Upper Antelope Canyon

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This was my second trip to Upper Antelope Canyon. For images of my May 2002 trip check here. Upper Antelope is pretty crowded most of the time. Most people are good about waiting for you to finish shooting, but occasionally someone is using a camera with the flash on which wrecks havoc with 30 second exposures. The canyon is only about 1/4 mile long, but I think you could spend days in there and still not notice everything. You can move away from a spot and come back 30 minutes later and it looks entirely different due to the changing light.

Click on images for enlarged view.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L @ 26mm, ISO 100

Beam Me Up!

This is by far the biggest and most prominent light beam I've seen in Upper Antelope. I think I took 20-30 frames of it before it started to fade. These only occur as the sun approaches overhead. They appear in different locations throughout the canyon at different times. It was really helpful to have our guide point out that the next beam was starting two chambers down the canyon.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L @ 25mm, ISO 100

Broadbeam

This is another beam occurring in the same spot later on. It's more diffuse and there isn't as much dust in the air for it to light up.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L @ 27mm, ISO 100

Laser Beam

This is a much narrower beam in another location in the canyon. If you look closely, you can see half of it being blocked by the rock about half way down.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L @ 51mm, ISO 100

Minaret in the Canyon

This reminded me of a minaret from the shape of the opening. It's nearly dark in many places in the canyon. The light comes from the sun striking the small crack at the top and reflecting it's way down.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L @ 46mm, ISO 100

Burning Rocks

Here the light almost looks like molten lava running down the side of the canyon.