The Faces Of Peru

More than just the iconic Machu Picchu, Peru is a wealth of landscape, wildlife and cultural photographic opportunities

By Bob Krist

Labels: Locations

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Llama and Machu Picchu
Nikon D90, Nikkor 16-85mm lens, Nikon SB-800 Speedlight flash

I’m perched precariously on a ledge looking over stone ruins 30 feet below when the winds and the rains suddenly let up, sun shafts penetrating the clearing clouds, and somebody gives me a strong shove from behind. On my knees, framing a shot in my tripod-mounted camera at the edge of a wall near the Watchman’s Hut in Machu Picchu, the fabled lost city of the Incas in Peru, I topple forward, but thanks to a low center of gravity, both the camera and I manage to stay on the wall.

Swinging around to give the culprit a piece of my mind, I come face to fur with the hefty rear flank of a llama. Apparently, he was grazing with the same intensity with which I was shooting, and neither one of us noticed the other until he nearly sent me to the sun gods with an Andean hip check.

As if to apologize for his clumsiness, my doe-eyed friend proceeds to position himself just in the perfect position for an environmental portrait with the famous ruins in the background. I grab the D90 off the pod, throw on an SB-800 for a kiss of flash fill on those big eyes, and frame up the scene quickly, thankful for the late-afternoon sun and the willing four-legged subject that gives me just that much of a different twist on Peru’s most famous view.

A family paddles their reed boat near Balseros, one of the Uros reed islands near Puno, on Lake Titicaca.
Nikon D90, Nikkor 12-24mm lens

That’s the way it is in Peru—even as you frame up a great shot, a better one will present itself, usually with a bit more ease than this.

Three Perus?
Although it’s one sovereign country, most tour guides here like to say there are three Perus with distinctly different landscapes. The first Peru consists of the thin strip of desert that runs down the Pacific coast. The second is the wide area of low-lying Amazon jungle in the country’s interior. The third and most famous area, lying between the other two, is the Andes region—a dramatic landscape of high mountains, cloud forest and desolate plateaus that was home to the Inca empire.

I’ve been fortunate enough to photograph two of the three Perus, and one day hope to make it back to the jungle. But there’s enough in the other two areas to keep you happily shooting for months!

Having been to the Andes region several times on my last trip to Peru, I wanted to check out the coastal area before heading up into Inca country. My main reason for making the journey south from the capital city of Lima was to see, and hopefully photograph, the famous geoglyphs known as the Nazca Lines. These huge carvings in the floor of the desert, made between 200 B.C. and A.D. 700, run the gamut from sets of geometric lines to stylized representations of hummingbirds, monkeys, spiders and an assortment of other figures.

It’s a long (185-mile) drive from Lima to Ica, the jumping-off place for most visits to the Nazca Lines, so don’t try to do it in a day. The small town of Nazca itself is another two hours south, but most tours will put you up overnight near Ica, where there’s a small airport that serves as home for the flight-seeing operations.

Although there’s one place on the road near the Nazca Lines with a 36-foot-high platform, where you get partial elevated views of the Hand and the Tree, getting up in the air really is the only way to appreciate these large figures.

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Dave Harrison makes this comment

Wednesday, 26 August 2009

I read with interest Bob Krist's article entitled "The Faces of Peru". I visited Machu Picchu last January with a photo tour group. Bob suggests that would-be photographers probably won't have any trouble carrying a tripod into the ruins. I strongly disaggree. On my first day there the person at the ticket booth flatly refused to allow me to take my tripod into the site. Our Spanish speaking tour guide argued vociferously in our favor but to no avail. We were forced to take only hand held photos that day. On the second day I put a smaller tripod into my pack and was able to sneak it in. I took several dawn photos with it but it didn't take long before one of the security guards saw me and escorted me to the park entrance to check my tripod once again. It was extremely frustrating to travel thousands of miles to one of the premire photo locations in the world only to find out that tripods are not allowed. Travelers beware.
Jack M. Kantola makes this comment

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

I enjoyed revisiting Cusco, Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca through Bob's article. However, Bob did exagerate the elevations of both Cusco and Lake Titicaca a bit. Cusco is actually at 10,912 ft not the 12,000 ft Bob mentions in his article and Lake Titicaca is at 12,500 ft not 13,000 ft. Machu Picchu is actually at a lower elevation than both at 7,874 ft. With the access to information we have today there is no reason to provide incorrect information in articles for a fine magazine like Outdoor Photorgapher.
Ron Smith makes this comment

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

I'm glad you have the website so I could read this article. My August magazine arrived with the pages for the Peru article smeared and mostly unreadable. Thanks for providing an alternative.
Francis makes this comment

Monday, 03 August 2009

I really appreciated your photographs. I especially liked the pic showing the baby's face half hidden in a colored "manta". I often travel to Peru and love the coastal areas of Paracas (South) and Huanchaco (not far from Trujillo). I also visit the Tambopata jungle in the the southern Amazonian strip of Peru. I have a few photographs disseminated in my web site www.incari.net
Alexandre Buisse makes this comment

Friday, 31 July 2009

I heartily recommend to go to the north of Peru, and specifically around Huaraz, with both the Cordillera Blanca and the Huayhuash, two amazing mountain ranges with very accessible trekking and climbing options. You can see some of my images from my two trips there: http://www.aperturefirst.org/index.php?x=browse&category=21
Maik Dobiey makes this comment

Friday, 31 July 2009

That is a good overview for travelling to the most popular sites in Peru. I actually moved to Peru almost 2 years ago. I went to Machu Picchu twice and the second time I had to check my tripod and all lenses exept for one at the gate. The best is not to use photo bags that are recognizable as that nor any type of big tripod that will catch attention at the gate. Once you are in the ruins you rarely have problems.
Koky Caballero makes this comment

Thursday, 30 July 2009

Thanks Bob for your great pictures !! There are many great places to enjoy with our cameras in Perú (Coast of Paracas, Huascarán Mountain in Huaraz, Machu Pichu, The Amazonas, etc) Fell free to write me if you want advices for Lima and other cities or maybe could make a tour in my 4x4.
Nicki4kids makes this comment

Friday, 24 July 2009

Hi Bob, I just returned from Peru and took pictures very similar, if not almost identical to yours, even with the llama and the clouds over Machu Picchu, the same fountain in the evening, in Cusco, etc. I don't know nearly as much about photography as you, but I'm getting there. Fun stuff.

Locations

The Faces Of Peru

More than just the iconic Machu Picchu, Peru is a wealth of landscape, wildlife and cultural photographic opportunities

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