452 - Zona Arqueológica Xpuhil
Back on that ruins grind. For some reason I feel like it’s this weakness in landscapes that I can’t seem to shake. But I think I cracked the code today. At least partially.
Today’s adventure was at Zona Arqueologica Xpuhil, which is a very small ruins group in southern Mexico. We’d finally gotten away from the Tulum/Cancun area, after what has felt like months. It’s a great place, but I could only stand mass tourism for so long. Back to the rurals we go.
Until today, I never realized the sheer number of Mayan ruins sites across Mexico. I always thought the Mayans were one massive society that existed in one massive town. Nope. They were spread out everywhere. And honestly, it’s a great thing. It means we get to shoot these places without the hordes.
Since the Xpuhil ruins opened at 8AM, we slept in the parking lot across the street and arrived bright and early. As expected, it was completely empty. And as a bonus, the guy working there didn’t give a fuck about our tripods. FINALLY.
We stepped on in, like kids in a candy store.
As always, the first step was to get warmed up. And one thing I’m learning about warming up is that not every shot has to be try hard shot. Honestly just picking a random scene and clicking is enough. But the first shot I got actually ended up pretty sick:
“Road to Ruins”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 320 ~ 50mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/80s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I loved the soft glow of the forest in the morning. The two trees on the side made the perfect frame, and I made sure to end the path right in the very center of the shot- kind of like a center infinity.
Two steps, I got another absolute beauty:
"Twisted Roots”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1000 ~ 44mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/30s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I’d say this shot is symbolic of the anxiety I’ve been feeling the past two weeks. If the ground was my brain, the tree’s roots were paranoia penetrating in.
Dealing with COVID for the second time while living in a van in Mexico has taken it’s toll. Couple that with the end of the holidays and the fact that we’re about to drop down into Guatemala, and my head was a mess.
I’ve been getting these strange panic attacks lately that appear to be the result of COVID headaches. They would morph into vertigo, I’d start to feel disoriented, then I’d have strange LSD flashbacks the next hour or so.
Photography helped me get rid of them. While shooting or editing my mind would start to concentrate once I got into flow state. Then I’d ride the euphoria wave for the next couple hours…
Anyway, got a bit sidetracked there. Back to the ruins, shall we?
Upon closer inspection of them, I realized the intricacies of the stone carvings. I have no idea how they carved these things, they’re in SHEER stone. It’s mind boggling… I zoomed into my favorite one, framed it, and nailed this shot:
"Mayan Symbolism”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 400 ~ 17mm ~ f/5 ~ 1/1250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
These things are like ink blots. What do you see in it? I see eyes, eyebrows, and a mouth right in the center. But who knows. That stone could be saying “fuck you” and I’d never know.
Now the big ruins started coming out. And let me tell you- climbing those steep stairs is scary as fuck. It doesn’t look bad when you’re going up, but when you’re going down it’s a completely different story. I wonder how many Mayans fell down those things.
As we kept walking, the ruins got bigger and bigger- it was almost insane. I couldn’t believe how massive these things were and how little attention they got online. They were straight up comparable to the stuff at Chichén Itzá.
Did I mention the lighting was absolutely perfect today? Cloudy skies made for moody temples. I decided I had to get these things in their full glory, so I started by looking for some foregrounds to use.
At first I was trying to get these little flowers in the grass in it, but upon checking in post they didn’t fit the bill. What I landed on was actually completely by accident. Haley had climbed on top of one, and I aimed to get her in the frame, and landed on these stairs:
“Tree of the Ancients”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 400 ~ 17mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/800s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I ended up using a photo WITHOUT her in it however. It took away from the main subject here, which was the tree the lines lead to. I try not to have subjects on opposing sides of the shots- if there are multiple, they should be right by each other. That’s a six photo focus stack by the way. Once I got that shot, I was amped.
The hardest thing about ruins for me is that they’re literally crumbling. Since I’m OCD about symmetry, it’s a nightmare to find anything that lines up. Therefore symmetry isn’t a good strategy for ruins. It took me way to long to realize this.
Save the symmetry for churches and modern architecture. What seems to work best here is to pretend like the ruins simply are nature. I realized that trees, plants, and other objects are never perfect, and I didn’t have a problem shooting them. So why should I have a problem with ruins?
Therefore, the main lesson here was to find a way to integrate the ruins with nature in the most seamless way possible. You can notice how I used the stair lines as leading lines to the tree (perhaps in place of a stream) in the shot above. Or how I used the roots in the shot below as leading lines for the ruins (perhaps in place of a tree):
“Vine Ruin”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 400 ~ 17mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/1250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Perfectly integrated with nature. You could swap the ruins out for a natural feature and it’d work just the same.
One more note I learned in the edit process here before we close this down. Dodging and burning is ridiculously important for ruins. If not, the stones will look just like a heap. I had to manually separate the layers to make it distinguishable for the audience. For some reason that type of stone eats contrast alive.
And that’s about it for this shoot. As I’m writing this I’m getting less and less headaches per day, so I think the COVID might almost be gone for good!
Peacceeeeeeeeee.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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