February saw a photography trip to the Antelope Canyons in Northern Arizona with a group of photography friends. This photograph was taken in Upper Antelope Canyon under some rather unusual circumstances. If you've photographed in Upper Antelope Canyon before you know that you take a two to three mile jeep ride from the parking lot up a dry wash to the entrance to the canyon. It wasn't until I got into the canyon that I realized the ball head of my tripod was frozen. There was no way I could use my tripod. So I opened my lens all the way to f/2.8 sacrificing depth of field. And I punched the ISO up to 800 and proceeded to shoot hand held. It's amazing what you can do when you have to. This photograph is actually three HDR images merged together and all captured without a tripod. I laid on my back aiming my camera nearly straight up, held very still, stopped breathing and pushed the shutter. It all worked out although a tour guide gave me a strange look as she led her group past my prostrate body.

When I was photographing this in the canyon I was struck by the waves of luminous stone that lead from the darkness into the light. Back home I saw a lace curtain blown by the wind streaming through an open window along with the golden rays of the setting sun. In the print I tried to achieve a translucent effect in the folds of the 'curtain' and create the appearance of the sun was shining through the lace.

This photograph was taken with my Canon 1Ds Mark III with a Canon 24-70 f2.8L USM lens. While the ball head on my tripod was frozen, I still used the tripod as a monopod to provide the added little bit of stability I needed to capture this HDR image hand held.