Lies photography told me - a photo on Flickriver

Lies photography told me

They say comparison is the thief of joy but when you've never visited a place before, you have to set the benchmark somehow to see what else is already out there, right? Combine the Emerson wisdom of going where there is no path and leaving a trail, and learning from the masters who came before you?

Photographers are beautifully mesmerizing liars sometimes though, and I don't even mean anything touching Photoshop. It's all in the way we choose to present a scene. Once I remember trying to find an epic-looking waterfall along the Oregon Coast at Hug Point, only to discover I was taller than the waterfall and the clever, clever photographer had gotten a near ground-level wide-angle perspective that made the thing look massive.

So it is with famous Machu Picchu, up there with the most iconic views in the whole wide world. Photographs can make you believe it's this deserted ghostly Inca fortress, which sounds great until you're there at mid-day struggling for elbow room and avoiding being knocked off a terrace by a selfie stick. Maybe we should tell it like it is more often.

But add me to the list of liars, because here I am showing Machu Picchu not as it looked most of the time I was there, but in the very last beautiful minutes at golden hour before the irritable guards started blowing their whistles and gesturing that the site was about to close and I needed to leave. It looks so empty here - Machu Picchu as we we think it should be. It's not Photoshop. But all the same, don't believe a thing you see, because it's only a fraction of the truth. And so I'm joining the photographic tradition and setting everyone else up for unrealistic expectations of their Machu Picchu visit, so they too can arrive, take in the view swarming with tourists, and think "...another lie photography told me."

Web site | Facebook | Getty Images

Taken on: May 10, 2016

Tags:

machu picchu

peru

cuzo

south america

huayna picchu

path

sunburst

golden hour

sunset

inca

ruins

mountain

famous place

travel

landscape

canon

5d iii

tamron

15-30mm

uwa

lens flare

sunlight « less

Sets appears in: • Landscapes • Peru

Groups appears in: • Outdoor Photographer Magazine (Unofficial) • Lense Flares and cool light stuff more » • Tamron Lenses - Official Tag Required • lens flares • 5D Mark 1, II, III, IV, S, SR • Lens Flare and Daydreams • Canon EOS 5D Mark III « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/16.0, 1/125 sec, 15mm, ISO 500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens:	TAMRON SP 15-30mm F/2.8 Di VC USD A012
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Focal Length:	15mm
ISO:	500
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Windows
Show full info

Stats: 6,364 views / 8 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder