Golden Hour

Go Play Outside! 😎

See It: You’ll need to make the long drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (about 80 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona, USA), but the views a short walk from your car are guaranteed to take your breath away. Having worked there a summer during my college years, the sunset view from the Grandview Point overlook is one of the favorites of those in the know. Allow 25 minutes for the drive from Grand Canyon Village to the Grandview parking lot, or more time if you want to check out the several overlooks along the way. Show up at least 30 minutes before sunset and pick your viewing spot. (Caution: Be very careful if you or your kids venture past the overlook rock wall; the canyon rim can be very slippery and dangerous cliffs are all around the point.) Look to the west to watch the sun dip below the canyon rim, when purples and sun rays fill-in the canyon depths, or turn east to see the warm end-of-day light ignite the reds and oranges of the canyon walls. If there is partial cloud cover, don’t pack up when the sun disappears; often the best colors appear as the sun, below the horizon, lights up the undersides of the cloud cover. More about Grand Canyon National Park (nps.gov/grca/index.htm).

Shoot It: This shot was using a Canon 7D (crop factor 1.6), Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 at 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, and ISO400 on Jun 27, 2017 at 7:27 PM. Basic adjustments were made in Photoshop Lightroom. (If you want to take photos pointing into the sunset, be sure to avoid looking into the sun, either directly or through your viewfinder. You can capture a nice ‘star burst’ around the sun by closing down your aperture to f/16 or smaller as the setting sun is partially obscured by the canyon rim or a tree branch.)