Antelope Slot Canyon

[Almark]

Hi Folks!

After a boat trip up Antelope Valley, the day before, I expected the early morning sun to create great shadows on the walking trip up Antelope Valley. We had been told it was a mile hike and strong strudy shoes were needed.

But what I didn't know was this was the 'Slot' canyon and therefore was very, very dark and only really got the sun at midday. Indeed the very experienced guide on seeing I had a DSLR kept pointing (and laughing) out the best place to set up my tripod, (which I clearly did not have with me) and kept telling me I had come at the wrong time, and that to get decent shots a tripod was essential!

What could I do but laugh! Once he saw that I was not going to through my teddy bear out of the cot, he smiled and explained that at this time of year the sun will only come through the well known hole at 2.15pm. He went on the outline that he normally sets up his photographers in a semi circle at a certain point, and then throws up hand fulls of sand to create the dust to be caught by the sun.

As I didn't have a tripod I was forced to use ISO 1600 to 3200 to get enough light for hand held. Thank goodness for the Nikon VR lens that allowed me to get some images at 1/15 sec.

So, some pleasant music and images, I hope you like it.

http://www.almark.net/photos/ant.exe

[JEB]

Mark,

Thank you for sharing your show with us. I thought I would just have it on in the background while doing other things but found myself fixed to the screen. I felt I could almost touch and sense the place - fantastic. I don't know if I will ever make it there but you have just raised the stakes as it were. I'll leave the wife but take a tripod!

John

[jfa]

Your images are very good considering the ISO used. May I ask Mark if they are as from the camera or have you worked on them very much?

Liked the show, music added to the mood very well.

Thanks for letting us look at your show.

[LumenLux]

Nice work Mark! I have seen myriad photos of Antelope Canyon, and yours hold up as a quality interpretation of the subject.

Though I consider Antelope Canyon to be a close destination for me, I have never visited, photographed yet. I first heard of it in the early days of the internet via a photographer from Germany (or was it France?). I have since realized that many of the photographic "shrines" in the western USA get almost more attention from abroad than from those of us here in the "neighborhood." That said, your presentation shows again that the area is an attractive path for any photographer. And I have shot enough in similar slot canyons to know how good you did in this one.

I think you did marvelous without using a tripod. And I will tell you there are many photographers, who do less well - with or without a tripod. And some of those slot canyons offer & require positions that a tripod can't work anyway.

Thanks for sharing your experience via PTE.

[Almark]

Hi Folks, and thank you for your comments.

JEB: bring the wife and a tripod! She will just love the canyon, mine certainly did - even when everyone was ready to go and she had to venture back in search for me (still taking photos!)

jfa: I made some mistakes, I had my camera on 'vivid' and when using such a high ISO you tend to get really over saturated images, with blues and purples that were not there at the time. So I did some work on each image to reduce the saturation, as it was OTT in some cases, and also used some noise reduction (DFine2). Finally I darkened some of the corners and removed one hot red pixel from the darkest shots. So in answer to your question, yes I did some work on them but in most cases it was to reduce saturation rather than to boost it. (Images taken with a Nikon D300 in 14bit lossless raw). At one stage I changed from my 18-200VR to a prime 50 f/1.8, I thought it was so dark that the prime lens would help. After a few attempts I realised I could not zoom into the features and it simply wasn't working, so I changed back. Some of the images were taken looking straight up, at quite a distance.

LumenLux: These photos were taken on a tour of the 'National Parks and Canyons' organised by a firm called Archers here in the UK. Out of the 40 on the coach at least half were from the US. The USA is so vast that there is so much to see, this was my second time on the same trip! We had 20ft snow drifts in Yellowstone, multiple layers, Gortex jackets and wrapped up warm. We saw Grizzley's, Elk, day old bison, wolves circling the bison to get the afterbirth, Moose, Deer, Antelope and so on...

Thank you all for your comments, I will post Bryce Canyon soon.