Antelope Canyon...photography technique...help!

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to visit the Antelope Canyon in late February. Can anyone
suggest some photography techniques inside the Antelope Canyon (both upper
and lower canyons)?

I know I should bring my cable release and a tripod. But what about the
metering? I know the lighting inside the canyon is quite tricky...

As far as I know...I'll need to join a tour or find a tour guide to visit
the Upper Antelope Canyon...but what about the Lower Antelope Canyon? Can
anyone give me some suggestions? Are the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons
actually located at two different places?

Any other suggestions are appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Janette from Toronto

Janette,

The best photography is done form 10am to 2pm. Need the light directly
overhead to shine down into the slot. Unfortunately winter is not the best
light, IMHO, as is is coming from to low an angle to bounce off the canyon
walls. Also there are no sun rays into the canyon in the winter.

I love shooting in the upper canyon, but it is getting harder every year as
the number of tourist is constantly increasing.

You will need a Tripod! I usually shot 20-30 second time exposures.
The most important thing is to have something to cover you camera with as
there are frequent sand rains. The wind on the surface blows sand into the
canyon and it trickles down on you and your gear. Have had to send in a
couple of lenses for cleaning.

With film, I used to use a 24-80 mm mostly with a 80-400 for tight shots.
Now that I shoot digital, I use a 16-35 and 100-400.


Upper and Lower Antelope canyon entrances are on opposite sides of hwy 89
(I think that is the number).

The Navajo have an entry pay booth on for each canyon. There are separate
entrance fees for each canyon. I think there is a discount if you do both.

You can go to the canyons by private guide
Or
Directly with the Navajo. I always use the Navajo. Their basic rate is for
one hour in the canyon. You can pay extra for more time. I ususally spend
a couple of hours in each canyon.

It is a short walk to the Lower canyon. It is very narrow and has a lot of
up/down climbing. There are several latters it is not usually very
crowded. Lots of nice photo opportunities.

The upper canyon entrance is a couple of miles down a dirt road from the
entry booth. It is on level ground and a lot wider than the lower canyon.
A LOT of people go there.

There are a lot of other, less well known, slot canyons in the area. Most
are on private navajo land. You will need a guide to go them.
Have done a tour to 'Canyon X' and it was nice because there were only three
people in the canyon!

Enjoy,
rich

On 11/28/04 11:07 PM, in article , "Janette
Lo" wrote:

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to visit the Antelope Canyon in late February. Can anyone
suggest some photography techniques inside the Antelope Canyon (both upper
and lower canyons)?

I know I should bring my cable release and a tripod. But what about the
metering? I know the lighting inside the canyon is quite tricky...

As far as I know...I'll need to join a tour or find a tour guide to visit
the Upper Antelope Canyon...but what about the Lower Antelope Canyon? Can
anyone give me some suggestions? Are the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons
actually located at two different places?

Any other suggestions are appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Janette from Toronto

From: "Janette Lo"

I'm planning to visit the Antelope Canyon in late February. Can anyone
suggest some photography techniques inside the Antelope Canyon (both
upper and lower canyons)?

Ah, Antelope Canyon ... that's where I learned the Zone System, learned to love
Velvia and where I met my wife

Feb isn't the best month for the upper canyon because the "shaft of light"
doesn't strike the interior since the sun is too low on the horizon but is fine
for the lower canyon, and you can still get decent images in upper.

I know I should bring my cable release and a tripod. But what about the
metering? I know the lighting inside the canyon is quite tricky.

The light is often too flat and dull so many shots look poor, or at times it's
too contrasty so you can burn out highlights and have little detail in the
shadows. I always use a 1 degree spotmeter in Antelope and constantly take
readings off the areas I want to shoot, looking for "glowing" rocks that are
momentarily lit by light bouncing in. If you have a spot meter in your camera
this will also work for checking the contrast range.

If the range between bright and dark rocks is only 2 stops or so you'll usually
get a flat ugly shot. If it's more than 4-5 stops you'll need to decide what's
important and expose for that. This is typically required to get the "glowing
rocks" images that are striking. Typically I use slide film and meter the
highlights and set them 1 to 1.5 stops over the meter reading and let the
shadow areas fall where they may. Getting the light right is the key to good
images here since it's often too flat.

Couple of other suggestions -- bring a small flashlight to read dials if your
camera doesn't have a backlit display -- bring a couple of plastic bags to
cover your gear since sand often blows in -- learn the reciprocity tables for
your film and bracket around them since typical exposures with Velvia 50 are 4
to 30 seconds and you get a color shift and need a bit of extra exposure time
to counter the reciprocity failure -- the upper canyon is best mid-day, the
lower canyon is good all day as different parts light up, this is because the
upper is deeper and has darker rocks.

If it's overcast there's no point in photographing. If there's a chance of
rain anywhere in the drainage then lower might flood and it's a death trap.
Eleven tourists were killed in a flash flood a few years ago ... so basically
pick a blue sky day for your slot canyon photography.

As far as I know...I'll need to join a tour or find a tour guide to visit
the Upper Antelope Canyon...but what about the Lower Antelope Canyon?

The "rules" change at the whim of the Young family, the Navajos who have
controlling rights over the area. You don't need a tour to the upper part IF
there are Navajos at the gate who will ticket you and give you a ride up the
sandy wash to Upper in their pickup. If the gate is locked you'll need to get
a guide though since they have the key. The Navajo will generally charge you
about 1/2 what the tour costs so that's the way to go, if it's available.

Lower is different, you can park near the entrance and pay and go in (climb
down the ladders). But there may not be someone there to let you in in
February so you might have to contact them via the Chapter House or ask at the
upper gate if they can call.

Are the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons
actually located at two different places?

The entrance to Upper is across the highway about 400 yards from the entrance
to Lower. To actually get to Upper you have to drive up a sandy wash about 1/2
a mile or so. So they are physically separate but the entrances are close.

Any other suggestions are appreciated!

Here are some shots by a photographer who usually does better than this,
showing how flat the images can be when you don't find the glowing light (at
least to me these look pretty bland) ...
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/1p...antelope.shtml

Here are four of my shots from lower Antelope (I never bonded with Upper, too
many people) ... the 2nd and 3rd shots are of the same basic composition as two
of the images on the Luminous Landscape link (2 and 5) but I like my light a
lot better ...
http://members.aol.com/canyonimge/gallery/g_cc.htm ... and here are three more
lower AC shots on this page ...
http://members.aol.com/marlinazul/gallery/g_cc.htm

My advice is to wait for the glow (which comes abruptly and briefly in
different places and then disappears), use a spot meter to avoid burning out
the highlights, shoot at lower early and late and shoot at upper mid-day, and
bracket exposures and with mild warming filters when exposures are much over 1
sec to counter reciprocity failure issues.

You might also check out nearby Waterholes Canyon, which has interesting light
in the winter, and if you're a good hiker then try to get a permit for Coyote
Buttes about an hour away to shoot the Wave.

Have fun.

Bill

In article , Bill Hilton wrote:
Ah, Antelope Canyon ... that's where I learned the Zone System, learned to love
Velvia and where I met my wife

The sequence in which you've placed these three events has not gone unnoticed.
8-)

Roger