Now that summer has arrived and we are at a nice, comfortable remove from winters chilly embrace, its seems to be a good time to reflect on its beauty. I shot these images last winter over New Years weekend. Our … Continue reading
I just made this epic tome of my images from Peru. I built it as a book dummy and portfolio piece. Its about 160 pages and is being printed on high quality, Ilford Pearl Lustre paper with archival end pages, an oatmeal colored linen cover with this cool, wrap around cover sheet. You can view it here and even order one though its damn expensive. My concept for the book was to show different vignettes and photo stories from my 9 months of travel in Peru in 2009 and have fun, colorful chapter breaks with grids of various cultural items. Some examples below.
Neo-Druids, the contemporary followers of the ancient order of Druids, gather four times a year at Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain of South-Central England. During the Winter and Summer Solstice and Equinox, the 3000 year old site is opened fully to spiritual revelry. … Continue reading
While in China a couple months ago I visited the rural province of Jinagxi which is the SouthEast, about 6 hours from Shanghai. While walking a road thru a lush mountain valley on the way to an isolated village I was struck by the incredible amount of insects and reptile buzzing, hopping and slithering about. The snakes were so prevalent they were ubiquitous roadkill.
Just returned the other day from my second jaunt to the land of my girlfriend. Spent 3 weeks, a couple in Lima then a week in the south where my moms and I tackled a day on the famed Inca Trail and then took in Machu Picchu. Twice in 9 months..never thought that would happen..so don’t need to go there for about 5 years but lots more to see in Peru. I would like to visit a more recently discovered ruin in the north named “Kuelap” that is said to rival Machu Picchu and gets just a handful of tourists. Also, the deserts of Ica are amazing for paleontology. Take a walk back in there and u will literally stumble on exposed whale skeletons.
All the images here are from my G9 Point and Shoot. I shot 20 rolls of film but haven’t gotten them souped yet. The images are actually in the chronological order I shot them starting on Dec 21 to Jan 11th. Lots more to come…
Step out of the seclusion of the up-scale areas of Lima (a city of 11 million) and this is a typical street corner with fairly typical people in Peru, excluding the highlands (the Andean regions) or in the Amazon.
Unintentional art installation from third world telephone wiring
Sunset at the beach two hours south of Lima. Colors have not been tweaked.
Clowns are all the rage at parties in Lima these days. They come in mid-party and pass out balloons and shit. We made a crazy hat which we were obsessed with doing for at least an hour...New Years night, from about 2-3am.
Flash lighting up water in the air at the beach during a quick New Years ceremony on the beach before sunrise.
These ghosts haunted us on our way back to the crib.
Paracas, a chain of islands off the Southern coast of Peru. Labeled the "poor mans galapagos" by Lonely Planet, its populated by tons of birds and fat little penguins. 100 years ago the tens of thousands of tons of bird guano was harvested there every year was Peru's richest exportable resource. It still is 5o meters deep on the islands and groups of men live on the islands for periods of four months at a time harvesting it every year.
A gorgeous lake in the desert isn't impervious to the spoils of Coke.
Controlled(?) burn off the Pan-American Sur on way back to Lima. Would of pulled over if I was driving..love the arrangement of people
Had Chicharron for breakfast. Super tasty/super greasy ham sandwiches.
Pigeons at the San Fransisco Church in Central Lima. The catacombs below it house 100's of mid-evil skeletons.
On our way up to a giant jesus statue on the top of mountain in Central Lima.
Lima.
Street scene in outer neighborhood of Lima.
Tico taxi's, a Korean mini, are ubiquitous in the south of Peru. This was in Cusco, the mid-evil city which one departs from to Machu Picchu
3 Andean girls descending from their mountain village south of Cusco.
It rained on my dear mum and I for about 5 hours on our hike on the Inca Trail. This was an amazing blossom off of a yucca plant, probably 15 ft high.
Even on our one day hike of the normally 4 day hike of the Inca trail, we still witnessed changes in Eco-systems. Here, we rounded the corner into a cloud forest valley with waterfalls just down the way. Was one of the most stunning natural settings I have ever laid my fairly well traveled feet.
Cloud Forest
Winay-Wayna ruin. Only accessible from the Inca Trail. Pre-Colombian Inca ruin with a huge amphitheater of terraced farming, 3 hours from Machu Picchu.
A bromeliad growing on a moss covered tree in the cloud forest.
The feet of an Andean porter on the Inca trail. His sandals are made from car tires.
Machu Picchu.
Llama at Machu Picchu. The flashy earrings are so the owners can tell them apart in a herd as they roam.
Survey of beef heads in market in Cusco.
Gordo nino en la mercado en Cusco.
Andean women of different regions wear different style of hats. This woman had such serious business concerning the man in the picture she is holding that I could freely shoot this usually camera shy culture.
This was a hilarious attempt of Chicken Cordon Bleu. The restaurant was called "Gordon Blue" and it was the house specialty so I gave it a try. 15/soles which was $5.00. The ham was baloney and the cheese was a white farmers fresh cheese so didn't really work but chicken was fried deliciously but jesus, they were nuts! That's a ton of food!!. Clockwise from Chicken at bottom: Choclo, the giant corn of Peru. Fresh cut french fries. Salad with strips of the fresh cheese, white rice with a poached egg, fried plantain.
View of mountains across from Machu Picchu.
The Urubamba river flows by Machu Picchu on its way north 450 miles to meet up with the Amazon river and then flows east to the Atlantic. This is the same river that the community I worked with in the amazon lived next to. At this point, the river is still near its headwaters in the high Andean mountains but its making its way down into the rain forest.
was good fun if you don’t mind a bad case of altitude sickness. If I get it at 15,000 ft. does that mean a summit attempt of Everest is out of the question? Even with the vomiting, a constant headache, the inability to stomach eating dinner for 2 nights in a row after hiking 10 miles a day, it was still worth it (at least in retrospect..).
Huraz, Peru is a small town that is the jump off point for people going to adventure in one of the highest mountain ranges in the world. It was a 9 hour bus ride from Lima. I did a 3 nite, 4 day trek. Was beauteous and quite relaxing as we had mules carrying out backpacks. It snowed once, rained a bit and on our hardest day marching to the pass we were down to t-shirts. The 12 person group included, Swiss, Germans, Aussie’s, French, English and Spaniards. My job down here allows me almost 3 weeks off a month so trying to make the best of it though my Spanish lessons are suffering greatly.
I liked the informative mural in the background. The women of this area all wear the same style hat.
These horrible burger stands were all over the city. Their featured "Super Burger" has cheese, egg, chicken filet, hot-dogs and french fry's on it. I did not go there.
Shot from a "combi", the little buses that charge about 15 cents...
On a lonely road up to an Incan ruin I saw these in the wild for the first time.
This interesting architectural detail (window in mudwall) comes complete with doll.
Another mud brick in-laid architectural detail.
Drunken shepard.
This is just before we started our trek in a little town deep in the mountains..
The national park just started a new program where tourists can stay with and learn native peoples trades. This place is an alpine apiary.
(insert ur not so witty jackass pun here)
Our first night. Camped at 14,500. This was taken in that moment after you puke and feel better for 5 minutes.
morning from the tent
The dude in foreground sick from altitude sickness. Couple in back-ground sick with swiss cheese.
Mt. Taulliraju. The summit is 19137 ft. This is shot from a 15584 ft. pass we crossed over. The mountain used in the Paramount Pictures logo, Mt. Alpamayo, was just down the valley but I was too sick to go for a glimpse which was for the better as it was shroud in fog..
In the valley we hiked out of for 8 hours after the pass.
After getting to this little house whose front lawn we slept on our last night I took a stroll around a little 3000 ft. hight Andean village named Cashapampa.
These girls were absorbed in texting....
a 40 minute foto.. I was ready to go all-nite but the battery died, a contemporary photographic conundrum
and a little plug for one of my cameras. About 80% of these images were shot with the point & shoot Canon G9 and its an amazing camera. It is my first new camera I have ever owned. The new version is the G10 and is possibly even better. 28mm lens, 14.7 mpeg files (though its sensor is smaller then a DSLR’s), RAW capabilities, nice video quality, fully manual settings.. Love it.
