I'll share my approach to shooting Machu Picchu. Adorama TV presents

Exploring Photography with Mark Wallace.

Hi everybody welcome to another episode of Exploring Photography right here on

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Well I’m hanging out here in Cusco Peru. I just returned from an amazing trip

to Machu Picchu. One of the most amazing places in the world.

Now I’m wanna talk to you about how I made this image in this episode.

Well I have to say Machu Picchu was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

I went with my good friend Lex and we had a phenomenal day exploring this site.

Now one of the challenges in making this video was

Machu Picchu is a World Heritage Site and so we weren't allowed to shoot video

there because you're from special permits and all kinds of things that we

didn't have and so what we’ll be doing in this video

is I'll be sharing with you the principles of how I made my images

using some of the stills that Lex took of me shooting

and some other stills that I took to demonstrate what we were doing

at Machu Picchu. Well let's start by talking about gear

that I used. I use my Canon 5D Mark III

camera and my Canon 16-35mm f2.8

L lens. I also shot some stuff with my 24-70mm f/2.8

L lens but I think I only took maybe one or two pictures with the 24-70mm.

If I had it to do all over again I think I would only bring my 16-35mm

lens. I used it all day long and it was terrific.

The other thing I brought was my trusty Benro Travel Angel II Carbon Fiber Tripod.

There are a lot of places that you can't use

a tripod in Machu Picchu and so you have to carry it around and so this tripod is so

light it wasn't a big burden to do that and I could just take it out

and use it in the places that I could use a tripod so it worked really really

well.

I was able to bring all my gear up there in this, this is my Tenba,

my shootout bag. It’s a 24 litre bag I was able to take my tripods,

my video gear that we were able to use, all the lens,

the camera, everything right here in this bag. It is awesome.

I have to mention that it rained while we were there and one of the great things about the

Tenba bag, it's got a rain cover so that made sure everything was protected.

It worked out just great. Well let's dive in and talk about how I created this

image, I got some pointers that you can use if you're going to Machu Picchu

or some other site

that's very awesome. One of the most important things for capturing an image like this

is to make sure that you shoot at the right time of day and the right time a day is

sunrise at the golden hour.

We were up at four in the morning to catch a bus to get

up to the mountain and hike. I looked at my images in Lightroom and I discovered

that the amount of time I had to get that image from when we got there too

when the light just went away, was about 15

minutes. That was it. So get there early and get the shot as soon as you can

because that light might not last very long. You can see in these images, here's

the image that I shot right at Golden Hour

and here's another image that I shot about 15 minutes later and you can see

that the light is just

flat and no good. So the right time of day makes a huge difference.

One other things about a site like Machu Picchu or yellowstone or Niagara Falls or

anyplace that thousands upon thousands of tourists visit

every day, is that crowds are inevitable and so you really have to come with an

extra dose of patience

if you want to get that shot with no people in it. In fact you can look at

this shot you can see if you look closely

there's a person smack dab in the middle of the shot. So I waited it out

and sure enough she moved out of the way and I was able to get the shot and then 10

seconds later boom a lot of people were there.

So that is one of the reasons you just have to be patient there's another

reason that you want to get to a site like this

really early because the crowds are a lot thinner.

Another one of thing that you can do with a site like this is you know get that

shot that everybody loves

and then get some other things that people don't normally see. For example

Machu Picchu I didn't know it's surrounded by some amazing

mountains and so we spent some time shooting those mountain ranges.

As we hiked up to the Sun Gate we found this amazing little park

that had some little mounds of rocks people left there.

So I was able to shoot some of those. We made our own little kern and

left it as a monument to our visit. It was

awesome.

Then I also shot the interior of Machu Picchu and saw some things

that I hadn't seen before

so make sure that you shoot things that aren't obvious.

So after you get that first amazing shot then shoot the small things and the

details and you might be surprised

at the amazing pictures that you get. Don't be afraid to shoot an unusual

point of view.

Now we hiked all the way up to this place called the Sun Gate.

It was quite a hike getting up there but from that vantage point I was able

to shoot Machu Picchu

in context. You can sort of see the big mountains, you can see how it's situated

inside this mountain range. Now I don't like this photo as much as the closer

image but it really helps to establish context for people that haven't been

there

and so explore unusual points of view. Once you shoot your images don't be

afraid to edit those images

in post. I like to shoot raw, in fact I always shoot raw and that allow you to sweeten

up those photos.

I took my image I crop it to a sixteen by nine

aspect ratio, I warmed up using my color temperature slider.

Here is the difference the before straight out of the camera shot

and the shot that I edited. I love the edited version it looks a lot more

like what I saw with my eyes. The last tip I have for photographing a place

like this

is don't forget to enjoy the place that you're visiting. Don't get so caught up

in the photography that you forget to really fully experience

where you are. It might be a once in a lifetime opportunity and

you don't wanna miss it because you're filling with your camera all day long.

We’ll I also remind you Adorama has some amazing

photo contests. So maybe you've shot an image similar to this one,

you can enter it into a contest and you could win some great prizes so

click the link and enter today.

Thanks so much for joining me for this episode of Exploring Photography. I

learned a lot by shooting Machu Picchu and

I hope some of my learning will help you when you get this experience

as well. Well don't forget you can subscribe to Adorama TV

absolutely free so click the link and you won't miss a single

episode. Thanks again for joining me and I'll see you again next time.

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