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Author Topic: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead  (Read 12027 times)

hogloff

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #20 on: June 28, 2017, 09:56:26 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.  :)

Same can be said about Peru with all it's ancient sites...but everyone gravitates to Picchu...just like everyone gravitates to the South side of the Grand Canyon.
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Farmer

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #21 on: June 28, 2017, 10:09:45 pm »

I was in MP in December 1985.  There were lots of people there already, although you were able to wander around at your own pace.  It's a wonderful place to visit (as is Cusco for that matter), and I understand photographers who want to get their own version of a shot, even if it's a "classic".

There are always alternatives.  I just came back from a week at Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon.  It wasn't a photographic trip, but I still took a lot of shots.  Some just holiday snaps for my wife and I to remember it, and some taken with "proper" photographic intent.  There were lots of people taking shots of the same things (and the sunset at Uluru is pretty limited in where you can go), but in my 4th time there over the last 40 years, it's greener than I've ever seen it (6 months of unseasonal weather and about 4 times the normal rain fall), which means there were some (for me at least) really interesting things to photograph, even from the "common" sunset location.

I can understand the disappointment of missing out on a particular trip and associated photography, but the planet is shrinking as populations increase and transport becomes faster, easier, and cheaper.  As always, it's about really looking if you want to find something new or different, even at an overexposed location.
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Phil Brown

JKoerner007

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #22 on: June 29, 2017, 08:30:43 pm »

then pay them 16x the usual fee to go with you alone.

That is also the difference between a professional and a tourist ;)

JKoerner007

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #23 on: June 29, 2017, 08:33:29 pm »

I can't think of any tourist attraction with more people than Yosemite.

Herds (dare I say, stampedes of human-cattle) everywhere (during normal hours).

Woke up at 4am to go capture a sunrise shot at 5:10am ... and there were only 7-10 people at that location (not 700 - 1000).

Tourists don't wake up at 4am to take photos ...

NancyP

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #24 on: August 11, 2017, 01:05:16 pm »

I do expect to see, and may actually welcome, a flock of photographers out for the eclipse.
This is a HUGE opportunity to get average people out to experience astronomy 101 and the outdoors, for not much money. It is a great education opportunity.

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Philmar

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #25 on: August 11, 2017, 05:18:56 pm »

I can't think of any tourist attraction with more people than Yosemite.

Herds (dare I say, stampedes of human-cattle) everywhere (during normal hours).

Woke up at 4am to go capture a sunrise shot at 5:10am ... and there were only 7-10 people at that location (not 700 - 1000).

Tourists don't wake up at 4am to take photos ...

They do at Angkor Wat.
Tourist still lined up after shooting Angor Wat at sunrise by Phil Marion, on Flickr

langier

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #26 on: August 26, 2017, 03:34:20 am »

This is the exact reason why I am in Serbia and soon heading to Bosnia. Nobody is here with a camera and I have all the places to my self!

Last week I was in Italy. We went to some popular places then got away from the crowds, especially in Venice. These places were just a Vaporetto ride away from everyone else...some packed as tightly as a sardine, btw! But still, get away from the crowds and the popular, over-photographed places and find something out there. Same with Siena.

We drove the back roads and found a herd of sheep, tractors plowing the fields like a Grant Wood painting, and a row of cypress trees at sundown, my "Italian solar eclipse" photo. I don't need to simply create the same photos everyone else has found there.

There's still so much discover and photograph in the world if you remove yourself from the box and start seeing rather than looking, looking...

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Larry Angier
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budjames

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #27 on: August 26, 2017, 04:12:03 am »

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:

I took my family to Iceland in March. This was our first visit and we rented a SUV. At every iconic place we came across photo tour groups. The groups would be in a tight huddle with tripods and $10s of thousands of pro DSLR gear all positioning for the same "postcard" shot.

In comparison, we came and went as we pleased. It seamed that we were always about 30-40 minutes ahead of photo tour busses that followed us. I got great shots because I was alone without a crowd.

After this experience, it is unlikely that I will ever sign up for any photo tours. Your photo kind of reinforces this feeling.

Cheers.
Bud James

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hogloff

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #28 on: August 26, 2017, 12:01:05 pm »

This is the exact reason why I am in Serbia and soon heading to Bosnia. Nobody is here with a camera and I have all the places to my self!

Last week I was in Italy. We went to some popular places then got away from the crowds, especially in Venice. These places were just a Vaporetto ride away from everyone else...some packed as tightly as a sardine, btw! But still, get away from the crowds and the popular, over-photographed places and find something out there. Same with Siena.

We drove the back roads and found a herd of sheep, tractors plowing the fields like a Grant Wood painting, and a row of cypress trees at sundown, my "Italian solar eclipse" photo. I don't need to simply create the same photos everyone else has found there.

There's still so much discover and photograph in the world if you remove yourself from the box and start seeing rather than looking, looking...

Yes...and quite often just going out and shooting in your own neck of the woods provides photos you never thought existed. Why is it that we have to travel thousands of miles to get a good photo?
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #29 on: November 28, 2018, 11:39:05 am »

Interesting post on tourists flocking to the "tick box sites".  NZ suffers the same fate as many other places, as evidenced by this item and my experience last year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-46342915

As Tony Soprano so aptly put it  "f***ing Internet!"
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Pavel

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #30 on: December 16, 2018, 03:30:48 pm »

I was at MP in 1998 while in Peru for two weeks with my family.  We had the scariest ride up, in a bus, where I wondered how we didn't wind up at the bottom of a two hundred foot ravine, and while seeing two old busses at the bottom.  But when we got there, my father, a photo enthusiast was the only person with a camera all day long.  The place was pretty much deserted, the bus we went up in was about 1/4 full.  It was a great way to spend a few hours and think about the history of the place. 

When I got back to Canada, nobody I ever told about it had a clue that the place existed.  They'd never heard of it, and didn't seem to think a place like that worth any effort to go to.  Yawn was pretty much the reception I got.

I guess times sure have changed.  Now, I would not bother going there. It would not at all be the experience that it was, before it became on of the "must" stops, on the Disney land photographic adventure tour. 
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Two23

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #31 on: December 16, 2018, 05:58:28 pm »



I guess times sure have changed.  Now, I would not bother going there. It would not at all be the experience that it was, before it became on of the "must" stops, on the Disney land photographic adventure tour.


"Aw, nobody goes there any more.  It's too crowded."
  (Attributed to Yogi Berra)



Kent in SD
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jeremyrh

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #32 on: January 03, 2019, 08:10:46 am »

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.  :)
I went to the Grand Canyon in September (?) 2015. I was on my own to see the dawn, a short bus ride from the visitor centre. Of course the place I photographed has been shot a million times before, with better light and by better photographers. It was still mind-blowing to me to see that scenery in real life, and I still love my photos.
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JayWPage

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #33 on: January 03, 2019, 12:08:23 pm »

I was at MP in 1998 while in Peru for two weeks with my family.  We had the scariest ride up, in a bus, where I wondered how we didn't wind up at the bottom of a two hundred foot ravine, and while seeing two old busses at the bottom.  But when we got there, my father, a photo enthusiast was the only person with a camera all day long.  The place was pretty much deserted, the bus we went up in was about 1/4 full.  It was a great way to spend a few hours and think about the history of the place. 

When I got back to Canada, nobody I ever told about it had a clue that the place existed.  They'd never heard of it, and didn't seem to think a place like that worth any effort to go to.  Yawn was pretty much the reception I got.

I guess times sure have changed.  Now, I would not bother going there. It would not at all be the experience that it was, before it became on of the "must" stops, on the Disney land photographic adventure tour.

I had pretty much the same experience in 1979. It was a foggy day with patches of fog drifting in and out, and scarcely any tourists at all. It's an experience I treasure to this day.
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drralph

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Re: Photography at Machu Picchu is dead
« Reply #34 on: January 16, 2019, 04:15:59 pm »

This all makes me so glad we went to Machu Picchu back in 2000.  En route we spent the night near by in Ollantaytambo, rather than closer in Aguas Calientes.  Ollantaytambo at that time was nearly untouched, and was at least as indelibly memorable at Machu Picchu.  This allowed us to take the first bus of the day up to MP, and have the place to ourselves for about 3 hours before the tour busses arrived.  I have wide shots without another soul to be seen.  It was quite a spiritual experience.
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