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.

Have you ever heard someone talk about archival paper?

When I was a beginning photographer, I had no idea what that meant—or whether it even mattered. It does. A lot. You’ve probably seen old family photographs that have faded, yellowed, or done both at once. That change isn’t just time passing; it’s often the paper itself.

Most everyday photo printing, even from a good camera, isn’t done on archival paper. The materials simply aren’t made to last. Archival paper, on the other hand, is designed for longevity. It’s typically acid-free and made from natural fibers like cotton, which helps preserve tonal range, detail, and color over decades rather than years.

Archival paper does cost more, but it’s one of those quiet choices that reveals its value slowly. A photograph printed on archival paper should look much the same years from now as it did the day it was printed—or purchased as a fine art print from a professional photographer.

When choosing where and how your photographs are printed, it’s worth asking what paper is being used, or taking a closer look at the materials your lab offers. I print all of my work on archival paper and store it in acid-free boxes, so the paper itself never becomes the reason an image changes.

Some things are meant to endure. The paper is part of the photograph.

For more information, please visit the Printful Glossary.

I recently went to a seminar where the presenter showed a group of paintings by several of the Painting Masters that had the color removed. It was truly amazing the level of light and tonality that was represented inside these color paintings. Some painters work in black and white before they start to paint. The black and white shows more of the accented lines and gray shadows in the white cloth, the glass and metal show more detail and the light is wonderful. 

Black and White also allows me to show mood, lines, and curves to their full advantage which can sometimes be lost or not as strongly expressed as it could be when in color. In the examples below, for me with the black and white image, you can see detail. With the black and white you get much more of a feeling of the light, especially hitting the center of the plant. The sense of quiet presence is stronger in the black and white. Black and white helps move my creative process. The color shot has the same curves and lines but with the magic of black and white, I can accentuate the things I want you to see. No matter how I lit the color photo I would not get that same elegance and grace from this shot.  

What started as an experiment in converting color to black and white has become a way of seeing for me. I continued working in this monotone space to help me get better at this new concept. I found using the wide tonality available made it easier for me to flesh out what I wanted to say and express my own creativity and style. Now I know that this is the best way for me to express my art. 

Ratios are simply fractions.
I can hear the groans from here—everyone loved fractions in school, right?

This is one of those cases where simple is good and complicated is not. I’ll keep this as straightforward as possible and point you toward more information if you’d like to go deeper.

In photographic prints, the photographer chooses a crop that best supports the composition of the image. This usually happens after the photograph has been uploaded to a computer. When a file comes directly from the camera, it typically starts with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

From there, the artist decides how the photograph wants to live as a print.

I tend to work with standard aspect ratios because they make printing, framing, and displaying photographs much easier. One of the most familiar examples is the 8×10 print. Most people have seen, owned, or framed an 8×10 photograph at some point.

An 8×10 print is eight inches by ten inches (or ten by eight, depending on orientation). This size corresponds to a 4:5 ratio, meaning the simplified fraction is ⅘. Once you understand that relationship, the sizing becomes predictable. If you double the dimensions of an 8×10, you arrive at a 16×20 print.

So if you see one of my photographs offered as an 8×10 and are interested in a larger print, the next size in that same ratio would be 16×20. Aspect ratios allow photographers, printers, and collectors to work with exact measurements while preserving the integrity of the image.

Below are some common aspect ratios and the photographic print sizes that correspond to them.

Common Aspect Ratios and Print Sizes (in inches)

1:1 ratio
Common print sizes: 6×6, 12×12

1:2 ratio
Common print sizes: 6×12, 8×16

3:2 ratio
Common print sizes: 2×3, 6×9, 12×18, 16×24, 20×30

5:4 ratio
Common print sizes: 8×10, 16×20, 24×30

6:5 ratio
Common print sizes: 10×12, 20×24

7:5 ratio
Common print sizes: 5×7, 10×14, 20×28

^[1] Emily Henderson has some excellent articles to help you avoid making the “Biggest Design Mistakes” How to Hang Art Correctly