6.5 million for a photo of Upper Antelope Canyon.

[Saorsa]

Wow, just wow. The 6.5 Million dollar shot.


This shot is set up by the guides for every group that goes through the canyon. The shaft of light is there from about 11AM to 1PM. The tour stops, the guide takes a shovel and tosses a bunch of sand into the air.

Here's mine. I was there closer to noon. Straight from the camera jpeg, mono conversion with FastStone.



For just ONE million, I will do some postprocessing and print it for anyone who wants a copy.

[dubaiphil]

If ever a scene was destined to be shown in colour, then this is it!

The light in the bottom right of #2 is distracting

[IzzieK]

Interesting ghostly shapes there in both shots. Maybe that is why it is so expensive even for a print. Clever marketing...

[Donald]

Any work of art has, in my opinion, no value or infinite value. It merely is what it is. The amount of money paid for it is a feature of a number of factors. The work as an entity in its own right is bit one of these.

In terms of quality and artistic merit, I'm sure there are many equal to and better than this one that has attracted such a high price. Indeed, I think we've seen some that might qualify here on CiC. But if Mr Lik pockets $6.5 million for his efforts, then so be it.

[Saorsa]

It is and would be cropped in the post processing as soon as I get my million.

BTW, here it is in color.



These canyons do occasionally flood when it rains but most of the erosion is dry, It is the result of the wind blowing sand through the gaps..

[GBO25]

Any work of art has, in my opinion, no value or infinite value. It merely is what it is.

My thoughts exactly. One person's treasure is another person's junk and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
It is a rather spectacular canyon though and I guess he/she who shoots first and has the gift of the gab to talk up his/her shot goes home with the money.

[Saorsa]

I'm not concerned that Mr. Lik got 6.5 million but more amazed at the image. The Antelope canyons are on Indian land and the only way to them is with a licensed guide. Just search Antelope Canyon and you will find hundred if not thousands of images on-line.

I actually like his image better than mine. I dislike the vertical straight line on the right side of the cloud of dust in my shot. Hence the reduction to $1 million.

At this point in the upper canyon, the guide will stop you, wait for the previous tour to leave the FOV (note all the footsteps in the sand) get everybody lined up with cameras in position, reach down behind the wall on the right to get a seaside toy shovel from the sand and tell everyone to get ready and shout 'shoot' when he throws it up into the light. In the narrow canyon, the sound of 20 or 30 DSLR mirrors slapping at max FPS is almost deafening .

[Shadowman]

It's those hard to reach places (I'm talking about geographical) that merit high prices, how often will we get a chance to photograph the Earth from space?

[Saorsa]

It's those hard to reach places (I'm talking about geographical) that merit high prices, how often will we get a chance to photograph the Earth from space?

Actually, I took part in doing that back in the late 60s. The 'Blue Marble' was the first full color image of the entire earth from space taken by the ATS-3 Satellite.



At the time I was working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the STADAN control center and our network groundstations brought the image to earth.

http://tinyurl.com/kbne7cf


Regardless, Antelope Canyon isn't hard to get to. shows the way.Thousands go through it each year when visiting the Grand Canyon. It's not that easy to reach from Las Vegas but it's really not a difficult trek. Drive to Page AZ, and the indian guides will take you to the Upper Canyon. You can get to the lower canyon by rental car.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Page...36.8618209!3e0

[pnodrog]

I'm not concerned that Mr. Lik got 6.5 million but more amazed at the image. The Antelope canyons are on Indian land and the only way to them is with a licensed guide. Just search Antelope Canyon and you will find hundred if not thousands of images on-line.

I actually like his image better than mine. I dislike the vertical straight line on the right side of the cloud of dust in my shot. Hence the reduction to $1 million.

At this point in the upper canyon, the guide will stop you, wait for the previous tour to leave the FOV (note all the footsteps in the sand) get everybody lined up with cameras in position, reach down behind the wall on the right to get a seaside toy shovel from the sand and tell everyone to get ready and shout 'shoot' when he throws it up into the light. In the narrow canyon, the sound of 20 or 30 DSLR mirrors slapping at max FPS is almost deafening .

I think at a mere $1m it is a bit of a bargain. Unfortunately my wife wants something else for christmas and I can't afford both.

[Shadowman]

Actually, I took part in doing that back in the late 60s. The 'Blue Marble' was the first full color image of the entire earth from space taken by the ATS-3 Satellite.



At the time I was working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the STADAN control center and our network groundstations brought the image to earth.

http://tinyurl.com/kbne7cf


Regardless, Antelope Canyon isn't hard to get to. shows the way.Thousands go through it each year when visiting the Grand Canyon. It's not that easy to reach from Las Vegas but it's really not a difficult trek. Drive to Page AZ, and the indian guides will take you to the Upper Canyon. You can get to the lower canyon by rental car.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Page...36.8618209!3e0

Brian,

Thanks for the information, just wondering who owns the copyright to that image?

[Saorsa]

Brian,

Thanks for the information, just wondering who owns the copyright to that image?

Well NASA owns it so it's basically in the public domain. Cost to produce did exceed 6.5 million though.

The ATS-3 was a remarkable bird. The failure of a commercial comsat meant that we used it to relay the images of the Mexico City Olympics to Europe. We did a LOT of signal quality checks to the point that the control room was crowded for a couple of weeks there.

[GBO25]

Did it sell for $6.5 million. I don't think so.
See
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...12-125khz.html

and

http://petapixel.com/2014/12/13/just...itute-torture/

It would seem that it's no more than a self serving urban legend circulated by Peter Lik.

[IzzieK]

Janis-- I like this one that is a link on the same page as Graham's last link up there...52 Week Photography and Business Challenge... good read:

http://petapixel.com/2015/01/01/52-w...ess-challenge/