Had a chat this morning with a friend and she asked which was my favorite photo from my trip to the Southwest in April. I’d have to say it’s this one, for several reasons.
This was taken in Lower Antelope Canyon. My three friends, Tyler, John, and Suad, had been to the upper canyon the year before, and were more interested in visiting new places this time through the area. I was so intent on getting into a slot canyon that I asked to be dropped here for the day if they wanted to go somewhere new. Being the swell guys they are, they decided not to leave me alone but to see the lower canyon as a kind of compromise. I encourage you to check their photos on Flickr via the links above. Everyone got some amazing stuff.
I’ve not seen an image like this one, however. It’s an HDR from five exposures, and looking back at the original five, this composite doesn’t really look like the actual scene as I remember it. But neither do any of the five component images, which are either too dark or too bright to be what my eyes saw. One of photography’s effects is constantly showing you how amazing the human eye is when it comes to registering dynamic ranges of color and brightness.
But I think this image is my favorite mainly because it’s so unlike most of the photographs I made on that trip. We went to many places frequented by many photographers, many of whom stand in the same spots and take to a large extent the same photographs. There is certainly a pleasure in doing those photographs yourself, but getting one like you’ve not seen before is a unique pleasure in itself.
