Shapes in Antelope Canyon

It is more then a year since I visited Page, Arizona, just for the excitement of taking some photos in Antelope Canyon. I have seen beautiful images of this place on various blogs, including Scott Kelby’s. I had those visions of unique images I will take there. And I came back … disappointed.
There is a number of issues to work around to get good images in Antelope Canyon.

1. People – I was there at the beginning of May, and the tour was full. And, as you can imagine, slot canyon is not the widest place. Photographing to the sides is out of questions, only up. Is a photographic tour an option? Well, there was one happening the same time we were there, so we were passing them by back and forth- I would say it is not any better in this regard.

2. Contrast – best light for the Canyon is midday. It creates great contrast between the sky/sun peeking through openings, and the shadows of spots the light is not reaching. If I ever go again, I will try composing to choose just evenly lit spaces, and/or bracket exposures, maybe to merge HDR.

3. Darkness – overall lack of light requires higher ISO, which gives noise. Especially when I was still using my old, good D40. The best solution would be the tripod, allowed only on photo trip. Which seems to be good for something, after all.

If you are planning of visiting Antelope Canyon sometimes, consider those points and maybe you will come back more excited about your photographs.