SGirimont Photography Blog: The Stories Behind the Images

Antelope Canyon, just outside Page, Arizona on the Navaho Reservation, is one of the most amazing places on the planet. Divided into two sections known as the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, it should be on everyone’s “to see before I die” list.

Created by water over centuries, the sandstone of the area has worn away to form what is known as a “slot canyon” with narrow, steep walls. Unfortunately, because everyone who sees it (like me) says it should be on everyone’s “to see before I die” list, it seems like everyone tries to see it. On the same day.

When we were in Upper Antelope Canyon, there must have been well over 100 people trying to walk around each other in spaces barely 5 feet wide in places. Some areas open up to cathedral-like “rooms” (well, they feel “cathedral-like” after squeezing between narrow spaces for a while), but much of the canyon is narrow and really can’t support that many people at one time. At one point I joked that the canyon wasn’t formed by water after all, but by the backs of tourists rubbing against the sandstone. The reason the canyon gets packed is that there are only about 2 hours in any given day when the sun is in just the right position to send light shining down into the canyon. Everyone trying to see the canyon before they die, tries to be there in that same two-hour period of time.

Consequently, the vast majority of the images I made in the canyon were taken with the camera pointing up, over the heads of the horde of people widening the canyon with their backs. 

Upper Antelope Canyon is generally shaped like a pyramid in that it is narrow up top and wider at the bottom. This means the light comes through a narrow slot and casts deep shadows throughout the canyon. Consequently, the contrast range is rather high in Upper Antelope Canyon, making the use of a tripod and multiple exposures to capture the full tonal range a must.

And to those tourists who were using a flash from their dinky point-and-shoot cameras, ruining many of my shots 25 seconds into a 30-second exposure: may your memory cards get mysteriously wiped clean before you get home. When you visit, turn off the flash!

The second image from my Page, Arizona series is of the Horseshoe Bend canyon which is part of the Glen Canyon/Grand Canyon complex. That’s the Colorado River in the picture; upriver to the right takes you to Glen Canyon and Lake Powell, downstream to the left takes you to the Grand Canyon.

Horseshoe Bend is just three miles or so south of Page, just off the highway. It’s an easy half-mile walk from the parking area to the canyon. If you’re ever in the area, I highly suggest stopping to see it. 

For some reason, most images I see of Horseshoe Bend are taken later in the day, when the sun is high enough to shine directly in the canyon. I don’t think this is the best light in which to photograph practically anything, much less something as majestic as what you see in this image.

Dawn is really the time to be taking pictures here. Most people have previously avoided photographing here at dawn because the contrast difference between the sky and the bottom of the canyon is so high it is very difficult to keep detail in both highlights and shadows. Even though digital photography has pretty much made such high-contrast photography incredibly easy, the participants of the workshop I was attending were the only people present at the bend at sunrise. Others began to walk in by the time we were leaving, by which point the best light was already gone.

The image here is a composite of four images: one exposure for the sky (to keep some color in the sky), one for the sun-lit rocks in the background, one for what I call the “dark mid tones” and one for detail in the shadows. The final image was not assembled using high-dynamic-range software per se, but was instead the result of stacking the four images in Photoshop and using masking techniques to utilize the best parts of each separate exposure. Shot with a Canon 5D, 16-35mm f/2.8 lens and a tripod.

Oh, and if you do end up going to see Horseshoe Bend, please stay away from the edge! For this image, I’m not as close to the edge as you’d think: the tripod was fully extended and the camera was looking down from a high position. The sandstone cliffs around Horseshoe Bend wear away in such a way as to cause the surface rock to hang over the edge like a diving board hangs over a swimming pool. The weight of a person is all it takes to cause the rock to break off and it’s a long way down. I’ve seen pictures of people sitting on the edge; please don’t do this.