Antelope Canyon in November...

[David Hedley]

A recent picture from Lower Antelope Canyon:

[DavidFisk]

When you're in Page, don't forget to make a quick trip to Horseshoe Bend...about two or three miles or so below the Glen Canyon Dam, on the Colorado River. It's a spectacular overlook...bring a WIDE lens.

And by "wide", this means a 58. A 75 won't get the whole thing in.

[Kirk Keyes]

I find Lower Antelope more interesting. Here's a shot of mine from a few years ago, shot in October:



I suggest planning on getting there around 9 am and staying until 2 or so. The light is constantly changing and different parts of the canyon are illuminated at different times.

[joolsb]

When I was there in November last year, Lower Antelope was closed for the season due to the dangerous state of the ladders after recent flashfloods. Pity, really. Upper Antelope was amazing but crowded at times.

[Eric Leppanen]

I also visited Antelope in November, and could also only visit Upper Antelope due to the ladder problem. The crowd situation is becoming more challenging photographically than the canyon itself. Many good shots (the corkscrew, etc.) involve shooting up at or near the top of the canyon, so LF is feasible even with the crowds (although the canyon is so narrow in spots that even one photographer blocks the canyon, and you'll have impatient people waiting for you to finish your time exposures). However, if you want to get light beam shots during the spring and summer months, then shooting LF may be all but impossible. One light beam occurred during my November visit, and once it started there was a mad scramble of photographers jostling for position, the flashes of their point-and-shoot cameras repeatedly going off (even though the guides request that you not use flash). Setting up an LF camera on a tripod, let alone making time exposures, was absolutely impossible under such circumstances. Given that prime light beam season is much more crowded than November, I suspect that shooting digital may be the only way to photograph, not because of the canyon, but because of the crowds.

The owners of the canyons are nice people, and they (and the guides they've hired or contract out to) did a good job in my brief experience. However, the canyons are of course an income source for them in a geographic area that is struggling economically, so they are incentivized to fill the canyons up with paying customers as much as possible. Getting a day-long dedicated photographer's tour (available for something like $180 or so) might be a bit better, but I am concerned that so many tours are going on that there will virtually never be a time when the canyons are empty, especially when light beams are present.

Film-wise, color shooters may want to consider color neg rather than chrome. I shot Provia 100F (Fatali shot his famous images with Velvia so I figured what the heck) and ended up using exposures in the 30 second to one-minute range, and the lighting was so extreme that the film really couldn't capture everything. Plus there was little time for exposure bracketing due to the crowd situation. The more sophisticated digital folks were shooting multiple exposures and planning the blend them in Photoshop.

I may visit Antelope again during light beam season if I can find a guide who can to some extent avoid the crowds, otherwise I'll wait until I get a decent digital capture system.

[joolsb]

Thanks Eric. This was precisely my experience. I was shooting Velvia 50 and had one exposure of around eight minutes with a constant flow of people walking past. Luckily, they didn't stay in one place long enough to register...

I wonder if the answer might be to shoot in the lower canyon? Due to the accessibility issues, I don't think this is anywhere near as popular but I'd welcome the views of somebody who's had the chance of shooting there...

[scott_6029]

The sun is low in horizon, it is not by any means the best time of the year. In fact it is terrible. I would skip it and hire Jackson Bridges (local photog and tour guide) to take you elsewhere, without hesistation.