Jeff Lautenberger

Sunset View Point - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

Here are a couple more scans from my spring break trip, this time from the relatively under-appreciated Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I say under-appreciated mainly because I’d simply never heard of the place or imagined how a canyon in the middle of Colorado could be impressive enough to deserve a national park designation. Having just come from the Grand Canyon two days prior, needless to say I was prepared to be underwhelmed. I was wrong. The sheer thousand-foot drops were different from the more gradual progressions of the Grand Canyon, and even more visually stunning because of the fresh snow and warm evening light. You can see some digital shots of Black Canyon here.

Devils Lookout - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

Delicate Arch - Arches National Park, Utah

I’m just now getting around to scanning film from my spring break trip to the Western U.S. This was shot on Ektachrome 100VS and scanned on a Nikon Coolscan IV ED. I retained the black frame that appears naturally when scanning slide film. I’ll be updating a few more slides to this blog over the coming days, but you can see all of my digital shots here.

While this particular rock formation is probably the most photographed in the entire park, it involved quite a hike to reach and a constant battle with the fast-changing light. On top of that, hanging onto the ledge of a rock face while battling 30-mph winds and 40º temperatures made it seem pretty badass.