Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon located in Navajo territory in Arizona.  I am one of many people to be drawn there to shoot the shapes carved out of sandstone by rushing water.  Flash flooding and erosion created these narrow passageways to the delight of many photographers including myself.  From the ground level looking down, it looks like a wide crack in the the landscape;  however when you shimmy through the causeway, the beauty of light and shadow playing over the textures and contours is awe inspiring.
 I was fortunate to have arrived at this geological phenomenon on the perfect overcast day.  The medium cloud cover was perfect for diffusing the light coming from above.  If it was a sunny day, there would have been and overly extreme contrast between the shadows and the illuminated sandstone.  Instead, soft light bounced around the canyon walls leaving some detail in the shadows.  I wanted to have a lot of depth of field so as to keep all of the graceful lines sharp in my photos, therefore I came prepared with a tripod.  By keeping my camera still, it was possible to have a small aperture, a low iso and and slow shutter speed to attain the sharpest, best quality image even in a somewhat low light situation.  
It was difficult to choose my favourite image of this Canyon but I chose this one to talk about because,to me, the sandstone looks a lot like the water that once rushed through here, and that is cool.


  

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