Panorama Within Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona

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This panorama was constructed using Photoshop Elements to stitch together vertically two landscape-oriented images captured from within the Upper Antelope Canyon.
Antelope Canyon is privately owned and may be visited only as part of a guided tour conducted by one of the companies licensed to do so. Two types of tours are generally offered: Regular and Photographic. Regular tours last about an hour, are offered throughout the daylight hours, and consist of a trip into the canyon and back out. Photographic tours last about two hours, are offered only during the midday hours (while the sun penetrates to the floor of the canyon, thus offering much better photography), consists of trips back and forth through the canyon following the light to capture the images when the sun best illuminates certain areas, and they are more expensive than the Regular tours.
We chose the Photographic tour with Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours which we contacted at a dusty stand on Arizona highway 98, a few miles southeast of Page. After paying and waiting for the right time of day, our guide Josh drove the six of us in a Chevy Suburban the few miles to the canyon entrance. At least a mile (it seemed much longer) of it was over very rough terrain which tested the Suburban's suspension to its limit. While inside the canyon Josh was courteous and extremely helpful, offering many photographic hints and pointing out the best positions, POVs, even some exposure settings and constantly threw floor sand up in the air to accentuate the sun's rays.

Suggestions:
Pay the extra money for the Photographic tour.
Take a necessary tripod (our tour company offered them for an exorbitant rental fee).
Take extra batteries or make sure your camera batteries are fully charged (one member of our tour ran out of charge three pictures into the tour - you can imagine the disappointment).
Shoot only the widest lens you have (no time to change lenses and you wouldn't want to do so in the extremely dusty environment).
Use the time prior to your tour to affix a transparent plastic bag to your expensive gear and allow only the glass portion of the lens to be exposed to the dust.
Carry a blow brush to clean your lens periodically.
The pictures are misleading - expect a crush of people in a very narrow canyon where very often you can touch both of its sides with your arms extended; and lastly.
Stay away from the company that gets you to the canyon on seats attached to the bed of a truck. If you go with them, your back will probably never be quite the same again.

If you are planning to visit and have additional questions, feel free to contact me via e-mail, better still, do so via an appropriate award, ha ha!

Taken in: United States / Arizona (show map)

Taken on: June 20, 2011

Tags:

Antelope Canyon

Slot Canyon

Red Rock Country

Colorado Plateau

Page

Arizona

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Camera: Nikon D200, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D200
Lens:	18.0-70.0 mm f/3.5-4.5
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	+1 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Cool White Fluorescent
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 Windows
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