Sunday, April 27, 2008

Antelope Canyon

Yesterday we visited amazing Antelope Canyons near Page, AZ. First thing in the morning we went to Lower Antelope Canyon - it's hole in the middle of the desert that you have to get in. Bottom of this rock formation is narrow and up is a bit wider, so there's a lot of light, but walking through the canyon is difficult. Sometimes we had to use ladders and took down backpacks to fit into the holes. Although it was hard to find place to set up the tripod, we somehow managed to do it. Unfortunately it seemed to be very crowded and even when we set up tripods it took ages to wait for the moment when nobody was in the field. Later it appeared that Lower Antelope was virtually not crowded at all - comparing to Upper Antelope. Somehow we took few pictures and left the canyon for Upper Antelope Phototour reserved with Antelope Canyon Tours . This was special photographic tour lasting 2 hours and dedicated to people focusing only on taking pictures.
Open truck took us from the parking near the office and transported directly to the Upper Antelope entrance. What I saw there was frustrating - about 15 other trucks - about 12 people in every of them - it means over 200 people in the canyon at once! Unbelievable!
I figured out our mistake - it was Saturday and all the people came here at the same time! The only thing that was good for us was the time of the tour - 2 hours instead of 30 minutes that regular tours last. Ok, we entered the canyon with indian guide and started photographing this petrified sand dune created by water and wind. And suddenly we realized that it's impossible to take even single good picture! It was so crowded that you couldn't find a place for tripod, not mentioning to plan any good shot. We had two hours and didn't take too many pictures in this time, because of people and nature of light. After all see it yourself...

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