Bright Angel Point Sunset

As the COVID-19 quarantine drags on, I’ve been finding I have time for projects I never thought I’d get around to. Like checking out content on old computer hard drives. One of the drives contained images from a two-week road trip in 1999. One of which was this shot of Bright Angel Point. These were some of the first images I took with a digital camera, a Kodak DC260. That camera had a small sensor, so images were only 1,536 x 1,024 pixels. The quality of the images is great for posting and sharing online. However, they are not suitable for printing anything larger than 4″ x 6″. 

Back in 1999, I was not familiar with post-processing digital images. Early digital cameras did not include iso, aperture, and shutter speed controls. Also, the fixed lens was adequate but could not be interchanged with other lenses with higher quality optics. Therefore, it was not easy for me to control the quality of the images in-camera and I found myself losing interest in the digital format.

I completely forgot about the images I took with the Kodak camera. However, stumbling upon them recently has allowed me to breathe new life into those photos. Since taking those images I have gained 20+ years of experience with Photoshop and Lightroom. This experience has allowed me to pull out details hidden in these photos and salvage much that I had previously written off. 

The stay-at-home order has now been extended until May 15th. It appears I’ll continue to have time to salvage other images, in addition to this one from Bright Angel Point. I look forward to sharing more in the coming days as I work through the tons of photos I took during that two-week trip.