What kind of light makes for good Photography?

I had to take a detour from the Arizona trip report... I got tired of working through all the images and had nothing clever to add (what?). Those of you who cheated ahead on flickr probably found the best stuff was from Antelope canyon in Page, Arizona:











Upper Antelope canyon is one place where midday bright sunny skies actually work to your advantage. You need the clear skies and midday light to get the brilliant (but not so original) lightbeam shots from down inside the canyons...more on this later. Most other times cloudy and overcast may get you the mood you need for a shot even if its in the middle of the afternoon. This shot from Baxter State park in Maine would have sucked had it been clear, sunny, midday skies. If you think it sucks anyway, well it would have sucked even more in midday sunshine :)











So be careful what you wish for on your photo adventures, I'll take a mix of crap and hopefully some good weather over all "bright and sunny" myself!