slot canyon

I mentioned that we had a slight ulterior motive for taking this Southwest trip, and stopping by Page, Arizona was it. Our Christmas present to Justin’s mom and stepdad was a chartered fishing trip on Lake Powell. The fishing trip was focal point of our Southwest trip, and it did not disappoint.

Lake Powell is a man-made lake located on the Utah/Arizona border with a controversial history. It’s a complex case study with a lot of lessons to be learned, and I recommend researching it to anyone interested in environmental issues. Regardless of whether or not the lake should exist, it does, so I figure it might as well be enjoyed by the people in the area.

Growing up and living in the Great Lakes State, I’ve spent plenty of time around freshwater. Lake Powell is nowhere near the size of even the smallest of the Great Lakes, but it makes up for it with 360 degrees of striking landscape views.

We set out before dawn and watched the sun rise over the water.

Once we were far enough away from shore, we dropped the lines and tempted the hungry striped bass.

I’d had no plans to swim, I didn’t even bring my suit. But by mid-morning, the sun was hot and I announced that I was jumping in. Almost everyone on the boat joined me somewhere around this spot.

My fishing abilities are less than stellar, and the only thing I ended up reeling in was the fish the guide got on the hook and then sympathetically handed over to me. But I was fine with that. I was content to sit back and admire the view.

After our fishing trip, I’d arranged for us to visit the astonishingly beautiful Upper Antelope Canyon in the afternoon. I had been looking forward to this moment since we decided to take our Southwest adventure – it was supposed to be the highlight of the trip for me.

Well, things don’t always work out the way you hope. Don’t get me wrong, I got some amazing images, but the experience was not I’d expected.

Let’s begin at the beginning…

Upper Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon located just outside of Page, Arizona on Navajo land. To visit, you must be accompanied by a Navajo guide and there are several businesses in the area which offer tours run by the Navajo people. I reserved the one called “Photographers and Friends”, which was substantially more expensive than the standard sightseeing tour, so that Justin, and his mom and stepdad, could come along. I assumed (in hindsight, I’m not sure why) that paying the steeper price for the photographer’s tour would allow for private access to areas not available on the general tour and no interference from folks in other groups.

Unfortunately, I was wrong on both counts.

Stepping into the canyon, we might as well have been stepping into Disney World. So. Many. People.

I was a bit shocked by the sight, but I tried to remain calm as I followed our guide through the swarm of bodies. He led us deep into the canyon, past groups from other tour companies, and countless people with iPads and smartphones pointed in every direction. I figured he must be guiding us past the standard tour area and leading us to the private section reserved for photographers, so I didn’t complain or ask questions.

Finally, we stopped at a mostly quiet, but certainly not private area, and he instructed me to set up my tripod. He then informed me which settings to use on my camera and which direction to point my lens.

Um, Houston, we have a problem…

I stood there, dumbstruck, while he took my camera and set the shutter speed to a 30 second exposure. He then fired off a few test shots and excitedly showed me the results. I guess they were OK, but they weren’t what I wanted. I wanted to capture detail shots of the way the overhead light illuminated the intricate patterns on the canyon walls. I wanted to look around, explore, and take multiple shots on multiple settings, then figure out on my own which ones I liked best – not be told where to position my tripod, where to point my lens, and what shutter speed to use.

I didn’t realize that the tour would consist of being led to a particular spot and being told how to shoot. I wasn’t happy with this realization, and it was pretty obvious, but I went along with it, completely frustrated and disappointed with the images I was producing.

At some point, the guide and I figured each other out. After a while, I stopped doing what he told me to do and just took the shot I wanted. Once he realized that I wasn’t listening to him anymore, he stopped telling me what to do, and focused on simply keeping people out of my way and out of my shots – even though they weren’t the shots he wanted me to take. Once we started working together, I started to get some stunning images. Take a look!

I know it looks empty, but I assure you, there were hordes of people just outside the frame…

After we finished up at Upper Antelope Canyon, we headed over to the nearby Rattlesnake Canyon. This particular slot canyon is privately owned by the Navajo tour group we booked, so it had nowhere near the dizzying amount of people parading through it. In fact, we had it pretty much all to ourselves, which was just what I needed to cheer me up!