450 - Cenote Suytun
Last photoshoot of 2021, baby. And to be honest, I’m still not entirely sure how I made this all happen. We’re literally in the Yucatan living in a van right now, living the photography dream.
But it’s not all dreamsicles and ice cream cones. My buddy Tyler who was traveling with us just came down with COVID, and now we were desperately trying to find a place to recover for the next couple days.
It’d gotten progressively worse, and living in a van wasn’t helping.
We settled on a colorful cabana hotel at Cenote Suytun that we’d stay at for the next two nights. It had a pool, bed, and most importantly for Tyler, air conditioning. Within an hour of arriving, he was asleep.
As he dazed the day away, we relaxed by the pool and decided we’d check out the cenote first thing in the morning. The trippy thing about this cenote was that there was platform that went right out to the middle of the cave, where a light beam shined down. We wanted to be the first in line, and hopefully the only people there.
But for now, our only mission was to relax. I didn’t want any COVID symptoms to start kicking in.
Flash forward to the next morning.
We arrived about ten minutes before opening; at 8:50am. But I think we missed the memo. There was already 30 people in line for a photo, which means it must have opened earlier. I have no idea how people knew this though, as the Google Maps location stated they opened at 9:00am.
Shnitzel.
The only thing we could do was wait in line- which seemed to be the entire point of this cenote. There was literally a guy who worked their coordinating people’s photo op. He’d let one person in at a time on the platform, then swap them out with the next person in line after about 30 seconds.
Then people would pack up and leave.
It seemed fake as hell, and I realized how much I was starting to hate these types of spots. I enjoy the process of coming up with a composition more than shooting one. The warm up, the difficulty of originality, then the pay off once you finally solve the puzzle.
Here, it was all laid out. No thought process… Just show up, take the photo from one of three spots, then bounce. If anything it adds more stress to your brain then when you came in- you’re dealing with the line, arguing couples, and people shouting at each other to hurry up.
I concluded this place is the antithesis of why I do adventure photography. But I was still going to get a shot anyway, because I’m a greedy fucking bastard for photos.
Haley got in line, and I agreed to get the shot. At first I tried with my 10mm lens, but since it was manual and dark, I realized completely missed focus after she was done. The composition wasn’t great either- I’d shot the platform straight on and had no foreground. But we really didn’t want to wait in line for another 30 minutes, so we bounced and decided to come back later.
Three hours later, we came back. This time I brought my Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8, and I went a little higher to incorporate a foreground. I even focus stacked it- handheld:
“Lizzy Tulumguire”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 1600 ~ 17mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/80s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Keep in mind that isn’t Haley, it’s some random chick who had much better lighting than Haley. Since it was a cloud day, the platform would be lit for couple seconds, then fade a couple seconds later as a cloud rolled over.
Since Haley has the worst luck I’ve ever seen, it was essentially black when she went into the frame. Luckily I got this shot.
My biggest lesson today was that you CAN hand-held focus stack something- you just need to be steady as hell. Something I’ve never actually tried before. It helps to keep the camera as close to your chest as possible, to avoid additional arm movement.
Well folks, that’s all for my 2021 photoshoots. I ended it with an easy shot, so I’ll take that as a New Years treat. Something about traveling through Mexico shooting random places everyday that aren’t “icons” has opened my eyes to the process of original photography.
When I was in the States, it was much easier to find places like this- a composition already setup and ready to rock, no creativity required. Although I shot a massive amount of original content there, I also would relish in the treat of icons. This trip has opened my eyes to why I love photography in the first place- it’s all about the process.
I also somehow managed to accomplish all my goals for 2021 which was incredibly impressive. Part one was saving up for the entire Mexico trip, 13 grand in total- all accomplished by Doordashing like a mofo. Second part was making it all the way down to Cancun in the van, shooting 140 different adventures this year.
That’s 10 short of 2020, where I hit 150 shoots in one year. The only difference was this year I used all my own money for travel, instead of government wages from COVID unemployment. Quite the feat.
Next year I’m going to beat it. See ya then!!!!
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
*Please note this page contains affiliate links.
