May 24, 2023

I finally decided to go back to Antelope Canyon near Page, AZ. I toured Upper Antelope Canyon about 20 years ago on a relaxed photo tour before the advent of social media made all of the great photo spots so popular. Now there are hoards of people going through these canyons daily. People come from around the world. I met a couple from England that had been in the US three weeks visiting a lot of the National Parks. Lower Antelope Canyon requires going down steep stairs of 50-60 feet to get to the bottom of the canyon. The Navajo’s have also built other stairs inside the canyon. Years ago you had to have rock climbing equipment to go through this canyon. The canyon itself is quite narrow in most places compared to the wider and level upper canyon. I had an ideal time of 12:30 when the sun is more directly overhead to give the best color. There were 5 groups of 10 people each assigned to this time so there was little time to linger and look for compositions. Joann stayed in the van while I was gone. The first photo was a sunset on the first night.

These are all iPhone 12 photos. I asked the guide ahead of time about using my SLR Nikon and he said you would really need a much wider angle lens to do any good. Because of the time limits, I was glad to use only one camera. For the most part I tried to keep the sky out of the photos as the bright spots really ruins the colors unless I could get the sky to turn blue. I really love the above photo because of the colors and swirls as it almost looks transparent.

I am not sure exactly how the camera picks up a variety of colors. Some of them result from more shadows that give a purple cast in some cases. The overhead sun provides that best lighting reflected up the walls. Just marvel at the sandstone striations which come from the area being covered in water and the sand deposited in layers millions of years ago. Then more years ago the land was raised up and the water and wind has eroded the canyon into the fantastic shapes that we now see. We are at the bottom of a canyon 70-100 feet deep. I was almost getting dizzy trying to take pictures looking up.

The only way that we had a little time between groups of people was that the guides had favorite spots where they would take photos of people with their cameras. So that slowed down the traffic a little bit, I was always the last one to keep up with the group. In the above photos you can see where water runs in from the top and runs/drips down the walls with sand.

I made a few of the photos into black and white which serves to accentuate the curves and lighting. The one above has a branch that blew in from the top. Please go to the blog to see a few more photos as they look better on a computer screen.

The middle photo looks like it is lying on its side but is really a vertical that the guide pointed out. The last photo is said to depict a Navajo maiden with long following hair.

Hope that you have enjoyed these photos.