Antelope Canyon - What the Future Holds?

[Gavin Hardcastle]

Having just experienced the carnival that is shooting in Antelope Canyon I walked away with mixed feelings and a sense of foreboding for the future.

Due to the now huge industry of the DSLR market (of which I am a confessed contributor) locations like Antelope Canyon (in my case Upper) have become
flooded with tourists and photographers wanting to get capture moments of beauty.

Like most people I managed to get some good shots and was in awe at the sheer spectacular beauty of the canyon but the experience was marred by
the fact that I'm being rushed through like cattle and when it's finally my turn to stand in any kind of position I'm jockeying for space and trying not to poke
somebodies eyes out with my tripod legs.

Organization and communication between the many different tour companies seemed very poor. Just as you line up your composition and the Navajo guide
throws up some sand into the light rays - in walks another group right into your shot and so begins the painful procedure of asking them to either go back
or come hither and move out of the shot. It's a nightmare that could be prevented with proper organization, coordination and understanding.

Don't get me wrong, most people were pretty respectful and the guides did what they could but things could have been MUCH better.

I realize that I have no more right to be there than any other photographer or tourist and that's why I'm asking for suggestions from other photogs who have
experienced this to see if we can perhaps suggest some helpful ideas to the Navajo which might help them deal with the ever increasing congestion.

Imagine what it's going to be like in another 5 years when 400 people all arrive at the same time! There were around 200 at the moment we arrived and it's a minor
miracle that most of us managed to get some good shots. Thank god for 'content aware fill'.

Here's one I managed to snap while looking up. I experienced a type of 'bent' lens flare like I've never before seen which you'll see on the left side of the image. It has a purply/blue cast.

[sdwilsonsct]

Your experience seems to have contributed to a fresh and enjoyable perspective on this place.

[langier]

My solution to all this is to simply not contribute to the millions of visitors and photos already taken and find either a new place or new angle, perhaps showing the masses of folks there.

Such was my trip to Yosemite on Ansel's birthday a few years back. Hundreds of tourists and photographers abandoned their vehicles on the parkway as though they all ran out of gas and watched in the overcast hoping Ansel would push the clouds away to reveal the natural "firefall" of February, but to no avail. I shot a few pix of the acres of tripod legs and upturned cameras and started my drive home.

As for me, I simply find places others haven't done over and over or treat the moment as macaroni and cheese for the find, a "comfort food" for my vision to help reset and get me refreshed and ready for new vistas.

[Gavin Hardcastle]

Thanks Larry,

I think you are right but it won't stop future hordes so some solution is still needed for those wishing to visit the classics.

I'd love to see some of those Tripod invasion shots . There are still a few well known locations that don't suffer the glut
such as Lake Tahoe and Valley of Fire. Perhaps a thread for classic locations that don't yet suffer overcrowding?

[langier]

Gavin,

Part of the fun of it for me is to discover, share and move on.

I thought I always wanted to go to Cuba before it gets over run and over photographed. For much, I think I'm too late. However, on my last trip to Serbia in September, I came to the realization that that could be my Cuba sine I travel there with open eyes and wonder.

I'm neither Serbian in heritage nor Orthodox. My connection is that my hometown where I've always lived has a Serbian community and I was curious about there white church with its own cemetery and their celebration of Christmas in January with vollys of shot gun blasts.

I started years ago photographing the community and this church, the first Serbian Orthodox Church in the western hemisphere. I didn't ever have a clue that it would ever lead to me traveling to Serbia but it did.

I now have many friends there and will head back again since there's still much for me to photograph, people, places, monasteries, icons, ruins. Everywhere, I've been treated as royalty and the doors have been opened to my lens to share with all.

It's all a matter of being open and following your gut instincts. Likewise, there are many places off the beaten path or even along the way to the major and over exploited sites that are still out there.

Sure, I used to go to Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower (Corkscrew) Canyon back in the 1980s when you had to repel and simply needed a permit from the local office. Last year in Yosemite, I found a neat roadside waterfall passed by hundreds daily on their way to Tenaya.

Sometimes it's a matter of walking a few hundred more feet, stopping along the way, getting there early, late normal eating times and you'll find it. The first key is to be out there, the other is to get away from the herds, and finally creating a new vision or POV.

It takes practice and going back again and again, trying new tools and techniques and seeing with a fresh mind.

I recently returned to Rhyolite and Goldfield, Nev. Rhyolite now has fences and warning signs. I first photographed there 40 years ago and visited before that. I still saw something new. Same for Goldfield. I went there to see and photograph the National Junk Car Forest (world's largest). I'll go back and shoot a night pano there and light it all up.

The thing for me today is to use my skills to craft a new vision. One way is to do a different take. Another is to photograph the people photographing the icons. For neat pix of Yosemite, look at the work of Ansel Adams assistant Ted Orland. His humerous photos are a nice treatment of Yosemite that shows the human side, not the imaginary wilderness of the main valley.

While you are getting the classics and the icons, look for the new and obtuse and you'll create your own niche.

[Gavin Hardcastle]

All good advice langlier.

I drove through Goldfield a couple of weeks ago and although I was shocked to see the third world so raw and intense in the U.S. of A I remember thinking it would be a cultural gold mine for photographers after that gritty, real world vibe. Can't wait to see your shots. The light there was superb as we drove through and the classic store fronts filled the imagination with possibilities.

[Paulo Bizarro]

I suppose icons will always be icons, and people visiting these places are eager to carry home some memories. One way would be to limit the number of visits per day, but how would that work?

I like your photo a lot, for me it is a refreshing approach. I have seen hundreds of the more "normal" photos with the ray of light coming down through the dust. Some of these photos, IMO, are let down by the numerous visible footprints on the floor of the canyon.