Antelope Canyon

Description

The Navajo call it Tse’ bighanilini or “the place where water runs through the rocks”. Upper Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona draws thousands of visitors each year. The unusual sandstone rock formations allow shafts of light to stream in illuminating ripples and waves that look like an impressionistic painting.

The only way to see Antelope Canyon is to join the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation tours. For Dad the challenge was to navigate through the crowded tour to find a unique angle. Then he had keep people out of the photo long enough to get a good exposure and still keep up with the tour guide. He was, as Dad likes to say, sweating bullets to get this photo.

One thing was right about this trip, though. Dad visited during summer when the shafts of light that sneak down into the canyon are best seen. Other than the shafts of light, the canyon is rather dim. Plus the streaming light also enriches the color of the walls.

During the last 10 minutes of his tour Dad finally found the shot. He quickly turned his tripod into a monopod so no one would trip over it, braced himself against one canyon wall and waited for a break in the steady stream of people.

He managed to snap this one photo before the tour guide hustled everyone out of the canyon. Sometimes photography is like that. You’re thanking God for that one great photo.