Back to the Colorado!

This spring I'll be back on the rapids, floating down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This will be a 10-day raft trip with AdamSchallau.com. Adam has led a trip down the Colorado at least once a year for over a decade and has become the photographic expert of the Grand Canyon. I'm a good photographer, so I don't need a baby sitter. I just need someone that can take me to the right spot at the right time of day. I did this back in 2021, and decided then to eventually return, armed with knowledge and experience. Each trip is unique, with different locations and conditions. This year I'm hoping we hit a couple cool spots we missed in 2021.

A long trip down the Colorado is challenging. One challenge has to do with packing. Due to strict limits, all one's clothing has to fit into a standard-sized gym bag! And this needs to cover a wide range of weather conditions; on my 2021 trip we started off in the snow and ended up in 90f heat!

The other major challenge has to do with photography equipment...in particular keeping gear dry, clean and working far off the grid.

For safety and for logistics one brings two sets of camera gear: one for the boat and another for 'land'. Ideally the boat camera will be a smaller camera that can be hand-held at high ISO to take shots when conditions allow (i.e. when you're not going through the rapids.) The primary camera will be a larger camera that can be packed, along with a tripod, up side canyons to waterfalls, ruins, and other more distant locations.

Keeping sand and water out of camera gear is a big challenge. I use expensive but effective dry bags from Watershed. The dry bags you can find at a big box store might not keep gear dry on the Colorado, as unfortunate photographers have discovered! The Watershed bags are stout enough that, on the rare occasion that a boat has flipped, the gear can usually be recovered dry and intact.

Keeping batteries charged is another significant challenge, as obviously there is no electricity at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. My approach is to bring about 4 or 5 batteries for each camera, in addition to a handful of power banks, or rechargeable external batteries. Each power bank can charge about 3 or 4 camera batteries using a USB charger. As a former film shooter I tend to be conservative (rolls of 120 film were expensive and difficult to change) but one certainly doesn't want to have dead cameras 8 days into a 10 day trip!

Every time I'm on a photo trip I try to talk friends into joining me on one these floats. So far I've had no takers; a 10 day camping trip down a wild river is not for everyone. But for photographers with a sense of adventure, it's a bucket list item. But don't sign up for a regular commercial raft trip: as a photographer you'll end up extremely frustrated as you either float right past the best spots....or at best hit them at the wrong time of day with the wrong lighting. My friend Adam does at least one trip a year and plans to keep doing it as long as he's physically able. Who knows, maybe I'll even try again some day!

Floating the Colorado River, 2021.