Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. It’s in ​the ​Navajo ​Nation near Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon includes two separate, photogenic slot canyon sections, Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon. I went to Lower Antelope Canyon on my​ photo tour with Russ Burden of Monument Valley and the Glen Canyon area.​

​The ​c​anyon was formed by the erosion of Navajo s​andstone, primarily due to flash flooding, which still occurs there.​ Eleven tourists were killed ​in Lower Antelope Canyon on August 12, 1997 . Very little rain fell ​there that day, but ​heavy rain had fallen seven miles upstream. I was careful to wear my waterproof boots when I went down into the canyon.

Lower Antelope Canyon is the narrowest canyon I could imagine. It is beautiful with the swirls and the ​lines of the red rocks, the glow, and the way the light hits.

Russ’s guidance was to concentrate our compositions on the reflected, warm light areas in the canyon​ while avoiding areas where the sun hit directly​. Light entering the canyon and ​bouncing off the walls at the top gives this light. Shooting in the darker areas produces purple colored tones ​with an interesting effect. I combined the warm glow with the purple shadows to produce ​my abstract photography.

​The only time I included direct sunlight in my photos was to capture this image of a dusty light beam.​

A Shaft of Light Falls on the Canyon Floor

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I Never Imagined that Rocks Could be So Sensuous

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Looking Up at an Abstract "Nose"

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"Waves " of Rock

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The "Snail's Shell"

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The "Photographer" Emerges from the Canyon (Photo by Kylie Valencius)

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