459 - Archeological Park Zaculeu
Today’s shoot went exactly as planned. To the point where it was completely boring. Which was strange because of the stark contrast this had to our last shoot at Mirador de Juan Dieguez Olaverri.
But guess what? I’m going to come up with a conflict and a resolution for this adventure. Because you came here to read a story, not just see a couple fancy pics. So let’s get to it.
Our goal for the day was to shoot Archeological Park Zaculeu, which would mark our first official ruins in Guatemala. We pulled up to the carnival out front, and drove in to find parking. I’m not kidding. There was a fucking carnival with a merry-go-round right across the street from ancient Mayan ruins. Isn’t there a Pizza Hut outside the ancient Egyptian pyramids also?
We parked up, started to get our camera gear ready, when a man approached the car and started speaking to me in Spanish. He seemed to recognize me, but I had no idea who he was. I assumed he was the parking attendant coming to collect his money.
He kept talking to me, but it wasn’t about parking. He was mentioning a cenote, and a sinkhole… And then it hit me like a brick. This is the dad of the tourist family we met at Cenote de Calenderia AND Hoyo El Cimarron. Both 4 hours away from here, and and each were hour apart from each other. The fact that we’d shown up to all three, at the same time, unplanned, was absolutely insane.
That might be the biggest coincidence of my life. I felt bad for not recognizing him, but the chances were just so nuts I almost couldn’t believe it was him.
See? Guatemala is straight up magic. There’s something in the air here.
After a few minutes of excitement, we all went into the ruins.
Now these ruins were interesting. You were allowed to climb up them, but you had to be ballsy enough to do it. The stairs were about 2x the steepness of a normal case, and a fall down wouldn’t treat you well. At all. These things were made out of solid rock.
I scaled the first one, and regretted my decision immediately. Heights aren’t my thing. Never have been, never will be. I shamefully sat on my ass the whole way down, one stair at a time.
To my bewilderment, I then watched a mom take her two toddler kids straight down the steepest staircase, holding their hands, face first. At least 50 feet high. They made it down without a single problem, making me look like a complete bitch. I guess it’s their culture to go down these stairs so they’re used to it? Fuck.
I realized I should probably focus then on what I’m good at, which is taking photos. Since it was harsh mid day lighting, I figured it was a harsh contrast kinda day. No sky for me- today was all about the shadows.
I climbed another pyramid, and aimed down at another. This, I found, was the best angle to shoot these structures. You can get more of them in the shot, and by aiming down, you don’t have to worry about the harshly lit sky. Here was my first shot:
“Pyramid Line Dance”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 250 ~ 55mm ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/1600s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Notice how the crop on that shot is perfect. All the lines fit perfectly in the frame, with nothing being cut out. It’s this kind of OCD attention to detail in crop that really blows these kind of shots to the next level. Think about it… This shot is all about the lines. So if the lines aren’t damn perfect, what’s the point?
Sometimes I think crop is one of the most important tools in all of editing. If you’re crop is perfect and everything else is bad, you can still get a decent shot.
From there I zoomed in on a stone wall, and decided to get an abstract detail shot of the wall:
“Good/Evil”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 250 ~ 24mm ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/125s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
I’m not sure what you see in that photo, but I see heaven/hell and light/darkness fighting. Who’s winning? That’s up to you.
I then walked around the park, attempting to learn something about the pyramids. All of the information was in both Spanish AND Mayan language, which I found interesting. Mayan culture was still huge out here.
After a couple of minutes in front of one sign post, a random family came up to me, and asked if I knew Spanish.
I said a little bit, to which the dad proceeded to ask me some basic questions about where I was from and my background. He was shocked I could reply in Spanish, and laughed saying I know a LOT of Spanish. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fluent, but I can struggle my way through a small talk conversation. For most locals, that’s enough to earn their respect.
There’s something about coming to a culture and attempting to communicate in their language that locals love so much. Little travel tip for ya. Even the act of trying goes a long way I’ve noticed. Which is another reason I think that travel family we kept seeing was so amped to see us all the time. We’re making friends in different languages! Honestly not something I thought would ever happen to me.
By this point, we’d been outside for about an hour, and it was starting to get hot. The crazy thing about this city, Huehuetentango, was that the nights were fucking freezing and the days were scorching. It was getting to the point where we were about to pack up our shit and bounce when I saw one more shot pop into my head.
I didn’t want to do it. But I knew I had to once I saw the composition in my head.
It involved climbing up one (sketchy) pyramid, setting up my camera, convincing Haley to guard the camera, then climbing up ANOTHER pyramid to get the shot. I hadn’t gotten a self-portrait for awhile, and the opportunity was just waiting for me on the other side of a heated climb:
“Pyramid Boi"
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 250 ~ 62mm ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/2000s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Nice little blue top I got there. Didn’t mean to wear the perfect contrast shirt, but it worked out. One tip to make this shot work was that I cropped so that nothing outside the pyramid was visible. That way, it left the pyramid’s size up to the viewer’s imagination. Fancy, eh?
I walked back the car, hot as a donkey, and collapsed in bed. Solid photo sesh.
I guess there wasn’t a conflict and resolution for this story. Goddamn it. I thought I was on to something with the “speaking to locals in their native tongue” thing. Oh well.
It was time for a nap, tacos, and editing. We had a big day planned tomorrow- and it involves an active volcano.
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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