Antelope Canyon is one of the must visit locations for photographers. Yes it is one of the most photographed canyons in the United States, but there is a good reason for that. Antelope Canyon is absolutely a gorgeous place for photography.
Antelope Canyon is at once one of the most breathtaking and tranquil places on earth. Gently carved from the Navajo sandstone over the course of countless millenniums, the slot canyons are majestic and narrow passages, just enough space for a small group to walk the sandy floor – and for the occasional shafts of sunlight to shine down from above.
To older Navajos, entering a place like Antelope Canyon was like entering a cathedral. They would probably pause before going in, to be in the right from of mind and prepare the protection and respect. This would also allow them to leave with an uplifted feeling of what Mother Nature has to offer, and to be in harmony with something greater than themselves. It was (and is) a spiritual experience.
Upper Antelope Canyon – Page Arizona
Cost:
Fees vary with the tour provider that you choose and the length of the tour. A regular tour will run around $30.00, most of the photo tours will run around $50.00 per person.
Best Time to Visit:
The best time of the year to visit is in the spring or fall when there are fewer tourists. One of the biggest obstacles of photographing the canyon is to not have people walking through your shot.
Where it is:
Just outside of Page Arizona a small town located on the southern shores of Lake Powell.
Directions:
Most of the tours will leave from the tour offices located in Page, where they will provide transportation to the canyon. You can also drive to the Entrance Station from March to October, located on Hwy 98 4 miles east of Page Arizona.
Map:
Links:
ANTELOPE CANYON-LAKE POWELL NAVAJO TRIBAL PARK
Antelope Canyon Tours
Page and Lake Powell Tourism
Geology Antelope Canyon was formed by erosion of Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to other sub-aerial processes. Rainwater, especially during monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon sections, picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. Over time the passageways are eroded away, making the corridors deeper and smoothing hard edges in such a way as to form characteristic ‘flowing’ shapes in the rock.Flooding in the canyon still occurs. A flood occurred on October 30, 2006 that lasted 36 hours, and caused the Tribal Park Authorities to close Lower Antelope Canyon for five months.
GPSCoordinates 36° 51′ 28″ N, 111° 22′ 20″ W
Decimal 36.857778, -111.372222
Tips for the Photographer
Equipment: It is very low light conditions when shooting in the canyon, you will absolutely need a good tripod and use a cable release or self timer. A wide angle lens is needed to shoot inside the canyon since it twists and turns and you cannot back away to get the shot.Bring plenty of extra batteries, long exposures will drain batteries faster.
What to Photograph:
The magnificent sandstone shapes, with the light and shadows working in the canyon to create a wonderland full of fantastic color.
Photography Tips:
Shoot using available light, do not use a flash (doing so will wipe out all of the fantastic color and shadows and make for a very flat boring image of rocks) Exposure times will be in seconds in many parts of the canyon. Use a small aperture for depth of field and a low ISO for a good sharp image. If you are shooting digital, use the LCD and the histogram to check exposure, the histogram will show if you are totally under or over exposing areas in the scene. Do not shoot up into the sky through the top of the canyon.This is one of the exceptions to shooting in the golden hour, the best time of day is actually when the sun is directly overhead, and not overcast. At around noon you can shoot shafts of light coming down into the canyon. Be sure to throw a little dust into the air to make the light beam show up well.
Notes
There is no hiking or climbing involved, only easy walking on the Canyon floor which is level for the most part.
Photographic Tour
Antelope Canyon is only open through a tour operator authorized by the Navaho Nation.
Antelope Canyon Photo Gallery
Click Here for full page gallery
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Great Places for Great Photos
Let me help you to find a great location for your next photography adventure. I will list many lesser-known destinations, as well as the famous "Icon Locations" for photography. I will provide photos (Lots of Photos), location information, consisting of what there is to photograph as well as other information about the destination. I will give costs, maps, directions, contact information, and other essential information for a successful photo trip. I will only post for locations that I have personally photographed to ensure a quality guide to great locations for photography. If you know of great places that are not posted, please send me the details, I may just decide that is a place I need to go!
Greg Disch is a freelance photographer located in Arkansas. Greg specializes in nature, scenic, wildlife, and other outdoor subjects in Arkansas and other areas of the country. Most of the images on this site are available for sale as prints, personal use, or rights managed stock photos.
Greg offers both classroom instruction and in the field hands on photographic workshops. Classroom sessions are normally held in Fort Smith Arkansas, but arrangements can be made to bring a class to your group.
All classes and workshops have small class sizes designed to provide an optimum student to instructor ratio, where you can get the personal attention, you need. Most classes and workshops are limited to a maximum of six participants and will be held with a minimum of only two.
If you are looking for a wonderful opportunity to get personal individual instruction, I do private workshops and classes at a location of your choice, whether doing a location photo shoot, coming to your home or business, traveling across the country on a road trip, or at my classroom. This is a fantastic way to learn digital workflow and be sure that your computer equipment is properly configured for optimum performance.
Hi, Greg,
I’ve visited the Lower Antelope Canyon and would like to thank you for the info here. Here you can find my pictures. http://colormaniac.smugmug.com/Landscapes/antelopecanyon2010/12278716_5xjV9#875720708_Lxa7A. To make your page more informative, I’d like to add the following:
It costs me $26 to get a photographer’s permit for 4 hours. In between their tours, I have about 15-20 minutes to take pictures. (If someone spends more than 4 hours, he/she would get charged for extra!)
It seems that the Upper Antelope has a much bigger entrance opening. And there is the “sunbeam spot” that the Lower Antelope doesn’t have. Some parts of the Canyon are very narrow and it could be hard for a big guy to squeeze through.
Sometimes sands come down from above like rain. I used Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens. Now I have to send it back to Canon for cleaning due to the sands that get in the rotating part.
I used hi-speed continuous shooting to get 3 pictures of different exposures for every scene. It saves my time for adjusting exposure on the computer to see which ones are the best.
Hello, thank you very much for this page! I’m going there to take pictures and find this very helpful. However, there is one thing that gets me baffled. According to this page, http://www.lowerantelope.com/aboutTheTour.php, the entrance fee is not that much. Is it because there are many areas under different offices? If I get the photographer’s permit as mentioned in that page, would I still get to see what you are showing here? Thank you!
Thanks Daniel, the price is determined by each tour opperator. The information in your comment is for the Lower Antelope canyon, which is an entirely different location. Also they are showing that you will not have a guide, the service that I used had a photograper for the guide who was very familar with when and where to be for the light shafts and other features of the canyon. This is a fantastic location and you can get great shots from either the upper or the lower canyon.