Canyon Rip-off

First, let me say that I knew better but did it anyway.  I had photographed in Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons 6 years ago and already knew about the difficulty in photographing the Upper Canyon but wanted another go at it.  It was my birthday and I felt willing to battle the crowds one more time.  I frequently use Laurent Martres' "Photographing the Southwest" books as reference guides when traveling through the southwest and had read his recently updated info on Upper Antelope Canyon.  I thought that I knew what I was getting for my $151.00.  Wrong!  After arriving home, I contacted Laurent and told him about my experience there.  He asked me to post my comments on his Facebook page to give a more recent update of conditions in Upper Antelope.  This is what I posted on his site.

Here's a photo along with a description of my experience on a photography tour with Adventurous Antelope Canyon tours to Upper Antelope. I booked the 10:15 am 2 hour photographer’s tour, and realized as we got underway that the tour was going to be less than I had hoped for.

Apparently, Adventurous Antelope has recently merged with another of the slot canyon tour companies so that both groups now meet at the north entrance to the canyon making it now a group of 12 photographers rather than 6. I had visited Upper Antelope 5-6 years ago and had traversed the entire canyon back and forth during that photography tour. This time our group barely went into the canyon at all, I would guess less than 1/3rd of the entire length. The setup was configured with two rows of photographers, one kneeling, one standing. Of course, with double the number of photographers, half the time was wasted just standing there waiting for the other half of the group to take their turn. The only photo opportunities were to photograph the sun’s rays that were enhanced with sand being thrown in the air, with no chance to work on abstract shots such as I had been able to do on a previous tour. I was in the canyon approximately 1 hour. My first photo was taken at 10:40 am, the last one at 11:44 am after which we left Upper Antelope and were taken to a side canyon where we were “allowed” to photograph on our own. That side canyon is not suitable for daytime photography because of it being totally open to direct sunlight. We were there from 11:58 am to 12:23 pm after which we were then taken back to the tour office. So for $151.00, I had about one hour of photography in Upper Antelope Canyon with 11 other photographers.
It’s clear that the guide wanted us out of Upper Antelope as quickly as possible so that they could process many other people through the canyon. I am commenting on this so that any photographer who is planning on visiting Upper Antelope Canyon on a photo tour will be made aware of the limitations of that particular tour.

Let me add that I tipped our Navajo guide at the beginning of the tour and felt that he was helpful in seeing that I didn't get trampled by the crowds who were being herded through the canyon between shots.

I wasn't planning on posting this image on NPN but included it to update members on recent changes in that tour.

5 D Mark III
17-40
f 11
+1 ev
1/5 sec
iso 400
tripod