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Chasing the Light in Lower Antelope Canyon

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Upper Antelope Canyon, Lower Antelope Canyon, and Canyon X, all part of the Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, have become world-famous destinations for photographers.   The Upper Antelope Canyon is famous for it’s light beams in the summer months when the sun is directly overhead.   Lower Antelope Canyon is not known for light beams, but its canyon walls are famous for their flowing shapes and patterns that can be beautifully lit in shades of purple, red, orange, and yellow.   

 

The signature rock formation in Lower Antelope Canyon is called the “Woman in the Wind”, as it looks like the figure of a woman leaning into the wind as her hair blows backward. I was lucky to get this image on a late afternoon tour when the lighting was dim but evenly lit in this part of the Canyon.

 

The Navajo tour companies no longer offer photo tours in the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons.  They also do not allow any bags or tripods on these general tours.   They still do offer a photo tour for Canyon X, and which allows the use of tripods.   If you bring a stand alone camera to take photos in the canyon, I recommend you use a camera strap or shoulder sling, as you will want to have your hands free for navigating the more narrow passageways as well as going up and down the stairs and ladders.

 

Access to the downstream end of the Lower Antelope Canyon is down a set of six installed stairwells and ladders.

 

Photography in the canyon is very dependent upon the light.  To get vibrant colors, you need reflected light from a clear sunny day.  However, when the sun is highest overhead, it will shine directly down on the lower canyon walls and canyon floor, creating uneven lighting and hotspots.  Timing your visit to catch the best light, which in May meant either in the early morning or late afternoon, is critical.  This post is a mix of images I took on a cloudy day and on a sunny day.   Each offers different opportunities.   This area is called the “Lion’s Den” as the rock formation on the lower right looks like the head and mane of a male lion.  

 

This image of the Lion’s Den was taken on a cloudy day. There was no direct light (or hot spots), and not much reflected light. As a result, less color but relatively even, lower contrast lighting.    A second point to highlight here is that there are many people touring in front and behind you the whole time. You will have to work to get shots without people in the frame. Your tour guide will not let you linger waiting for a view without people. I don’t know if its better to be at the back or front of your group, I tried both and had stretches of good and bad luck with both strategies.

 

One of my navajo guides telling me to catch up with the group (while I was using the “back-of-the-bunch” strategy).    Oops, my bad!!   LOL, this happened a lot.  

 

People in your photo can add interest (I like the hat, as it stands out)  as well as scale, which is often difficult to discern in the canyon.  on the cloudy day, I took a single exposures for each scene, making sure I was not blowing out any highlights.

 

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For the sunny day, I shot a high-speed burst of three bracketed exposures for each image to capture the range of light.  I set my camera mode to manual, but Aperture Priority with some exposure compensation applied may actually be the best technique.  I found I could blend two of the three images and get a good result, picking two for each scene that gave me the best range of light for processing.   The yellow areas where direct light was on the canyon walls is very bright compared to the areas of red reflected light.

 

Some light sneaking into the canyon during a mostly cloudy day.

 

Curves in the passageways often were great places to catch shapes and reflected light.

 

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Looking up to the sky often was often some of the most stunning views. Flowing, curving canyon walls and lots of colors.   And bonus, never any people in those shots!

 

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A fun spot in a small archway where the guides stop to take your picture with your camera if you want it.

 

The indigenous peoples of the area, such as the Navajo and the Hopi, believe these canyons are sacred and hold much positive energy from the earth and their ancestors.   Our guide, Ben, a member of the Hopi Tribe, wanted to share the positive energy of the canyon and sang us a Native American honor song. It was amazingly beautiful and a bit haunting. As he was singing, the wind kicked up, as if he had summoned the forces of nature, and sand started raining down into the canyon from above.   The wind and sand continued for the remaining portion of our tour, creating a magical environment as we walked through clouds of sand and reflecting light beams on our way out of the canyon.

 

One of a number of places where sand started blowing down into the canyon and was reflecting light in the canyon.

 

One of the light beams we had to walk through on our way out of the canyon. When I toured the Upper Antelope Canyon and Canyon X back in 2013, the guides always had to grab some sand from the canyon floor and toss it in the air in order to get the sun beams to show up well enough to photograph them. This time, it felt mystical and spiritual, as it was all mother nature doing the work.  It was a surprise, because the Lower Antelope Canyon is not known for having light beams.

 

 

Exiting on the stairs at the end of the upstream end of the canyon.

 

 

 

View of the upstream exit to the canyon from above. As you can see, the top of the canyon is very narrow in this area, and it may be why we were seeing the light beams in this end of the canyon. This image was taken on an earlier tour when the skies were much more clouded and rainstorms were passing through the area.

 

 

Please visit my Lower Antelope Canyon gallery to see more of my favorite images from my two trips here chasing the light!   

 

 

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