I arrived an hour early to my Antelope Canyon photo tour as a result of the confusing time zones in this area! Arizona and Utah are in different time zones, and cell phones and GPS units have a difficult time getting it right if you’re near the border!

I wasn’t the only one to make this mistake, so at least I had another photographer, John, to chat with while waiting. He was from Washington state, and made the drive out to Page from Las Vegas, where his wife was attending a conference. Really nice guy!

I was a bit concerned about some pop-up thunderstorms that could be seen in the surrounding areas, but luckily that was never an issue, as the sun continued to shine over Page for the entire duration of the tour.

It’s not a very long drive from Page out to the canyon. Our guide wasn’t wasting any time, as he went flying down the dirt and sand to the entrance to the canyon. A bit of a bumpy ride, but we got there quickly!

He informed us that we’d be starting the tour by chasing the light beams throughout the canyon, and that it would be very fast, then we’d slow down and go back through the canyon. He told us to have our cameras ready to go, and not to really worry too much about settings, just get the shot!

This was the first shot we got upon entering the canyon:

Despite how it may look, this canyon was PACKED with tour groups! Our photography tour group was small, 6 people plus our guide. Some of the general tours had 20 or so people in them. And there are several different tour groups in the area. There had to have been a couple hundred people total in that canyon. Luckily our guide was very good at being just plain bossy and telling people in the other tours to move, or wait for us to get the shot!

We made several stops through the canyon to get shots of numerous light beams. Some of them we watched dissolve as we shot them. Timing is everything, and I was thankful our guide knew exactly when to be where in order to get these shots!

Once we had made it through the canyon in that fast & furious rush to get these light beam shots, we slowed down and chased the different lighting in the various “rooms” of the canyon as the sun moved along in the sky above.

I think that’s about all that needs to be said, so enough talking, here are a ton of shots I took on the tour!

If you have a DSLR, I highly recommend doing the photography tour over the general tour. The general tour is cheaper, but you won’t get the same clear, people free shots that you’ll get on the photography tour. If you do not have a DSLR and tripod (a tripod is necessary, the light is low, and long exposures are needed), then you’ll have to do the general tour. That is their rule, and rightfully so.