High in the Andes, the deep blue skies can be deceptive. This was mid-morning and the lake in front of me was frozen. At night, the temperature regularly dropped to -20 Celsius. It was also breathless here as I was standing at over 4,200m altitude.
If you like desolate, abandoned places, the Atacama Desert is the place for you.
Machu Picchu at dawn, taken back in 2007 on my medium format film camera. This image is around the same size as the actual transparency. There were a lot more people there but most of them were standing in a line next to me taking a similar shot to me.
If you have not seen Machu Picchu, it is one of those special places you should try to see in your lifetime, especially if you are able to trek to it along the Inca trail.
I took this shot whilst standing on a manmade, floating island, on Lake Titicaca, close to Puno in Bolivia. The locals, descended from the Spanish and the Incas, built the Uros Floating Islands from reeds, as well as the shelter you can see in this image. In the background, you can see one of the locals rowing her boat with her baby strapped to her back.
If you look closely enough, you can see the traditional engine…
I was standing on the edge of Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable lake at a dizzy altitude of 3,811 m, when the girl in this photograph approached me and asked if I would take a picture of her. This was in 2003, so this shot was on 120 film, certainly well before the widespread usage of digital cameras. I doubt she will ever see this image, unless she somehow managed to find my blog.
If you ever decide to see South America, I strongly recommend that you visit Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia. The lake is beautiful, with the Andes scraping the sky behind them in the distance.
I decided to change my point of view from large, open vistas to small, micro environments for this image. In addition, I seem to have ruined my knee whilst on a run last week, so was confined to the back garden at the weekend. Thee little flowers smell wonderful but apparently are a nightmare for hay fever sufferers…
High on the altiplano between Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, the sky is an impossibly deep blue. The car pulling up was my driver, who played a prank and drove off when I was talking too many photos. It gave the scene a sense of scale, which was perfect. I ended up asking him to do this a few times over the 4 day trip, much to his bemusement.
Believe it or not, this is late spring / early summer in Ushuaia. You can just make out the city across the Beagle Channel to the right on the coast. The clouds rolled in from the south (which in this case, the next landmass is Antartica) and it started to snow (this would be like late May in Europe). We were on a yacht and the boat was at a constant 30 degree angle as we sped across the waves back to town. It was unbelievably cold and all of the passengers were required to stay on deck.
On the plus side, the wildlife we had travelled over to see did not seem to care about the impending storm.
Last time I was in Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world, was back in 2010. I visited Argentina, Bolivia and Chile for a 20 day photography trip. I started in Tierra del Fuego and worked my way north.
Ushuaia is an industrial town, situated next to the Beagle Channel, nestled amongst the mountains. Whilst wondering along the waters edge, I cam across this old tug that had run aground. The scene felt as desolate as the wintry weather that was lashing it that morning.
Walking along the beach in Exmouth last week, the clouds took on a pattern similar to the sand bumps on the shore. My new Formatt-Hitech filter gave a warm purple tone instead of the customary cold blue of the Lee filters, lifting the colour of the scene. I was so pre-occupied with the scene that I did not notice the progressive surf. Moments later, a wave washed in from my left and soaked me to the knee. Worth it though.
All Terrain Photography 