Slot Canyon advice needed

I will be visiting Big Bend National Park the week after Christmas and have plans to visit a nearby slot canyon. I've never shot (or visited) one before. According to the research I've done, this short canyon (1.4 miles round trip) is very similar in shape to those in Utah. Widths seem to range from between 15-20 feet wide to an arm span wide. Haven't seen any info on height of canyon walls yet, but info says the only direct light is at mid-day so I assume the walls are fairly high. Made of different rock than Utah slots (made of welded tuff). I know the common sense issues (be very aware of rain, take plenty of water, etc.) as I lived in the desert before, but I would like some photo tips for slots, ie. best time of day, angles, lenses, any slot specific recommendations. Any help, hints, or advice would be greatly appreciated. BTW, just simple walking and gentle scrambling required, no rappelling, little or no wading required. Thanks in advance.

In most places the best time is late morning to early afternoon when the sun is lighting up the upper lip of the canyon and the light bounces in and off the walls, creating a nice array of tones and shades.
This also often yields extremes of highlight and shadows that you should account for in your exposure (though this is much easier with digital using the histogram).
I photographed in slot canyons with anything from ultra-wide to short tele (200mm on a 35mm camera) so bring whatever you have - there may be opportunities for both near-far compositions and intimate detail images.
Also count on it being several degrees coler in the slot than outside so even on a nice day, a warm jacket or sweatshirt may help.
If you can, travel the canyon back and forth a couple of times. The light can change very quickly and highlight new things every time you look. Also looking back may reveal new compositions that you didn't see going in.

Guy

Bill,

Look for the 'reflected light' when you are in these canyons. As Guy said, the best time to shoot is when there is direct sun (clear day) lighting one rim of the canyon and the light is then reflected deeper into the canyon, often on the opposite wall, creating a warm glow, but still in the shadows. The ideal situation is to find an overhanging canyon wall that catches the direct sun and then reflects it like a parabolic mirror on to the floor of the canyon, creating fantastic soft warm light. The light in these canyons change very quickly and it will look very different in the morning than it will in late afternoon. Mid day is great at places like Antelope where you are looking for 'beams' through cracks in the roof of the slot, but this is a fairly unique situation found only in the deepest narrow overhanging slots. Most 'standard' slots are better in the morning or afternoon. If the slot is narrow you can often find great light looking straight up, but remember to bring a lens hood since the distance between the warm reflected light on one wall will be very close to the overhead sun creating flare problems. Also, be aware of falling sand from the rim when changing lenses in the canyon.
Hope that helps!

Mike Anderson
www.lightscapephoto.com

A swiveling eyepiece extender is helpful, and pretty much a must for some shots at tight canyons, such as Upper Antelope.
Bracketing exposures, planning to blend them because of the extreme light value range, will give the best results.
As mentioned, because of dust, don't plan on a lot of lens changes.

I'm certainly not one that has photographed much in slot canyons so cannot speak from much personal experience. However a few things are rather obvious that begs for some strategy. Most such deep shady canyons though trending in specific directions, tend to bend and S-turn a great deal. Thus each such section has its own period of the day when sunlight is likely to better enter down into the labyrinths to bathe the walls. As has been said, more likely when the sun is higher thus a solstice strategy at mid day hours. If one were exploring up such canyons say in the early morning hunting for prospective worthy subjects, it would be worthwhile to have a topographic map where one could identify one's exact location, a compass to assist identifying such and that would provide a certainty of ones orientation, and a chart of sun altitude and azimuth for the local area for the time of year. Even without the chart or map, just a compass would help a lot. But if one has some basic trig skills one might be able to estimate from map elevations and chart numbers the likelyhood of when a given area at the canyon bottom had most chance of catching light and how much. ...David

Thanks Guys for the advice - can't wait to get out there and play again! I plan to spend pretty much an entire day in the slot canyon and adjacent area, then back to Big Bend National Park for the remainder of the trip. I spent lots of time at Big Bend when I lived out there, but haven't seen it much since I moved back to Florida. Can't wait to return. Thanks again.