sounds really cool, but trying to carry all my camera gear and the limited time at the canyon, along with the cost made the lodge and driving a better option for us.

zuzanne

zuzanne Loc: Crawfordville, FL

PrayingMantis, thank you so much for your help. We are flying into Vegas and driving to the South Rim of the Canyon from there. We will only get to spend 2 nights at the Canyon and have decided that instead of Williams to stay in Tusayan to avoid driving back and forth from Williams. Really appreciate your advice on the moon and milky way, I had no idea about the timing for the shots. I will check out the book on Amazon, it sounds great. I will have my ultra wide 11-16 lens, my 18-250 lens and my Big Sig 150-500 lens with me as well as tripod and CPL & ND filters. I think I should be covered for everything with those lenses. My husband will also have the Canon SX50 that he uses.

zuzanne