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As a photography location Horseshoe bend is re-known for the wide angle vista of the Colorado River gooseneck, viewable from a precipitous lookout a 1000ft above the meander.

A quick search on Flickr will trawl up hundreds of near identical (or classic) landscape compositions of the Colorado’s U bend.

Half a horseshoe | Horseshoe Bend, Page

Determined to make a composition that was original I scouted around the cliff edge for a while till I found this crack in the rocks, plunging down to the river a thousand feet below. The crevasse led right into one half of the gooseneck visible at Horseshoe Bend taking the eye along one half of the U to the edge of the frame.

Even though it’s a small detail relative to the total view from the overlook, I think my brains consumed so many wide-angle photographs from this location, the scene is still instantly recognisable as Horseshoe bend.

A big part of 2010 for me is developing an individual style, and this was one experiment along that road. I think a massive part of that starts with finding new ways to shoot old classics, whose images we’ve consumed countless times. Stepping back from those and finding new compositions is (at least I find) supremely difficult.

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For me the Wave  in the Vermillion Cliffs has been a burning photography destination since I first saw the formation at a photography studio in Jackson Hole in 2007 .

So when I won 2 permits in the lottery this year I was ecstatic! 3 months later 1 day before the hike, the weather forecast in upper Arizona was terrible — even by English standards. A dull monochrome sky hung over Page and Kanab, snow and rain were forecast that day around 11AM.

Now only the first segment of the hike is a flash flood risk following a wide wash out from the Wire Pass trailhead. Then there’s the several washes that cross the House Rock Valley Road, that if it rained would be impassable for hours, potentially days — although we had food and water enough.

Driftwood | Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness

After a quick visit to the Ranger station and a poo-poo laugh at the forecast from Ranger Sam we ventured out, if a little apprehensive, and a cold with winds up to 20 knots buffeting me and the Old Man (that’s my Dad) all along the trail.

The heart of the Wave is best at midday, with the sun directly above it all shadows in the formation are gone, and with it, any contrast issues. But the trade off is the bleached color that comes from being in the full glare of the sun, tameable, but not ideal.

Being overcast actually played to my advantage though, like a giant diffuser the cloud evened out the light, and the soft light rendering the endless hues in the sandstone around the Wave in full glory.

This was by far my favourite image from the day. And yes the log is as I found it, as serendipitous as it was. It reminded me of driftwood, in fact the Wave and slot formations like Antelope Canyon around this part of Arizona and Utah remind me of the ocean as the folds of rock have such a distinct fluid water like motion to them.

Fluid Motion | Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness

My only regret was that we had to cut short our hike and photography. Around 2pm the weather came in –  sleet on the end of my lens! So all the detours I had in mind will have to wait for next time, but if you are going I’d stress despite the temptation to focus on the Wave as your primary objective detour detour detour. You need some confidence and navigational skills for sure (this is a desert wilderness after all) but there’s some much opportunity out there, don’t pass it up!

I’m very tempted to try for some back to back permits next year and really get stuck into the area.

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White House Ruins are arguably the most iconic photography location in Canyon De Chelly, immortalised by landscape photographers since Timothy O’Sullivan in 1873, his original composition paid homage to by Ansel Adams in 1942.

But hey, who can blame them as photography locations go, the sight of the White House ruins tucked away into a giant alcove crack below the towering vertical walls of Canyon De Chelly framed by streaks giant fingers of desert varnish is a sight truly unmatched in the Southwest. And as the only Anasazi ruin you can hike out to in the De Chelly National Monument on your own, it would be a shame to miss up the opportunity to get into the canyon and up close to it’s past.

Lost City of Gold | White House Ruins, Canyon De Chelly

In the late afternoon sun the White House Ruins and surrounding cliff face shone golden, making for excellent contrast with the brown and black streaks of desert varnish. Since moving to the full frame 5D Mark 2, there seems to be no vista that my trusty Canon 17 – 40 mm L USM won’t fit in, and despite the cliff face towering a good 400ft up from ruins to rim, it was able to squeeze it all in. To protect the ruins, the NPS have erected a fence around it which blocks the view of the lower ruins so you have to compose carefully to elliminate distractions (fence, lone trees), here I ended up cropping out a section of the lower ruins which protruded into the frame.

A medium to long telephoto could also be used to isolate the rock art beneath the upper ruins, you might be able (just!) to make out the white anthromorph slightly to the left of the lower middle of the frame.

It’s a short hike down to the ruins, but the steep seemingly endless switchbacks, plus about 5 kilos of camera gear make sure you feel it all the way. Just a tip, the hike means putting aside a good few hours (at least 2 to 3) so to ensure you get the full glory of later afternoon sun, I’d forget about lining up a sunset location … you can’t be everywhere at once!

Overall it was a mighty detour, well in English road mileage terms (from Page en route to Moab), but well worth it given I was totally ignorant of this place whilst out in Arizona in 2006.

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All image rights Paul Marsden

Whilst in Page, I returned to Antelope Canyon, having already visited Upper Antelope to photograph the now infamous light beams I opted for Lower Antelope canyon this time round.

After climbing into the Earth, which is the only way I can describe the descent into the narrow crack at the entrance, I instantly found so many images to make, unexpected compositions, weird forms and beautiful textures — it ended up yielding the most images from the whole 2 week trips, despite being a “maybe” on my itinerary.

Serpentine rock | Lower Antelope Canyon

Here at the widest part of the canyon, this “head” like formation emerges from the rock, the hole punched through the Navajo sandstone reminiscent of an eye and the rock’s shape snout like gave me overtones of some amorphous creature emerging from the rock, kind of Geiger Alien-esque.

Whilst are far fewer light beams to compose around in Lower Antelope (and thankfully less tourists to work around), the interplay of light along the liquid like Navajo sandstone and the twisting formations here make for better (and original) lens fodder than you can find in Upper. As the morning progressed the hues ran from purple to red to orange and yellow, before turning a muddy brown in the majority of the canyon by 11 AM.

I found these wave like formations on the way out after 3hrs inside Lower Antelope (those photographer passes are expensive, but well worth it to work the varying light over the course of the morning). Here the light bouncing off the opposing wall of the slot threw red and purple tones across this formation — like molten rock frozen in a fluid motion.

Frozen waves | Lower Antelope Canyon

Lower Antelope Canyon is undoubtedly an oft visited, over shot and all too well known place, but it poses you with real photographic challenges. You have to work for it. I think it’s very tricky to get high calibre images from Lower Antelope Canyon, much harder than Upper. Compositions are not obvious, and require a great deal of visualisation (or pre-visualisation dependent on your semantics) as you constantly have to think in abstract terms. Plus understanding how to read how the reflected light sources will render across your exposure takes a bit of work.

Despite getting all Karma Sutra with my tripod and scratching a very expensive Tiffen filter by dropping it into the sand the trip was well worth it. I’ll definitely be stopping in the next time I’m passing through Page.

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