Tag:Peru

PotD: Condor at Colca Canyon

Sony A7RII : f/7.1@2000th : ISO 200 : EV -0.7 : FE 90mm f/2.8 The tour bus from Arequipa to Colca canyon left at 3am and somehow I ended up on it. I hadn’t been on a guided tour since the first week of my journey when it was the only way to make it onto the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia. That had turned out to be an excellent tour and, even though I had actively avoided going to […]

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PotD: Kitchen in Santa Catalina monastery

Sony A7RII : f/5@80th : ISO 3200 : EV -1.0 : FE 35mm f/1.4 One of several smoke-stained kitchens in the the monastery of Santa Catalina in Arequipa, one that can be described as the opposite of a modern kitchen, but certainly built to last. The light in this image dropped off very quickly from right to left and the result I was able to achieve in Capture One gives you an idea of the dynamic range of the sensor in […]

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Santa Catalina

PotD: Streets of Santa Catalina

Sony A7RII : f/9@250th : ISO 400 : EV -1.0 : FE 35mm f/1.4 It’s hard to imagine what it must be like to live in a cloistered community but walking round the streets and buildings that make up the monastery of Santa Catalina give you some idea of the lives led there. Originally built in the 16th century for wealthy Spanish families to place a daughter for a life of service to the church, the community reached about 450 members until the […]

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Cusco Market

Hanging out in Cusco for New Years

I arrived in Cusco before sunrise aboard the Bolivia Hop bus, having left La Paz almost 24hrs earlier. The journey had been broken up by spending half a day checking out Lake Titicaca so I wasn’t feeling too spaced out when my feet touched the ground in Cusco. Bolivia Hop, the same people who run Peru Hop, organise taxis to get everyone to their arranged accommodation when you arrive in town and I was amused when my taxi whisked me off up the […]

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PotD: An Adobe Wall in Cusco

Sony A7RII : f/4@640th : ISO 125 : EV -0.3 : FE 55mm f/1.8 It’s difficult to fully convey the texture and the detail visible in the hires version of this image of an adobe wall in a Cusco side street. The ‘roots’ have been made by the effect of rainwater trickling down the wall, with the mud from the wall leaving a brown trail as the rain stops and the water begins to dry. I can’t tell you how […]

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Inca wall

PotD: A Meeting of Cusco Walls

Sony A7RII : f/10@640th : ISO 500 : EV -0.3 : FE 55mm f/1.8 From this one spot on a typical Cusco side street, there are four different wall types – the large angular stones of an Inca wall to the left, an adobe wall to the right, a more basic stone wall in the centre, and an ugly brick wall in the background. Photographically, this is the only reason I stopped to take this picture and, although I cannot claim to […]

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PotD: Frog legs in Cusco market

Sony A7RII : f/4@80th : ISO 500 : EV -0.3 : FE 90mm f/2.8 The San Pedro market in Cusco had a lot of stuff on sale that I wasn’t particularly used to but I’d have to say that the wizened granny sitting next to a bucket of live frogs had one of the more unusual setups. She didn’t really have a stall, just her stool next to the bucket and a flat surface by her side for the freshly peeled […]

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Beans

PotD: Beans in Cusco Market

Sony A7RII : f/4@80th : ISO 400 : EV -0.3 : FE 90mm f/2.8 There’s nothing quite like a macro lens to get a different perspective on things. This close-up shot of dried beans is from an inspiring day I had wandering round San Pedro market in Cusco. The Sony FE 90mm f2.8 Macro G is turning out to be a stellar lens and well worth its weight in my ‘travelling’ camera bag. As with most indoor markets, the light was […]

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Meat Market

PotD: Meat Market in Cusco

Sony A7RII : f/5.6@50th : ISO 800 : EV -0.3 : FE 55mm f/1.8 I love wandering around markets when I get to a new town and San Pedro market in Cusco was no exception. The quality of the fruit and veg is second to none, beans they have in abundance, herbs and spices, and then there’s all the meat (for fish, I’d wait until you get a little closer to the coast). Peruvian cuisine may have been riding high around […]

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Beachscape

Photo of the Day: Existential Angst

Sony A7RII : f11@800th : ISO 640 : EV +0.7 : FE 55mm f/1.8 I took this photo on the day of my 50th Birthday. I suppose I could have gone for a more joyous shot to celebrate the big day, but I felt that this conveyed rather well the existential angst that surrounds reaching a new decade. My way of dealing with the beyond-midlife crisis was to take a 60 day sabbatical, one day for each year, plus 10 extra […]

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