Antelope Canyon. This is a strange experience ...
The canyon is part of the Navaho Nation Lands and all tours are operated by Navaho businesses.
We are booked on a “photography tour” which means we can spend two hours with a guide and our cameras and tripods. In my naïveté I think that this means we will be undisturbed while we photograph. Little do I know!
The trip starts with a ride up a sandy riverbed in a 4WD driven by a Navaho guide who barely grunts at us to get into the car. We go about 2 miles and only manage to get bogged once.
When we arrive there are about 5 other tour trucks there as well. It turns out that the only difference between a “photography” tour and “normal” tour is that it is twice as expensive and the guide doesn’t give a monologue on the cultural significance of each rock but gives you tips on photography and where to set up your camera!
The canyon is actually quite small, about 50m long and between 1 and 2 metres wide but about 20m tall. There are up to 100 people in there at one time in various groups passing each other going in different directions. We don’t have to keep moving as long as we keep our tripods out of the way. Surprisingly it is also quite dark so it is difficult to see our camera controls. In addition the top of the canyon is of course open and out in the desert where there is a strong wind blowing sand into the canyon constantly. For this reason the cameras have to be put in plastic bags with a hole cut for the lens so we can’t even feel the controls properly. And to add insult to injury the best places for views is from hard up against the canyon walls at floor level so you can’t even get your eye to the viewfinder to see what you are photographing. And then to top it off I accidentally move some controls on the camera and I can’t see properly what has been done to correct it.
This is turning out to be quite stressful ... I feel the need to make the expense and time worthwhile but it is not turning out all that well as I can’t see well enough to know if the photos are turning out OK and the time is racing by so it’s a matter of just keep shooting and hope for the best.
Before we know it time is up and we are heading back to the hotel to see what we managed to accomplish.
I find I have photos with great composition and photos with great focus and photos with great light ... just not the same photos. The ones with good focus are poorly composed and have terrible light etc. etc. etc. ...
Out of the 273 exposures there are perhaps 2 which might turn out OK !!
This one is known as the Navaho waterfall
And this one (normally the other way up) is the heart chamber, but I like it this way as "Anubis"
It’s still a great experience in this quite unique setting ... photos are a bonus.
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