Jean and I drove an extra couple of hundred miles to reach this “photographer’s Heaven” at Page, Arizona on the border of Utah and beside the shores of Lake Powell, the huge lake created by Glen Dam.
Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon meaning it is very narrow and only a trickle of sunlight gets into the depths of the canyon. Slot canyons in “red rock” country present the photographer with a magic palate of reds through violets—unfortunately our eyes don’t see the colors until you take a long exposure, sometimes in the minutes; fortunately with digital cameras, you check your camera’s images as you go. I used ISO 100-200, bracketed exposures of 0,+1, and +2 stops.
The weather is hot as usual here in Arizona as we crowd into the Suburban driven by our bright, experienced Navajo guide for the easy drive to the trail head. Our trusty leader Irene, shoves it into four-wheel drive for the next five miles to the mouth of the canyon.(The sandy, corrugated, bumpy road would not even be a decent trail).
We are a special photographers’ group—that allows experienced guides such as Irene more time to show us all the little corners where amazing photographs lurk.
Once inside, we enjoy a moment of calm while Irene orients us to the situation. First, patience is of the greatest importance because the canyon is so narrow, sometimes barely one person wide and there are many other groups with their tripods extended coming through the short 200 yards where it all happens and then returning the same way they came in.
Second, protect your equipment (and contact lenses) from sand and dust falling from above.
Then the frenzy begins—Irene leads you to a photogenic spot and seven tripods go down and seven heads bend over the monitors. Nobody speaks, but each is intent on creating a superior image. Since the canyon is only wide enough for two or three tripods abreast, one rank stands tall, the next at about 4 feet high, and finally the last on their knees. The light is changing by the minute—so Irene is teaching us how to chase the sunbeams descending from openings above.
Then the frenzy begins—Irene leads you to a photogenic spot and seven tripods go down and seven heads bend over the monitors. Nobody speaks, but each is intent on creating a superior image. Since the canyon is only wide enough for two or three tripods abreast, one rank stands tall, the next at about 4 feet high, and finally the last on their knees. The light is changing by the minute—so Irene is teaching us how to chase the sunbeams descending from openings above.
But then Irene shows us a new twist. (I am carrying two Panasonic 10 megapix Lumixes with Leica lenses and image stabilization—one on a tripod with 24 mm lens, the other handheld 28 mm lens.) When she sees I have a second camera, she says,”grandpa, let me borrow your camera.” Before I can think about it, she grabs it goes down flat on her stomach, shoots a series of pictures, then gets up and proudly shows us all a beautiful scene none of us knew was there.
She liked her results with my camera so much that she ran off pointing it here and there, seemly at random, but locations she knew were worthy photo ops, and proudly showing all us how it’s done. I didn’t know if I would see my camera again! But then it occurred to me, those beauties were my beauties now, on my memory chip. I changed the battery in the camera and handed it back to her saying, “There are still 954 pictures left to take.” (There was a 4 gb memory chip in the camera.) She laughed and went off shooting like crazy.
As you are looking at these images (and clicking on each one to see it at a reasonable size, usually 12” at 72 p/i), it is difficult to understand the orientation. The first 8 photos are taken more or less horizontal, you see people and the sandy canyon path in the pictures.
But starting with number 9, we are looking up almost vertically, searching for “cork screws”, “waves”, “Montezuma’s sunsets”, etc. Surprising patterns and forms emerge, hard to associate with cold sandstone in a little 200 yard long slot canyon in the middle of a hot, dry deseert.
The experience of shooting in Antelope Canyon, though not as extended, certainly is at the same level of photography as recording the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival.
Without Photoshops “shadow and highlight” adjustment, one would need to be much more clever in shooting and finishing the images to tame the 8 to 10 stops of light intensity in the canyon. I have not increased the saturation or added color to any of these pictures. My procedure was generally to use iPhoto’s levels and exposure adjustment and then shadow and highlight in Photoshop, and finally a mild sharpening (unsharp mask: 70, 2.4, 16). The pixels were reduced to about 800 0r 900 in the longest dimension (12” at 72) so the pictures will download quickly on your computer.
Have you ever seen a sunset like this one?
