Antelope Canyon is probably one of the most over-photographed subjects in North America. But of course this was not always the case. I first visited in the late 1980's on the advice of a friend and mentor. My girlfriend and I parked next to an old fence and hiked in a mile or two from the highway. We had the place pretty much to ourselves although eventually a young Navajo boy showed up and asked for $5. At the time I was just getting into photography so was shooting cheap slide film on a used 35 mm camera. As a mental challenge, a digital photographer in 2023 might want to think about how they'd shoot in a dark slot canyon using a non-metered film camera and no experience with long exposures. It took some thought and, admittedly, a lot of film
Over the years I returned to upper and lower Antelope Canyon several times, and each time it became a bit more crowded. Especially after it was 'discovered' thanks to the internet. None the less I managed to get some nice shots, using my trusty Pentax 6x7 and a Wista 4x5. The last time I was there, in about 2010, it was so crowded that the experience was no longer pleasant. And I am told that it has become even more of a circus in the years since then.
I have printed a few of the images over the years, but a lot of them have remained safely in my folders. Recently I've been returning to some of those old forgotten slides and giving them new life in Lightroom, Velvia is a very warm film, and the deep reds and oranges of Antelope can become overwhelming after a while. So using Lightroom, I've been taking a lot of these older transparencies and converting them to black and white. With some tweaks to contrast and the 'clarity' slider, these old Velvia images have found new life. I find that the beauty of the slot canyons....the mysterious play of light and shadow...can be much more dramatic in black and white.
Decades ago I remember being in lower Antelope and meeting an older guy patiently using black and white negative film in his view camera. Back then I was enamored with my newly discovered Velvia and probably scoffed at his old-fashioned approach. But 30 years later I guess I've come to see that perhaps he was just a little bit smarter.
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