Antelope Canyon is possible of the most famous, most visited and most photographed slot canyon in the world. Of course, with plenty of good reasons. It is located in the Navajo Nation near Page, Arizona. It's fantastic formation is caused by thousands years of sandstone erosion, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to other processes, such as rainfalls. The light ray lit up the canyon through the narrow slots makes it one the most spectacular place on earth.
We visited to the Upper Antelope Canyon at the end of September. In order to visit the Antelope Canyon, you have to join the guided tour lead by the park office or one of the authorized guided tour company. We joined the 2.5 hours photographic tour lead by the Overland Canyon Tours. The extended tour allowed you to have more time to take photo inside the canyon, with the use of tripod allowed. If you want to photographed the Antelope Canyon, I strongly recommend you to join the photographic tour instead of the sightseeing tour. The canyon is always filled up by visitors (yes, I really mean filled up!) and you need more times to take good picture.
Not surprisingly, there are plenty of good photography tips online. To list a few here:
Of course, I have a few handy tips as well:)
First, if you have two cameras - great! One with wide angle lens and one with telephoto lens. If not, use the widest angle lens you owned and never ever change the lens inside the canyon, you don't want the sand get inside the sensor. When we came out of the canyon, my clothes, bag, cameras are all cover with sand, and my gray hiking shoes turn into red!
Second, bracket all your shots! The high contrast inside the canyon might give you a really tough time during post-processing. I use manual blending to post-process almost all my pictures (I will talk about this in the future post). However, I don't recommend HDR, which give weird color to the resulting picture.
Third, take your time to explore the canyon. Someone might told you that everyone can take the best shot inside the canyon, without even looking at the viewfinder. I agree that the canyon is spectacular in all sense, but to create a good (or great) shot, you have to take time to search for nice composition - light, shape and pattern. And how to fit these elements in your frame is essential. So, take your time, you might find something interesting and unique!
I love Upper Antelope Canyon! This is a fantastic place and definitely one of the most beautiful place I have ever visited on earth. I will talk more about the trip in the upcoming post:) Stay tuned!
