By about the third day, most of the stress is gone. Work e-mails, Zoom meetings, all forgotten. Even minor river challenges like no showers and no plumbing begin to seem less important. It's basically water, sand, rock and sky. And lots of photography.
About 20 years ago I did a raft trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful but frustrating. I went with a geology group and learned some fascinating history. But doing serious photography was challenging. I had borrowed a small roll-film camera (to make it under the weight limit) but stops were for geology lessons, not photo opps. So we either sailed right past the best spots or hit them at the wrong time of day. I did manage to capture a few nice images, but these were made 'in between times' close to camp. I had promised myself to it again with a dedicated photography group; a promise I finally kept this spring.
Photography along the Colorado is basically of two types. The first is the iconic river and canyon type shots taken from the boat. These (like the one here) can be beautiful but are challenging as they have to be taken quickly between rapids. Hand-held on a moving boat, they're generally taken at high ISO and very fast shutter speed with a smaller back-up or 'boat' camera. The second type are the shots taken mainly in the mornings or evenings either along the shore or up trails and side canyons. These are taken with full gear and tripods on better or bigger cameras. These were my favorite, though the images are not as immediately recognizable as Grand Canyon images.
The logistics involved in keeping camera gear clean, dry and charged on the river are significant but not insurmountable. Lots of dry bags, power banks and USB battery chargers were involved. But everything worked and stayed safe. A boat just downriver from us did flip (with injuries) but we never had any serious mishaps.
I'm already planning another trip. There are numerous great photo spots in the Canyon, and we couldn't get to all of them. In fact we were disappointed to find that camps near a couple of prime locations were already occupied when we arrived, so we had to sail on past. But they will be there waiting.
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