As I descended the ladders into Lower Antelope Canyon, I was aware that there was no one else in the canyon yet. That day, as on other occasions when I’ve been alone in one of the slot canyons, I felt something both primal and spiritual. The moment was short-lived but it set the tone for the day. The light was awesome!

When I was using traditional film, I tried many times to photograph night scenes but was never really happy with the results. Getting a good exposure involved a lot of trial and error and even the best exposures often had blocked-up shadows, blown-out highlights, or both. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with night scenes again. With a digital camera, the histogram takes the guesswork out of finding an exposure that works. And, using HDR techniques makes it possible to hold detail in both shadows and highlights. Sometimes you really can have it all!

Crystal Lake, a small reservoir above Ouray in Red Mountain Pass, is one of my favorite places to photograph on an autumn morning. On this day, the surface of the water was like a mirror and the reflections were perfect. But, without clouds in the sky, I wasn’t happy with the images I was making. I needed something to add some interest and draw the viewer into the picture. After a bit of wandering around, I found some grasses and rocks to use as a foreground. I explored several compositions along this part of the shoreline. This was my favorite. It was processed from 7 exposures (separated by 1 ev) using Photomatix’s exposure fusion module to hold detail in the shadows while keeping Red Mountain properly exposed.