Lizard on the stone wall of Machu Picchu, the ancient "lost city of the Incas", 1400 CA, 2400 meters. Made know to the world by Hiram Bingham in 1911. Huayanapichu (young mountain) in the distance. 17-40mm f/4L IS (19mm) 1/50 sec. @ f/14, ISO 100, Hand-held leaning over the wall ever so slowly as to not scare the lizard. I was in a pretty precarious position when shooting this and I wanted to try one more shot at f/16 or f/22 for some more depth of field but the lizard scurried off before I could execute a few more frames.
I’ve seen pictures of Machu Picchu over the years, but none of them really prepared me for the first hand view. This “lost city of the Incas” is a commanding site, filled with mystery, and perched in the most spectacular mountain jungle location. I shared a few pics on a post a while back, just after the visit, but they were just Iphone snap shots. Here are some more vivid images from my real cameras. I know this place has been photographed over and over again, but I was happy to have my crack at it, and the moody clouds and lighting falling on the stone city was impressive. I was there for less than 24 hours, with one try at morning light. The disheartening clouds slowly dissipated, and in the course of 1.5 hours, I ran around frantically assessing the scene and attempting various compositions.
Here are a few of the many keepers that resulted from that brief visit. They were shot with the Canon 5D Mark II, with an exposure optimized to extract the greatest dynamic range out of one file, without the use of a split-graduated neutral density filter. I’ll discuss how I achieve this in an upcoming post.
Both Llamas and Alpaca roam the grounds of Machu Picchu, serving as efficient lawn mowers with the added bonus of being able to graze all the grass that grows on some of the terraces and vertical walls. This splash of late evening sun did not last long, and I waited quite a while for people to clear out of this scene. 17-40mm f/4L IS (17mm) 1/250 sec. @ f/10, ISO 200
When I woke early, the solid gray clouds and rain did not give me much hope for the few hours I had to photograph before departing at 9 A.M. However, about an hour after initial sunrise, the skies began to brighten and the sun slowly burned its way through as the clouds dissipated. The slow revelation of the ruins was mysterious and it truly felt like discovering the "lost city of the Incas" all over again. 24-105mm f/4L IS (45mm) 1/40 sec. @ f/14, ISO 100
Morning fog and clouds reveal Machu Picchu, the ancient "lost city of the Incas". The Urubamba river arcs around the back side of the mountain, making for quite a strategic situation for its former inhabitants. 24-105mm f/4L IS (24mm) 1/80 sec. @ f/10, ISO 100
Evening light on Machu Picchu, Huaynapicchu (young mountain) in the distance. 17-40mm f/4L (17mm) 1/100 sec. @ f/10, ISO 200
Morning light falls on Machu Picchu. 17-40mm f/4L (20mm) 1/250 sec. @ f/10, ISO 100
Machu Picchu, the ancient "lost city of the Incas". 17-40mm f/4L (17mm) 1/50 sec. @ f/8, ISO 100
Patrick, I’ve been waiting for your images of the city, and really enjoyed viewing them. Your use of wide angles and perspective are excellent and give me a feel for the place. The fog sets a mood and tone of the ancient city and its place amongst the clouds.
Peter
Thanks Peter, have you been there? If not, it is worth putting on your destination list.
Incredible photos!!! I love how you incorporated local wildlife into the landscape. Beautiful trip!
Hi
You seem to do a lot of traveling. I guess that is not surprising though 🙂
Why not come to South Africa at some point? The landscape here is very dramatic and varies widely. The Mediterranean Cape climate makes for wonderful photography. The Cape has the widest variety of plant and animal species of any location worldwide. You will get similar mountainous shots to this as well as flowers by the million, animals, etc. Some of my favorite views are misty Winter shots, similar to those above, after heavy rain over table mountain. Waterfalls of hundreds of meters literally cascade off the edges.
I’d love to see what your photographic eye could do with our landscape.
Chris,
I’ve been to South Africa once, but it was a quick visit while passing through. I’ve got the southern part of Africa on my short list, maybe next year. I hear the Cape area is beautiful indeed.