The first canyon we visited was Owl Canyon - the widest, the most open and easiest to access. We were the only ones there that morning, so we took our time warming up our cameras, picking up the particular technique needed to photograph these red sandstone canyons. Our guide, a photographer himself, taught us the best way to bring out the red sandstone is to make sure we cut out the sky from our photos. True enough, the moment we included a patch of sky, the sandstone would look washed out. You won't see much sky in the pictures below except for the entrance shot.
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| Entrance to Owl Canyon |
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You can see the difference in colours here when the sky was included and when it wasn't. |
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| I wouldn't be able to capture this shot of the canyon's namesake if I didn't have my 18 - 200mm zoom (it's maxed out at 200mm). It was high above us near the top of the canyon. Our Navajo friend didn't want to look at it even though he pointed it out to us. It was supposed to be bad luck if the owl's evil eyes caught you in its gaze. As you can see here, its eyes were closed, so we were quite safe... |
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| The contrasting shades were just sunlight playing tricks |
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| There were still some tight spots even though this is the widest canyon |
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A closeup of some of the sandstone - some were pock-marked but some were smooth |
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| An overhang was used to block out the sun to produce the right light for the camera |
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| Plenty of these swirls everywhere - imagine the water whirling through |
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| Yes, incredible! These smokestacks greeted us at the exit of the canyon. They are from the power generation station - a coal plant, believe it or not, right beside the hydro plant near the Lake Powell dam. |
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