International Photographers Association of Los Angeles 洛杉磯國際攝影家協會

Glad you finally made the trip. Must be quite exciting. Look for more great pix from your trip.
Attach a couple of pix that I took in 09 seeking inpput. Thanx.

色彩和清晰度都不错。按Yuhong的说法，大峡谷出大片就看有没有云啦。我们也没有赶上。下回吧？

Thanks. For some reason, with my Nikon D-200 plus the travel-friendly lens (18-200mm VR) at the time, RAW conversion came with a lot of noise than the camera-output jpeg.
You guys are right about the clouds. However, travel always heavily relies on luck. Even clouds, they must come at the right place and right time. Sometimes they can be more than you wish for. The day before our Sunrise shots, we hiked down on Kaibab Trail about 4+ miles. We didn't start early enough thus even with background clouds, the canyon looked rather flat (I mean lighting-wise), i.e. after 11am. Then......
Eventually we were hit by a storm (I shot the picture under a big rock). Luckily it was brief, ha ha......

yeah, I was very excited as I finally got the chance to see the Canyon.

You got some really nice photos there. They were shot from almost the same spot as mine. The light conditions were similar too. As JD mentioned, I would like to see clouds over the canyon. Clouds will create the dramatic lighting we are looking for. Without the cloud, I would only leave 10-20% of the canvas space to the empty sky...

我和JD还说呢，下次有机会一定要航拍...

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Thank you for your kind word. I wish to have more time learning more photoshop skills from you and your colleague experts. I posted my pix and really wished for receipt of inputs. I am looking for "Change", a borrowed word (as early as in Nixon era, seen in Nixon Library), LOL.
So you also waited for Sunrise at Yaki Point. No doubt nice clouds in most of these red rock countries including Grand Canyon, Zion, Monument Valley, or Bryce Canyon would make shooting much more fun and satisfying. Unfortunately clouds are not that easy to come by in these locations thus luck is a must. Maybe retirement plus RV will help but unfortunately by that time our joints will not hold up that well.
Grand Canyon is a huge mega place. It is a world wonder. However, besides seeing it on the rims, the trails leading down into the canyon are not easy. Last time during the Salon gathering, someone mentioned lift by chopper from Phantom Ranch but it turned out to be not true. Only such lift available is for medical emergency and costs about $3,500 thus small touring flight should be much cheaper and rewarding, ha ha...... Generally only three ways people can get to the bottom, i.e. own two-legs, mule ride or chopper ride. From the bottom, you will see 1-mile high mountains vs the typical canyon views. The hiking is a really tough one. I probably will not do another day-trip like we did in 09.