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Author Topic: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead  (Read 12029 times)

shadowblade

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Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« on: June 20, 2017, 10:27:10 am »

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/jun/20/machu-picchu-tickets-peru-timed-entry-control-flow-of-tourists

Must now go with a guide (so no sneaking a tripod in), following a set route, at a set pace since you'll be part of a group.

So no more waiting around at key spots for just the right lighting at the right time of the day - all you'll get is tourist snapshots, and whether you get great lighting or just a mass of cloud will be mostly up to luck rather than patience.

A real pity. This is what I was fearing and why I was trying to go there a few weeks ago, before losing all my equipment and a fair bit of blood in a robbery. I had been planning to go again next year for another try. Now I'll probably never go, except in the unlikely event they loosen those restrictions in the future.
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hogloff

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2017, 01:31:56 pm »

I agree with the changes...what choice do they have? If it's overrun by tourists, a daily quota system needs to be installed to protect the site. We have enough photos of Picchu, but once it is destroyed, it's gone forever.

Maybe there will be photo guides dedicated to photography groups.
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shadowblade

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2017, 01:52:23 pm »

Not the quota - many places have quotas.

It's the fact that you now need to move along as part of a group rather than, say, being able to wait at one spot along the path for half an hour waiting for the right lighting conditions to appear, or for the clouds to move into a better position.

No real photography, no ability to wait for the best moments - just point and shoot when you get there, then move on and back to the bus, just like any othet tour group tourist.

Unless, I guess, you can find an independent guide, then pay them 16x the usual fee to go with you alone.
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hogloff

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2017, 02:22:45 pm »

Or just not go. I will never go to the Grand Canyon nor Yellowstone as the crowds chased me away. The world is full of places to photograph, we don't all need to focus on the iconic locations that have been photographed to death.
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graeme

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2017, 04:17:58 pm »

Not the quota - many places have quotas.

It's the fact that you now need to move along as part of a group rather than, say, being able to wait at one spot along the path for half an hour waiting for the right lighting conditions to appear, or for the clouds to move into a better position.

No real photography, no ability to wait for the best moments - just point and shoot when you get there, then move on and back to the bus, just like any othet tour group tourist.

Unless, I guess, you can find an independent guide, then pay them 16x the usual fee to go with you alone.

This is a First World Problem. Chill out.
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Telecaster

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2017, 04:37:31 pm »

March and November are nice times to visit Grand Canyon Nat. Park: not too many other people there. Also, last time I visited (2014) I took a camera and some lenses but didn't go to photograph per se. The same would be true at Machu Picchu.

-Dave-
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2017, 08:05:49 pm »

Photography, originally a solitary endeavour, has turned into a mass tourism, mass industry. Where there is one photographer waiting for the right light, there will soon be two... then three, four... I can see how they don't want to turn it into this:

shadowblade

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2017, 09:00:22 pm »

This is a First World Problem. Chill out.

Not when it's your plans - 5 years of planning and 3 failed attempts to actually get there - which have been ruined. No point going any more if you can't get photos, or only snapshots.
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hogloff

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #8 on: June 20, 2017, 09:23:52 pm »

Not when it's your plans - 5 years of planning and 3 failed attempts to actually get there - which have been ruined. No point going any more if you can't get photos, or only snapshots.

Lot of people visit the site just to witness it personally. If you can't get the photo you want, you can still feel the spirit of the place and take that back with you. Sometimes there is more than photography...and maybe perserving this place is more important than a photographer getting an icon shot.
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graeme

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2017, 05:08:23 am »

Not when it's your plans - 5 years of planning and 3 failed attempts to actually get there - which have been ruined. No point going any more if you can't get photos, or only snapshots.

Sorry to hear that. Personal plans not working out because of larger forces / circumstances is just part of life. ( Read the news any day ). You sound like a smart, resourceful & physically fit guy: I'm sure there are loads of interesting places you could get to away from the tourist trail.

There are a lot of images of Machu Picchu on the web. It looks like a more interesting place to visit than to photograph.
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Petrus

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2017, 05:22:17 am »

Lot of people visit the site just to witness it personally. If you can't get the photo you want, you can still feel the spirit of the place and take that back with you. Sometimes there is more than photography...and maybe perserving this place is more important than a photographer getting an icon shot.

I am seriously contemplating going to Nepal for 2-3 months and NOT TAKE a camera at all. I would, for once, just look and perceive (hopefully). Been there 9 times so far.

We walked the Inca Trail and visited Machu Picchu some years back, I could not make better pictures than the thousands of other professionals before me because the weather was not coöperating. You know, storm clouds in the background with bright sun flashing low though the clouds spotlighting the main features of the empty ancient town kind of light. Quite a letdown, no rainbow either. And it was not empty. There were maybe 200 other hikers at the Sun Gate when we hiked in, thousands more bussed up every day from the railroad terminus. There were about 1000 others at Angkor Wat sunrise in Cambodia. Iceland tourism has exploded. So it goes. At least I got to Tibet in the eighties, and Eastern Tibet is still untouristed. Do not tell anyone...
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petermfiore

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2017, 07:02:15 am »

There are a lot of images of Machu Picchu on the web. It looks like a more interesting place to visit than to photograph.

Exactly...Light and it's quality is the true subject of any landscape. Often by staying home to explore the virtues of where you are can yield powerful images.

Peter

graeme

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #12 on: June 21, 2017, 07:21:05 am »

Often by staying home to explore the virtues of where you are can yield powerful images.

Peter

I think Josef Sudek & Saul Leiter understood that.
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FabienP

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #13 on: June 21, 2017, 05:24:47 pm »

Having to join groups remind me of the experience of visiting several places managed by the Imperial Household Agency in Kyoto, such as the Shugakuin Imperial Villa. One has to apply in advance for a time slot and hope for the best as far as the light and weather are concerned. One is obviously free to come again to maximise chances of enjoying good light, but this is at best a tenuous experience.

Some places have started organising dedicated photography tours in groups (e.g. Antelope Canyon). That sounds like a reasonable compromise for very crowded places. I wonder though if such groups are as profitable as a coach full of tightly packed tourists using only their smartphones.

Cheers,

Fabien
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BAB

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #14 on: June 21, 2017, 08:57:59 pm »

Picchu = Drone
Grand Caynon = Helicopter and Drone
Tripods and crowds have been banned at several public places for a long time.
Permits = Pay for Play


Anyway Picchu at 5:00am or 8:00pm must be doable?


Good Luck
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luxborealis

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #15 on: June 22, 2017, 07:52:26 am »

Places like MP have been so overphotographed over the years. Searching online turns up hundreds of practically the same image.

Perhaps restricting photography at popular places like this will drive people (a) to become more creative and (b) explore other places of equal beauty/intrigue/significance, but not on the "ticker's" list.
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graeme

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #16 on: June 22, 2017, 08:08:50 am »

Places like MP have been so overphotographed over the years. Searching online turns up hundreds of practically the same image.

Perhaps restricting photography at popular places like this will drive people (a) to become more creative and (b) explore other places of equal beauty/intrigue/significance, but not on the "ticker's" list.

Hopefully Cuba will ban photography. ;D
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hogloff

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #17 on: June 22, 2017, 08:34:38 am »

Hopefully Cuba will ban photography. ;D

Cuba is much different. It's a large country with a lot of unique places to photograph that are totally off the beaten paths. If you go to Havana or Trinidad...sure you might get some same images, but go elsewhere and you'll be in very unique places.

I don't see Cuba at all in the same light as Picchu, Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend etc...
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luxborealis

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #18 on: June 22, 2017, 08:50:48 am »

Exactly...Light and it's quality is the true subject of any landscape. Often by staying home to explore the virtues of where you are can yield powerful images.

Peter

+1
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sierraman

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2017, 04:36:35 pm »

C'mon, The Grand Canyon? The canyon is 277 miles long. There are plenty of spots to photograph that are seldom visited. Last time I was at Toroweap I was the only person there for 2 days.  :)
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