Photographer's Guide to the Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona, Joseph K. Lange

The dis-oriented author is an amateur photographer. You can see some of my images at my other site Dave's Place. This February, I had a three day assignment in Phoenix. I had always wanted to make a photo expedition to the Southwest and on this trip I had one day.

In order to make make the most of my time and find the best location for winter images in the area. In order to make this trip possible I bought Joseph K. Lange's Photographer's Guide to The Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona. I already had Lange's Photographer's Guide to Yellowstone and the Teton's and had used it with excellent results in the Tetons.

I flew into Phoenix at midnight and left the rental car center at 1 am. I drove the 5 hours to Page, Arizona to take a tour of Antelope Canyon. On the way back I planned on stopping at Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado and either the South Rim of the Grand Canyon or Red Rock State Park in Sedona on the way to Phoenix.

Keep reading and take a look at some of the images I took.

To a landscape photographer, a visit to the Red Rock country of the American Southwest is like going on the Hajj, the faithful should by all means make the pilgrimage once in their lives. After consulting the book and the forums on my favorite photo site, DPreview, I decided to visit Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend.

Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon

Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado

I signed up for a tour with Antelope Canyon Tours since the canyon is on Navajo land you have to go with a Navajo guide. Lange's book has a checklist of things to look for while shooting in the slot canyon.I found the advice quite helpful. I would add two things:

1. Since most images will be taken with the camera pointed up, be prepared to get down on the canyon floor to frame your images. A tall tripod (or waist level finder) might help.
2. I wish I had a handheld spot meter. I found it hard to use the in-camera spot meter while crouching and looking up through the viewfinder.

The light in the Antelope Canyon is absolutely magical. I plan on going back in summer when the sun will be directly overhead and the light dances in the canyon.

For Horseshoe Bend, Lange's description was right on the mark. It was a short walk to cliffside made strenuous because of the elevation (~7000 feet). Lange suggested that it took a 20mm lens to take in the whole scene and that midday would put enough light on the canyon walls. Since my widest is a 20mm and the digital focal length multiplier on my camera is 1.5x I knew in advance that I would have to take a multi-image panorama to get the whole scene.

With this book as my guide and my camera equipment, I could spend the next twelve months exploring the Southwest,

Photographer's Guide to the Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona gets 5 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

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