453 - Zona Arqueológica Palenque
Today we hit the real jungles of Mexico. Just when I thought Tulum was top tier, Palenque came in to show us who’s boss.
For context, Palenque is a jungle city in Chiapas, a couple hours west of Tulum. It’s also an unexpected backpacker haven. Upon arrival we saw about 20 or 30 different people walking the streets all carrying packs. Strange how that works, isn’t it? Have seen maybe one or two in the past three months traveling Mexico and now all of a sudden there’s dozens.
The good thing was it made it extremely easy for us to navigate, because the town was used to tourism. We ended up sleeping at a quirky campsite about ten minutes down the road from our destination and by morning time, we were ready to take off.
Our destination, if you haven’t guessed it yet, was the infamous Palenque ruins. We arrived at opening, and it was basically empty. Well, besides the guides offering us “magic” tours of the ruins- which involved a particularly fun kind of mushroom. Tempting, but we passed. Since they opened at 8AM, fog was still enveloping the ruins. We didn’t need no magic, it was already here.
Back on that ruins grind yet again, I thought to myself. I’m not stopping until I’m pro at it. These ruins, however, were different. They made the ones at Xpuhil and Chichen Itza look likes child’s place. The first shot I got was a bit of an opener, to set the stage for the environment we had at hand:
“Green Foyer”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 400 ~ 32mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/50s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I love these kind of shots that produce some mystery. Where does the staircase go? It’s a great opener for story telling. I also had a realization recently that most of my shots look best when examined in pitch black- the environment that I edit in. Probably 80% of my photo editing is done in total darkness, and 100% of my edited shots are examined in darkness before publishing. I’ve found that it allows me to pick apart details more clearly and experience full immersion of an image.
Alright. Back to the ruins.
The next logical step in our journey landed us at a ruin called the Temple of the Foliated Cross. According to Mayan lore, it housed the god of the lightning and agricultural fertility. And fun fact, the front of the temple fell off so it’s literally cut in half in this photo:
"Rotting Temple”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 250 ~ 24mm ~ f/6.3 ~ 1/320s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
To an untrained eye, you probably wouldn’t notice that the vegetation in the bottom half of the photo was different than the top half. That’s because there were dude’s literally trimming the edges while we were there. I had to Photoshop them out, it was some of the most ridiculous shit I’ve ever seen. Temple that’s close to a thousand years old and there’s dude’s with lea blowers on it. Not that it’s a bad thing- just unexpected and hilarious.
Anyhoo, my next photo ended up being a manifestation of what the temples actually looked like, with palms over the top. Obviously over time, the palms rotted away, so the town built the palms back to give you a taste of their society. Check this out:
"Palm Reading”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 400 ~ 24mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/160s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Speaking of what the temples actually looked like, my favorite thing about these ruins was how much vegetation was taking them over. It was the perfect bend of man and nature. Here’s an example of a former staircase that eroded into some bushes:
“Verde Splat”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 400 ~ 70mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/800s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
And from there, I began to turn my focus towards the strange plants around me. Everything’s bigger in the jungle, and there was a massive amount of vegetation I’d never seen before in my life.
For starters, my recent root began to take hold. If you read my last post, I had a shot that involved roots from a tree, that had a strong horror vive. I decided to take that one step further with this shot, where the red literally looked like veins:
“Red Vines”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 500 ~ 60mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/100s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I’m not sure why, but editing that photo emotionally disturbed me. I had to take a break for a second, because it brought my mind to a strange place. One thing you should know about me is that I get extremely queasy when it comes to blood and gore, to the point where I will almost pass out. It’s happened before in anatomy class back in high school, and once at a museum that had real human cadavers. I think this photo triggered some flashbacks to those moments.
I decided to go all in on that feeling, and see if I could incorporate it into to the temples nearby. That’s when I ran across this scene:
“Temple of Doom”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 400 ~ 70mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/1250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
These red leaves were some of the only ones in the entire park, and it felt oddly fitting with those red roots that were messing with me. I had a nice little duet on my hands.
This right here is a prime example of how creating “art” (I hate this word it feels so pretentious) can help process emotions. I think this shoot pairs nicely with my last one at Zona Arqueológica Xpuhil, where my stress of being about to enter Guatemala in the next week was flooding my brain.
I don’t know what is is with those root shots, though. I have no idea why they fit anxiety so well.
Either way, emotional shoots = emotional photos = good pictures.
I kept walking. Now that I knew I had some solid shots, I relaxed a bit. Here were my final two shots, of a few jungle scenes that stood out to me:
“Vine Mania”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1000 ~ 63mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/60s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Rotting Leaves”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1000 ~ 29mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/1000s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
That last one is my favorite shot of the session. And it taught me a lil’ something about these dark, minimalist plants shots I’ve been vibing with lately. I think the key to making them look good is to not darken out the entire backdrop, but only enough so that it feels out of focus. I think this helps add an element of realism to the scene that doesn’t look like I just chopped it out and put it in a black backdrop.
But yeah, that’s that.
Coming on the next adventure… The most insane waterfall I’ve seen in Mexico. And we get scammed by some kids. Maybe I should add these little teasers from now on.
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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