The first time I visited Lower Antelope was the 2nd time I had been to Page Az. On my first trip I neglected Lower Antelope because I was hung up on the light shaft phenomena in Upper Antelope Canyon. I did get to see the light shafts in Upper Antelope Canyon but the place was crammed shoulder to shoulder with irritable tourists. When I visited Page again with my buddy Weldon we chose to avoid the crowds by spending time in Lower Antelope Canyon. We had a leisurely stroll through Lower Antelope Canyon as we encountered some serious photography going on. Weldon shot his Rolleiflex, another photographer used a 4×5, and another used a Contax 645 with a Phase One back. I was toting a Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n that day with a Carl Zeiss 28/2 ZF lens.
The Kodak DSLR had this really fantastic feature that allowed you to stack multiple exposures of the same frame. The camera then averaged out the shots. Each exposure added to the frame reduced the amount of noise in the digital negative. This technique is used in astrophotography where some photographers stack more than 128 exposures using computer software. I don’t remember how many exposures went into this frame but I seem to recall it was either 4 or 8. It took forever for the camera to finish and at least one photographer asked why my camera continued to click repeatedly ever few seconds. This technique was a real PITA but the resulting files are vivid, pristine, and have lovely tonality.
The Heart – Lower Antelope Canyon
