People often ask me how I get my photographs of the Grand Canyon. After years of photographing the Canyon from its rim and along its vast overlooks, the honest answer is that it took a long time—and a lot of frustration.

I’ve taken what feels like a million Grand Canyon photographs over the years. I would stand there, overwhelmed by the beauty of the landscape, take the picture I was certain would be the one, and then get home only to feel disappointed. Not a single image captured what it felt like to be there.

As I learned to use a new camera and developed a deeper understanding of photographic technique, my images began to improve. Technically, they were better. But the photographs were still too plain. They didn’t reflect the scale, depth, or emotional impact of the Grand Canyon itself.

That began to change when I started working in black and white photography. I slowly realized that the sheer grandeur of the Grand Canyon can’t be fully contained in one image. The landscape is simply too vast. What can be captured, though, is the majesty of a specific moment—if you’re patient enough to wait for it.

The pivotal moment for me came during a trip when a storm moved through the Canyon. It was cold, wet, and dramatic. Because the weather made it impractical to move from viewpoint to viewpoint, I stayed in one place with my camera mounted on a tripod and continued photographing as the storm passed.

The light changed minute by minute. Clouds opened and closed. Shadows shifted across the rock formations. I became completely focused on how the changing light shaped one small section of the Canyon.

That’s when I understood something essential about photographing the Grand Canyon.

You can’t focus on the entire Canyon—it’s too expansive. When you try to photograph it as a whole, there is no clear focal point. Instead, there are countless points of interest, all competing as the light constantly changes across the landscape.

When people say the Grand Canyon never looks the same from one minute to the next, this is exactly what they mean. Successful Grand Canyon photography isn’t about capturing everything at once. It’s about choosing one place, staying present, and allowing the light to define the photograph.

And a little bad weather doesn’t hurt either. Storms often create the most dramatic light, with sun breaking through clouds and illuminating the Canyon in unexpected ways—revealing the quiet power of one of the world’s most extraordinary natural landscapes.