After a three hour quickie nap at PL’s place, with a departure time of 3:30 am, Tuesday morning, I headed out for Page, Arizona. The drive was pleasant. However, I did pull over in whatever town and took a 30 minute nap in the parking lot of some pleasant looking church. I was beat. Driving long distances is not my best talent. I’ll have to reevaluate my desires to buy an off road vehicle. I don’t’ think I can handle the bumpy ride those bad boys offer. Anyhow, the sun and the heat were pretty significant but I made it to the Lower Canyons of Antelope Canyons with little challenges.
With the nap, I was pretty sure I had missed the sweet sport for lighting for the lower canyons. However, without having much of an expectation, the lighting conditions were pretty darn good. Not rushing to meet some tight lighting time deadline really helps with the overall stress level. On a different note, it is nice to know there are some locations on this Earth that should be photographed when the sun is at the highest point in the sky. Phew.
The lower canyons were roughly ¼ miles in length. Cost for a two hour unguided photography stay was $25 bucks. Not the cheapest two hours spent at any location. In addition, there were heavy restrictions on what I could do with the photos. It was kind of unsettling to have to initiate twice and sign some document before entering a natural landmark. I’m not allowed to publish any of the photos without prior authorization. That’s very limited but I can appreciate that, I suppose. Not like I was forced to go there and photograph against my will.
There were both pluses and minuses to this 1st day of shooting. It was darn windy. Wind and sand aren’t an ideal combination for people carrying around electronic equipment of any sort. Heck if my diving watch could talk, I’m sure he would be complaining about the conditions as well. Having sand rain on me and my gear wasn’t the best experience. After about 10 minutes of the wind and sand, I ran back to the car, luckily the parking lot was only a minute away from the entrance to the canyon, to switch out some of the gear and reduce my load. The canyon wasn’t made for larger people or people with too much gear. The lower canyons got Calista Flockhart tight in some areas.
There were three moderately serious photogs inside the canyons. One dood, sporting a pale lime polo, was sporting an ultrawide 14mm Canon lens. Drool. He was from Yosemite California. Another dood was a shooter for Getty and looking to diversify his photo portfolio from strictly wildlife to landscape photography. He had just moved from Colorado to Arizona and was highly motivated to shoot canyons. I wish him much luck. I hope he got the photo release. And the third dood so big time, he wanted to switch out lenses in this extremely less than ideal lens changing environment. Either he’s too rich to care or too stupid to realized what a bad idea changing lenses would be.
The plus side of this was there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Having unadulterated sunlight flowing through the slots of canyons was a happy benefit. Side note here: being from California, it is bizarre to me to conceptualize thunderstorms in the middle of the summer. Apparently they do occur in other states though. What an ugly combination: 100 degree weather and thunderstorms. Anyhow, it does happen but luckily not on this day.
Overall, the lower canyon shooting experience wasn’t a bad experience. My tripod did take some sand but nothing too detrimental. After the shoot, I checked into my motel and showered up. Again, sand on the body isn’t a fun experience. I also applied a liberal about of air blowing and tooth brushing to my camera and lens.
After a much needed nap, I wanted to check out the surrounding areas. I cruised Lake Shore Drive, which runs adjacent to Lake Powell. I didn’t find anything notable to photograph here. The guide book I used to base 95% of my agenda outlined some areas that were worth shooting if only I had a high clearance off road vehicle. Bummers. Anyhow, Laurent Martres’s second book, Photographing the Southwest: Volume 2--Arizona (2nd Ed.) (Photographing the Southwest), was pretty darn helpful. Laurent’s book shows a wonderful array of photos (some which he apparently licensed out from some well noted photographers) and he provides details directions on how and when to shoot these photos. I highly recommend this book. The only downside from having his book is my needing to add a 4x4 vehicle to my equipment list to realize more of my photographic need.
After Lake Shore Drive, I headed back west on highway US-89 and ventured off the highway to explore a bit more. There was a pretty lookout point which offered a decent view of the canyons and the pier/boat launching area. I guess, now that I write this blog entry a few days after the fact, that view could have been more interesting but at the time, I was uninspired. I clicked off a few exposures and wanted to head out to the last location for the day.
I closed out the day by heading to Horseshoe Bend. I got the parking area and asked a fellow tourist how far the hike was to the viewing area. 10 minutes she said. That was enough for me to call it a night. I was too unmotivated to walk there. In retrospect, me calling it quits too soon was a mistake. I don’t know what’s up with me. Lacking the energy to explore more with my camera is unlike me.
Of more note: I experience a moderate fail on the packing. Just like Europe, I forgot a card reader, which isn’t a mission critical part but I did also forget to pack underwear. Luckily, along with doing some light exploring of the area, more specifically, while on my way to Horseshoe Bend, I drove past a Walmart. Walmart not only fulfilled my underwear needs, it also provided me with a healthy eating alternative. I subsisted on a large fruit bowl for the day.
The motel room was nice and spacious. My only gripe about the motel was that the floor was still moist from the previous day carpet cleaning. The shower/water pressure was more than adequate, there was plenty of table/counter space, and the bed was supportive and comfortable. As an unexpected double bonus, the motel was one block away from the Upper Canyons tour guide place. I closed the night downloading images and watching cable TV. Twas a good 1st day.
One last note. I should have gotten my haircut at the place right next to the tour guide place. 13 bucks. What a bargain.
Mood: Settled
Music: Enrique Iglesias - Enrique
Location: Starbucks - Vegas - Tropicana/Rainbow
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