On my first trip to photograph the north rim of the Grand Canyon I went with my friend and, old roommate, Bob. We drove up there in my 69 Chrysler Imperial. This was my Grandfather’s pride and joy. Bob called it the first motor home because of the size of the car. We went to the different points along the north rim inside the park. Walhalla Overlook is real close to Cape Royal. I really liked Walhalla Overlook for two reasons. It had a great look out of the canyon and of Vishnu Temple. The other and more important reason for me was the old pinion pine in the foreground of the image. The tree was growing almost right out of the rocks very little soil. The tree was doing well even though branches had been broken off or died. The other thing I noticed about the tree that people had carved their names into it. The tree was a survivor and a fighter and that added to the charm of this old pinion pine.
The lighting when we came to this spot was not what I wanted but I knew that I wanted to photograph this spot with this tree in the foreground because of its character. I didn’t photograph this overlook this trip. I did photograph it in the morning several trips later but the sky was clear and I didn’t like what I got. Then one trip the sky was stormy and that was what I had in mind for the image because of this old pinion pine. I was in the area and shot this image of Walhalla Overlook with this old pinion pine. I really like this image because of the sky and how it complements the pinion pine. It was several years when I first saw this viewpoint until I shot an image that I was please with.