Travel Photography > Desert Southwest > Colorado Plateau

"Thanks for all the tips on the Gulch," he said, and soon we were sitting in the open back of a truck as it pulled along a sand valley. The Navajo guide dropped us off at the Canyon entrance, chatted with us a while, and then left. Upper Antelope was much smaller - 150 meters, but it was beautiful. There were 4 or 5 photographers already in the canyon. Antelope, it seems, has become the landscape photographers ultimate exposure challenge. Half hour exposure times in dark variable light. A good testing ground, I guess.

In an hour, the Navajo guide returned for us, and shuttled us to our Jeeps, showing us pictures and talking about schools and cooking and canyons. I parted ways with the photographer, having spent hours talking about Utah and Oregon and Greece and the Virgin Islands, exchanging business cards, and I headed south along the Marble Cliffs, stopping at the Glen Canyon Navajo dam to look at jewelry for a friend. There were dozens of carved animals. "This one means eternal life" she said. "And this one is peace and lightness"

"And this one here is courage," she said, explaining Navajo religion.

I pointed to the turtle. "What does that one mean?"
"Nothing," she said.
"I'll take it."

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