We visited Antelope Canyon in northern Arizona on our trip.  It is a canyon famous for the images people have captured there.  It is also becoming ‘famous’ as the most photographed slot canyon.

As you must do, we hired a tour guide — a member of the Najavo first nation — to take us into this canyon.  We were on a photo tour — we paid more; we had nearly twice as long in the canyon; our guide (Rob) gave us all kinds of clues on what to shoot, how to shoot, etc. etc. Rob was with the Chief Tsosie tour company and was excellent.

Rob gave us insight into the opportunities, living conditions etc. of the Navajo.  It added to the tour — while you were trying to take pictures, he was talking about how they as a people were simply throwing away their language and culture by not passing it on.  He was a (young) grandfather; his native language was his first language but his grand-children know none of it.

Following Rob’s advice, I have used a custom white balance for this image — he recommended using cloudy or fluorescent to get vibrant colours.  I have used something in between.

Some people want their photographs to represent what their eyes actually saw.  Some, want the photograph to represent what their vision was.  I am just happy with a decent photograph …

I will be making a gallery of photos from here later.

A nice photo of the Glen Canyon of the Colorado River here is ruined by a lens problem. Do you see the trail of green artifacts running down from the upper right of the picture? I have something failing inside one of my most used lenses and I have a piece of debris on the inside of the lens. Do I repair or replace??

I am as close to the edge of the canyon as it appears. It is about a 600 foot drop off the edge so one approaches very carefully!

They clearly have a different approach to safety than at similar public sites in Canada. Rather than build a wall or fence for safety, they will have minimal signs saying “You are responsible for your own safety.” This was somehow surprising in a country know for its litigious nature.

The week long photo tour of southern Utah with a bit of Nevada and northern Arizona is ending today. Back to some form of reality!

Yesterday we spent most of the day in Vegas – the height of unreality. It was a reasonably busy place. We walked put to the Cirque de Soleil show Mystere just 10 minutes before starting time and got 50% discounts on very good seats. The show has a mixture of humor, acrobatics, live music etc. A decent evening’s entertainment. I think there was likely a story to it … But I never understood what it was.

I have more than a few photos to now sort out, delete junk, etc. etc. There is some dirt inside the lens i use most and that created some issues with some images. There must be plastic or something coming off the lens inside. I guess one doesn’t repair the lens but rather replaces it. I guess.

I will publish a couple photo galleries when I have gone through the selection and deletion process.

This image should be a sunset reflecting the end of the trip …. But is actually a silhouette shot taken at sunrise at Bryce Canyon.

The smallish town of Page Arizona was established when the Glen Canyon dam was built. So, it is more of a planned community than many and has some unique features.

Befitting it’s place in the south, the main street extends into something locally referred to a church circle. All the churches in town are on the same street side by each – on a circle drive that goes around the schools. Apparently it is the only town in the States with this alignment.

It also has the widest residential streets I have seen. You can park two cars and still have room for four lanes of traffic – they must have more room for roads than homes. I think this is because all these sections were the first sections built and all the homes are still mobile homes. So, maybe they left plenty of room to get in and out?

The picture is of the Glen Canon dam on the Colorado River. It is an HDR photo – assembled from three photos to capture the range of light levels. I wanted to try the $3 app for the iPad that will do HDR. Doesn’t do a bad job at all but has limited adjustments possible.

The other big thing here is Antelope Canon. A so called slot canon – narrow with high walls And fascinating colours. I need to takes my photos of that to my home computer to see if any turned out.