Antelope Canyon, Page, Az

Sunbeam in the canyon

Canyon wall

One of the sun beams - the guides throw sand to give it dimension

The Wolf

The Heart of the Canyon - taken by our guide

Entrace to Antelope Canyon...notice the heads of the tourists :(

Canyon Photo with Sony point and shoot camera

I am sure you have seen pictures of Antelope Canyon in travel literature. I know the first time I saw pictures of the canyon was in a Scandinavian Airline Magazine in an article by my favorite travel writer Doug Lansky. In the article, I read that Antelope Canyon is in Page, Arizona. I could not believe that I had been to Page and had not visited Antelope Canyon. Consequently, at the top of my “must do” list for this cross country trip was to visit Antelope Canyon.

As with any important travel decision I make, I consulted http://www.tripadvisor.com/ to find out the best way to see Antelope Canyon. According to TripAdvisor, Chief Tsosie photography tours (http://www.antelopeslotcanyon.com/) were rated the best thing to do while in Page. Based on the reviews and the pictures taken by the reviewers, I booked us on the 10:30 photography tour. The trip was better than expected.

Although the ¼ mile long canyon is very busy this time of day, all the other tour guides allow the photo tours first priority for picture taking. I am sure the folks on those tours were not happy about having to wait for a bunch of people to take pictures of a beam of light filtering into the canyon, but that was the difference in the price of admission.

The best thing about the photo tour is that the guides are not only knowledgeable about how the sunlight plays in the canyon, they are also knowledgeable about photography and how to get the most out of many different cameras (from high-end cameras to point-and-shoot cameras). Our guide often showed folks on the tour how to get the best pictures from their cameras by changing the settings. He even gave tips to knowledgeable photographers. More than once, he borrowed a camera from someone on the trip and took a magnificent photo.