Just a couple more nature posts before back to the regular programming 😉 Another location I was pretty excited to visit was Antelope Canyon. We only did the Lower Canyon tour given the timing of everything we had planned for the day and the trip in general. Also, from what I’ve read, the Upper Canyon is a bit better in the summer months to get those shafts of light streaming into the base of the canyon that it’s famous for. I would certainly love to go back and tour both canyons.
This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, though I enjoyed the whole trip and all the destinations even if I didn’t photograph them with anything beyond my iPhone. This location, along with others I’ve shared in these posts, just make for really good abstracts and are something I wanted to be sure to capture in a more artistic way. The rest of the trip, as I discussed in an earlier post, I just wanted to be there experiencing it without distractions.
My kids really loved this location too, it was my son’s favorite until we hiked the very tiresome dunes in Great Sand Dunes National Park, that location will be up next. Both my son and daughter got some great shots with my phone while I was off shooting what you’ll soon see. I’ll share a couple of their shots at the end of the post 🙂
The canyon is far more difficult to shoot than you’d think, given the stark contrast between the bright sky and darkness in the canyon it’s pretty hard to meter well. There’s also very limited time to shoot with all the tour groups. I could seriously spend all day in here, and would love the opportunity to do so completely alone, lol.
Given the lighting conditions, it’s best to avoid including the sky for most shots. All the curves and striations in the rocks make for some really great abstracts and detail shots, as you can imagine. Most images are best in color, for obvious reasons, and the variations in tones are really fascinating depending on how the light hits each area. However, there are a few I prefer in black and white as you’ll see in this next image. One of the few I shot that included the sky, which I just completely blew out to meter properly for the canyon, a good option when you’re in a rush like you are on these tours and depending on where the sun is you don’t have a lot of options to make the images include both the pretty blue sky and the beautiful orange tones of the canyon.





This next one is probably my favorite from the day. Those curves and the gradient from deep orange to yellow is so pretty.

The next two images are in both color and black and white. I think I prefer the BW image but there’s certainly a unique quality to the color version.


In this next image, the guide pointed out how the rock looks like a smiling shark. I’d have to agree 😉





Yes, there was snow in various areas of the canyon and it was pretty chilly. This is the only shot I managed with any of the snow. A nice little touch 😉

As I promised, here are a couple shots from my kids. First up, Avery (11 years old).

Next, Declan (7 years old).

Pretty impressed with their composition skills and they sure did better than I did with the sky!
And there they are 🙂

You can see the rest of the images here. See you again soon for the final nature post for awhile!